Botany Photo of the Day

I have tried to subscribe to OK University's plant of the week and just got nonsense replies about being enque and not being processed. Could you run the website's addy again so I can contact them? I'm a former Okie so would like to subscribe to it-tho I didn't go to OU! (Eeewwww!) Must say I miss many of the plants from their, but not the Poison Ivy and the severe reaction it used to give me. It even grew in our backyard in downtown OKC.

A quick note about the lovely Akebia and its fruit posted today. Conditions for its success in the Pacific Northwest must be improving, as numerous seedlings are in fact noticed in the alpine garden around the parent plant and pulled out as they emerge. Perhaps in future this may have to be included as another "potential invasive" plant in this area - Hedera and Ilex are two other genera that come to mind.

Thank you for your reply re: puff balls. Is there a lexicon for finding the botanical name of plants, of whom I only know the common name. I went to the web site sugested, however, without the botanical name, I am lost. Thank you.

Ruth: the site is here: Cal's Plant of the Week. You can also find a compiled and roughly categorized list of all resource links that I add here: Del.icio.us Botany Photo of the Day Social Bookmarks.

Brent - thanks, I suppose I've never noticed it to be a problem due to your attentive care!

Patricia: I don't think I can point you to one on the web. I searched on Google for the terms “puffball” and “volk”, and came up with this page on Lycoperdon pyriforme, which seems like a good place to start your search. It's a very common puffball, with one of the most descriptive common names for any organism.

Thanks again for the recent photograph of rabbit brush(September 14). I was able to identify it at once growing over acres and acres in Lassen National Park in California earlier this week, in bloom over entire hillsides. The park people said it is browsed by rabbits and deer.

Patricia

I tried several websites I know, but didn't come up with much information on puffballs. Daniel's suggestion may lead you in the right direction. Another common puffball is Lycoperdon perlatum. I checked Mushrooms Demystified and there's over 20 pages devoted to puffballs, so if you can get a copy of the book somehow, you might be able to narrow things down.

Matt

Hi! I just wanted to say what beautiful pictures you have for us everyday....thank you very much! I am wondering...since you have showed us the chocolate vine...if you can get us some pictures of the chocolate trees and their fruits. I've seen them in Guatemala but my friends haven't and I'd like for them to experience what I already have in person.
Thanks again!

Flor - the first opportunity I get to take a picture of Theobroma cacao, I will. Can't promise when that will be, though!

Two things.

One, that colour, in the fruit, is truly astonishing. I've seen colours like it on flowers, but never on a fruit. It looks to me like the blue version of the Jade Vine's green, if you know what I mean.

Two, I'll see if I can look out some Theobroma images. I'm sure I've got some somewhere, but they may be only of diseases!

Where can I buy a couple of chocolate vine plants to grow over a grotesque fence? Neither Gardenworks or Maple Leaf Garden Centre anticipates getting any.

Thank you.