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December 31, 2005
Allotropa virgata
A “seasonal” image to complete 2005 – candystick or sugarstick, with its red and white stem striping, obviously deserves its common names. The photographs lack visual cues (other than the moss) to give perspective, so I'll mention that this particular plant measured roughly fifty centimeters (nearly two feet) high. Photographed in early July of 2004, this plant has nearly completed its flowering for the year, though a few blossoms have yet to senesce on the uppermost part of the plant.
Like the closely related Monotropa uniflora, Allotropa virgata is a mycoheterotroph, or one of the “ghostly fungus-robbers”. Lacking chlorophyll and therefore the ability to produce sugars, Allotropa virgata insteads taps sugars (and other nutrients) from an underground fungal network (which itself garnered the sugars from an association with a nearby conifer!).
Photography resource link: Ten Tips for Becoming a Better Landscape Artist, an article by Guy Tal for Nature Photographers Online.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM | Comments (4)
December 30, 2005
Lantana camara (tentative)
Bill from San Jose, California (aka bbum@Flickr) provides us with today's burst of colour (BPotD Flickr Group Pool | original image). Bill's weblog, bbum's weblog-o-mat, spans everything from photography and nature to programming and restoring pinball machines – quite fun! Thanks for the pic, Bill.
I've had to tentatively identify the plant as Lantana camara, as there are at least a few cultivars with lookalike flowers. Absent any other details about the plant, it is impossible to be certain.
Known simply as lantana, or shrub verbena, Lantana camara is a species whose native distribution is not easy to determine; I've looked through ten different web sites for native distribution and came up with nothing definitive. The Jepson Manual treatment for the species states “naturalized more or less worldwide [tropical and sub-tropical], perhaps native to Caribbean”. The USDA Plants Database claims it is native to the US (Texas?), but it is certainly introduced elsewhere in the southern US. Another site states it is native to the tropical Americas and western Africa. My unqualified-to-say thoughts? Likely Caribbean in origin, and introduced everywhere else.
Though it seems to behave in California, Lantana camara is an invasive shrub in many places, including Florida, Hawaii, South Africa and Galapagos.
Botany resource link: Protea Atlas Project, coordinated by the National Biodiversity Institute of South Africa, “aims to encourage amateur involvement in Botany. The ultimate objective is to stimulate amateur awareness and enjoyment of the veld thus engendering a conservation ethic” (and other objectives). It seems like they've succeeded – a project with only a few staff but over four hundred seventy-five volunteers!
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM | Comments (3)
December 29, 2005
Picea mariana
This image is courtesy of “Michael F” of Britain, a frequent commenter on BPotD and contributor on the garden's plant forums. (BPotD Submissions via the forums | original image). Michael has a more than keen interest in conifers, so I'm grateful that he's helping prop up the number of conifer images on BPotD compared to the overwhelming amount of photos of flowering plants (In the new year, I'll pester the person who was going to submit the occasional alga image).
Black spruce or, less commonly, swamp spruce is distributed in every province and territory of Canada, the northeastern United States and France (okay, not France proper, but the islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon). However, this image was taken in Kyloe Wood, Northumberland, England, where a population of the plants has naturalised. While growing up in Manitoba, I learned to associate this tree with a particular sound – a high-pitched buzz caused by a swarm of mosquitoes, who also inhabit the bogs and lowlands favoured by this tree.
A tree of economic importance in North America for the pulp and paper industry, it is no surprise that there are many excellent resources about it online, including Picea mariana via the Flora of North America project and Picea mariana from the Silvics of North America.
Photography resource link: Digicams vs. DSLRs, a guide to the pros and cons of each by Michael Reichmann of The Luminous Landscape.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 2:25 AM | Comments (3)
December 28, 2005
Scaphosepalum antenniferum
Andreas from Bogotá, Colombia (aka Quimbaya@Flickr - check out his other orchid photos!) submitted this photograph of an orchid cultivated by noted Colombian orchid grower, Sócrates Forero (BPotD Flickr Group Pool | original image). Thank you Andreas!
Scaphosepalum antenniferum is native to northwestern South America, i.e., Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. Its plant family, the Orchidaceae, contains over eight hundred described genera and roughly twenty-five thousand species. With so many different kinds of orchids, it is necessary to divide the family into smaller chunks to be able to effectively communicate about the plants within it. Orchid enthusiasts and biologists will use subfamily, tribe and subtribe as intermediate groupings between family and genus. In the case of Scaphosepalum, it is often described as being a pleurothallid orchid, meaning it is in the subtribe Pleurothallidinae (tribe: Epidendreae and subfamily: Epidendroideae). The Pleurothallidinae contains ~30 genera (roughly 3.5% of all genera), but those 30 genera contain over four thousand species – ~16% of all orchids! Scaphosepalum is a small genus within the Pleurothallidinae, containing only thirty or so species.
Botany / technology resource link: Plant Life for Virtual Terrain is part of the Virtual Terrain Project, whose goal is “to foster the creation of tools for easily constructing any part of the real world in interactive, 3D digital form”. It's a fascinating site that discusses the challenges of rendering plants digitally for video games, animated movies, computer simulations and scientific modelling. It also evaluates the tools available and provides an extensive list of resources.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 4:11 AM | Comments (7)
December 27, 2005
Populus tremuloides
Today's image is another photograph courtesy of Maureen from Montana, aka MontanaRaven@Flickr (BPotD Flickr Group Pool | original image). Thanks again, Maureen, and also thank you for your writings and photos on your weblog, raven's nest.
Maureen has written a short piece accompanying the photograph, which I hope is alright to share here. She writes:
“Aspens are my all-time favorite trees. I love the way each individual tree, although connected by underground roots and genetically related, like a close family, to all the other trees in it's vicinity – each tree takes on it's own personality and character as it matures. These have the twisted, dancing shapes that come from years of bending under heavy winter snows. The stark white bark stands in contrast to the darker forested background. A beautiful sight on any winter day, but especially on days like today, when the sun seems like it's purposely spotlighting this grove. Ah, what a great place to hang out, even when the temperature is only 10F!”
For more on the clonal reproductive strategy of aspens (both the North American Populus tremuloides and the Eurasian Populus tremula), see Aspen – Boreal Symbol via Scotland's Trees for Life.
Photography resource link: The colour-rich photography of Marc Adamus.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 3:19 AM | Comments (6)
December 26, 2005
Dryopteris wallichiana
This image of Wallich's wood fern was taken in May, 2005. For a gardener's perspective on it, I'll direct you to Paghat's Garden. For (many) more photographs, have a look at the Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk Project's native plants entry on Dryopteris wallichiana.
Like previous black and white images this month, I've used the Photoshop Calculations command. On this image, I combined the red and blue channels with screen at 100%, then the red and alpha1 channels using multiply at 85%. Since this probably means very little to you if you don't have Photoshop, I've uploaded the set of black and whites (red, blue and green channels, and the intermediary alpha1 channel) in one large image – you can see it here. At the very least, you'll see that there are a number of black and white manipulations that can be done to an image digitally; then again, many of the same manipulations were possible with film, depending on what film one used and what technique one used to develop it.
Botany / travel resource link: I believe someone mentioned this link on the garden's forums or the BPotD comments, but in case you missed it, check out Conifer Hunting in Mexico, a travelogue via the conifers.org site.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 5:00 AM | Comments (1)
December 25, 2005
Cupressus arizonica 'Blue Ice'
In late afternoon winter sun with its heavy orange-yellow cast, 'Blue Ice' Arizona cypress doesn't necessarily resemble its name. At other times, this cultivar is known for being particularly silvery-blue within a highly variable species.
If you're familiar with this conifer, you likely know it under the name Cupressus glabra 'Blue Ice' or Cupressus arizonica var. glabra 'Blue Ice'. For a small discussion on the name of the species, read the account about Cupressus arizonica on the conifers.org site. I've opted to use the opinion of the taxonomist who wrote the C. arizonica entry for the Flora of North America, but that's more out of convenience than conviction.
Photography resource link: For inspiration, the landscape photography of Australian Leigh Perry.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 5:00 AM | Comments (3)
December 24, 2005
Buckiella undulata
The unintentional (until today) three-part series on elongated, serpentine natural forms concludes with the aptly-named “snake moss”. Snake moss (or tongue moss) grows primarily in coniferous forests of north temperate maritime regions, but is also found in China and New Guinea (!). The genus Buckiella was separated from Plagiothecium in a 2001 paper (Ireland, RR. 2001. Buckiella, a new genus in the Hypnaceae (Musci). Novon. 11:55-62), so if you search for this moss in field guides, it is likely listed under the name Plagiothecium undulatum.
Unlike many of the name changes discussed via BPotD, the split was based off a morphological dissimilarity instead of molecular evidence. For more on the reasoning, see the Bryophyte Flora of North America's entry on Buckiella undulata. You might also appreciate the line drawings that accompany the entry.
Photography / art resource link: Photography at the Tipping Point, an article from Canadian Art Magazine on the meaning of digital photography: “But what will photography be when it is no longer connected to the world out there as a material trace? Will it be photography?”.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 3:58 AM | Comments (0)
December 23, 2005
Abies grandis
In the first few decades of the 20th century, much of what is now the University of British Columbia campus was clearcut. Evidence of “what once was” can be found throughout the David C. Lam Asian Garden, including dozens (if not hundreds) of decaying stumps and fallen logs.
Each of these remnants of former forest giants is unique – in my opinion, an artist could develop an intriguing portfolio using them as subjects. Some individuals are swathed in a coat of mosses and liverworts. Others bear scraggly crowns of huckleberry. To the careful observer, a few stumps reveal where small cuts were made for the feller to place his foot in. Many now host the next generation of trees, either by design or by natural happenstance. By design? On occasion, Peter Wharton mimicks the natural processes of seedling establishment and regeneration, but uses Asian plants instead of the native flora. It's an interesting horticultural technique not available in many other gardens.
Today's image, though, features a native tree. This grand fir likely established as a seedling on the decaying Western red cedar (Thuja plicata) stump somewhere between 70 and 100 years ago. Unfortunately, its life will almost certainly be abbreviated. You can easily imagine what the supporting base of the tree will look like once the stump fully decays – snake-like stems (previously roots) do not grant stability to the the tree in coastal windstorms. I'm not familiar enough with forestry terminology to know how to find a paper on the topic, but I imagine there have been studies examining how the height of remnant stumps affects mortality and length of life of second-generation trees.
B+W technique is the same one I've recently used – red-green channel screen, blue-alpha1 channels soft light.
Photography resource link: Photographing Snow, a quick tutorial from The Luminous Landscape.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 3:57 AM | Comments (5)
December 22, 2005
Garrya ×issaquahensis 'Pat Ballard'
This inflorescence of 'Pat Ballard' tassel bush (or silk tassel) is not fully developed – hints of flowers emerging from behind the bracts can be imagined, but the reason for the common name is not readily apparent from this image. Instead, please see the University of California Botanical Garden's page on Californian waterwise plants for the flowers of the male parent of this hybrid. For close-ups of the flower, you can see some nifty SEM (scanning electron microscope) images in a paper on Garrya floral morphology (note: PDF): Liston, A. 2003. A new interpretation of floral morphology in Garrya (Garryaceae) . Taxon. 52:271-276. The paper goes into great detail on the structure of the flowers and how misinterpretations of the floral morphology have hampered understanding of the evolutionary relationships.
For a horticultural perspective on the plant, including the origin of its name, please see Bellevue Botanical Garden's Plant of the Month entry for it. The site doesn't allow direct linking to taxon pages, so you'll have to scroll down and find the entry.
Botany resource link: Considering collecting plant specimens for your local herbarium? A tidy “how-to” guide with tips on collecting and preserving can be found here: Field Techniques Used by Missouri Botanical Garden.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 1:08 AM | Comments (3)
December 21, 2005
Burchardia umbellata
There are going to be a few photographs from the Southern Hemisphere over the next couple weeks. Today's image is from Tasmania, courtesy of Sparra in Launceston, Tasmania (sparramc@Flickr) . Yes, this was via the BPotD Flickr Group Pool (original image). Sparra has a weblog dedicated to his Tasmanian nature photographs, which you might like to visit: A Photographic Essay of Tasmania.
Burchardia umbellata (milkmaids) is native to much of Australia, with the exception of the Northern Territory (distribution map). To avoid growing under stressful dry summer conditions, Burchardia umbellata sends up its leaves from an underground tuber after autumn or winter rains, flowers in spring and then concludes its yearly cycle by producing its fruit before the worst of summer arrives.
Depending on whether local summer conditions are consistently harsh or variably harsh, different populations of Burchardia umbellata exhibit different summer dormancy characteristics. For example, where the onset of stressful conditions is consistent from year to year, dormancy is obligate; it will occur year after year at roughly the same stage of the plant's life (i.e., the onset of dormancy is solely genetically determined). This confers the advantage of increased survival as a result of always avoiding stressful conditions, but loses the advantage of a potentially extended growing season which may mean larger growth, increased seed production or more storage of nutrients in the tubers. On the other hand, where the onset of stressful conditions is variable (e.g., in the highlands), dormancy is at least partially facultative – it can occur in some plants as a direct response to decreasing soil moisture, and not necessarily occur at a genetically predetermined stage of the plant's life – these plants can benefit if an extended growing season occurs, but run the risk of sudden death if conditions change too rapidly (not all plants in these populations employ this strategy - some use the obligate dormancy strategy from above). For more on the topic (and to check to see if my interpretation is accurate), please see: Vaughton, G and M Ramsey. 2001. Variation in summer dormancy in the lilioid geophyte Burchardia umbellata (Colchicaceae). Am. J. Bot. 88:1223-1229.
Photography / art resource link: Alain Briot is creating a collection of essays for The Luminous Landscape entitled “Reflections on Photography and Art”. The first in the series is available, “Art and Science”. I'll likely be following this series closely, so expect the ensuing essays to also be mentioned here.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 4:00 AM | Comments (5)
December 20, 2005
Rumex crispus
Two photographs, two photographers, two locations.
The wintry scene is courtesy of “wrygrass” of Spokane, Washington, who submitted it via the BPotD Submissions on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums (original photograph and accompanying discussion). Thank you, wrygrass!
The second image is from my trip to Manitoba in early August. This was an all-too-familiar scene in 2005 in the southeastern corner of the province. Heavy rainfall through spring and early summer prevented many farmers from being able to access the fields, much less sow seed. As a result, the fallow fields instead grew “crops” of water-tolerant plants, including Rumex crispus (curly dock) – the tall reddish-brown plants – and Hordeum jubatum (foxtail barley), the tufted clumps. As an aside, everytime I saw distant clumps of Hordeum, I was reminded of flocks of sheep. I'm told I have an active imagination.
Curly dock is a native to Europe, Asia and northern Africa, but it has been introduced and naturalized throughout much of the rest of the world (see: Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) on Rumex crispus and Pacific Islands Ecosystems at Risk (PIER) for the plant). One of its noteworthy qualities is its ability to produce an estimated 100 to over 60 000 seeds per individual plant per year (photographs). If that weren't enough, the seeds can persist in the soil for many years, have a high germination rate and, once seedlings, have a high chance to survive to adulthood.
For more on this resilient plant, see: Zaller, JG. 2004. Ecology and non-chemical control of Rumex crispus and R. obtusifolius (Polygonaceae): a review. Weed Research. 44(6):414-432.
Nature resource link: Guide to the Mangroves of Singapore (flora part of site). It's unfortunate that the images are so small in the species pages, but I suppose they are larger in the guidebooks.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 5:31 AM | Comments (2)
December 19, 2005
Cyclamen hederifolium
Ivy-leaved cyclamen (hederifolium means “leaves of Hedera”, the genus of the ivies) is native to Mediterranean Europe. The Cyclamen Society has an informative page about Cyclamen hederifolium; it includes a photograph of the plant in flower, since I missed my opportunity this past autumn to capture the flowers. Perhaps next year.
In a 2000 paper, the genus Cyclamen was removed from the family Primulaceae and placed into the Myrsinaceae (although The Cyclamen Society seems to disagree!). The rationale for the change was based on both molecular and morphological data; to read the paper that made the alteration, see: Källersjö, M. et al. 2000. Generic realignment in primuloid families of the Ericales s.l.: a phylogenetic analysis based on DNA sequences from three chloroplast genes and morphology. American Journal of Botany. 87:325-1341.
Botany / art resource link: Plant Stamps of the World via Scott's Botanical Link of the Day.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 5:06 AM | Comments (4)
December 18, 2005
Crataegus ×grignonensis
Updated December 19, 2005 at 4:30am: Added the word purported to preface the words “hybrid cross”, in accordance with the comments.
Crataegus ×grignonensis is a purported hybrid cross between Crataegus pubescens and Crataegus crus-galli. The Plants for A Future entry suggests the fruit of this hawthorn is edible, but I've also discovered warnings to not ingest the seeds.
Photography resource link: for inspiration, the wild and cultivated flowers of Louisiana by Ronnie Gaubert.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 4:34 AM | Comments (11)
December 17, 2005
Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Nana Gracilis'
Whenever you see the word nana or its variants as part of a plant name, you can be certain that you've encountered a dwarf type (think nanotechnology). 'Nana Gracilis' hinoki cypress is no exception – after thirty-one years, this individual in the Alpine Garden has only reached two meters (6ft.) or so in height, whereas a mature individual of the wild species can reach forty meters (110ft.).
Read more about the species hinoki cypress on the conifers.org web site: Chamaecyparis obtusa.
Evolution resource link: Darwin, an online exhibit from the American Museum of Natural History.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 3:58 AM | Comments (4)
December 16, 2005
Rosmarinus officinalis 'Trusty'
I mentioned last week that you could possibly find a rhododendron in bloom every day of the year in UBC Botanical Garden. I think (and others will surely correct me if I'm wrong) that the only genus of plants that you are guaranteed to find in flower every day of the year is Rosmarinus or the rosemarys.
The olfactory properties of Rosmarinus have a long-standing reputation for being memory stimulants. In “Aromas of rosemary and lavender essential oils differentially affect cognition and mood in healthy adults.” (Int. J. Neurosci. 2003 Jan;113(1):15-38), Moss et al. found evidence that partly supports this assertion, though they also discovered that the scent of rosemary seems to impair speed of memory.
For more on this plant as a spice, I'll direct you to Gernot Katzer's page on Rosmarinus officinalis.
Photography resource link: Quick Tips for Better Nature Photography by Darwin Wiggett, via Nature Photographers Online.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 2:46 AM | Comments (4)
December 15, 2005
Elleanthus caravata
Eric in San Francisco (Eric in SF@Flickr) submitted today's image of this orchid via the BPotD Flickr Group Pool (original image). Eric has hundreds (thousands?) of plant and garden-related photographs on Flickr, and it's worthwhile browsing through his sets – for example, his Erica sessiliflora from UC Berkeley Botanical Garden is amazing. Thanks Eric!
Elleanthus caravata is (at the very least) native to Venezuela, Guiana, French Guiana, Surinam and Brazil (sources: The Genus Elleanthus and Stewart and Griffiths' “Manual of Orchids”). I've found another source claiming a distribution in (only) Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. No other reference makes that latter assertion, so I mention it as a possibility that needs confirmation from someone with access to more orchid information than I have available to me.
Today's plant presents another mystery. What is the derivation of caravata? I'd welcome any suggestions, because both Douglas Justice and myself came up empty-handed. The clues of importance are that the plant was originally described from a specimen collected in French Guiana. The author of the original plant name (or basionym), Serapias caravata, was Jean Baptiste Christophore Fusée Aublet, a French botanist. A placename? A derivation of a French word from the 18th century? Thoughts?
The photographed plant was cultivated by Bruce Rogers, also of San Francisco.
Invasives resource link: One Hundred of the World’s Worst Invasive Alien Species is a subset of the Global Invasive Species Database. It's not restricted to plants, but of the plants that are listed, one has been featured on BPotD.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM | Comments (14)
December 14, 2005
Arbutus unedo f. rubra
Strawberry tree is native to Mediterranean Europe, western France and southwest Ireland. The origin of the disjunct population of plants in Ireland seems to remain a matter of debate, with some lay references suggesting a human origin, some suggesting a post-glacial advance into Ireland from France when the English Channel was dry and others advancing the notion that this plant existed on Ireland prior to the the Ice Ages and survived that era. I'm certain I had read a research paper a couple years ago that suggested what I thought was a fairly definitive answer, but I haven't been able to track it down yet, so expect an update to this entry.
To read more about Arbutus unedo, see strawberry tree from the BBC's Gardeners Corner and Arbutus unedo from the Plants for a Future site.
In other news, Tangled Bank #43 is up and running on the Rural Rambles weblog. If you're new to Tangled Bank, it's a collection of recent science-based writing from weblogs around the world hosted by a different weblog every other week. It's a great way to be introduced (or reintroduced) to other weblogs with a science focus.
Natural history / evolution / art resource link: Of all the links I've suggested in BPotD, I would argue this one is in the top-ten “must-sees”. Long-time natural history illustrator Carl Buell has started a weblog entitled Olduvai George. There are only a few entries so far, but it's already apparent that Olduvai George is something special. If you comment on any of his entries (and you should, to encourage him to continue), please tell him you were sent via BPotD!
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 3:21 AM | Comments (28)
December 13, 2005
Erysimum menziesii subsp. yadonii
Thanks again to Dale from California aka Dfunk@Flickr for today's image of Yadon's wallflower from Monterey County in California. As before, Dale shared the image through the Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Group Pool (original image). Much appreciated, Dale.
Erysimum menziesii subsp. yadonii is endangered, so it is likely that this image is the closest that you and I will ever come to seeing the plant – it doesn't seem to be in cultivation. From what I've been able to discern, it is found in only one locale in the world (the coastal sand dunes near Marina, California). It has the dubious distinction of receiving California's highest designation for endangered organisms, S1.1. The .1 means “very threatened”, while S1 means “Less than 6 Element Occurrences (EO) OR less than 1000 individuals OR less than 2000 acres”. Lastly, an EO is defined as “an area of land and/or water in which a species or natural community is, or was, present”.
The name of the plant honours two botanists, Archibald Menzies (1754-1842) and Vern Yadon. Yadon is a resident of the area and former director of the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History.
Photography / nature resource link: the nature photography of Michael Brown – in particular, check out the flora gallery linked to from the bottom left of the page.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 2:21 AM | Comments (2)
December 12, 2005
Aquilegia formosa
This photograph was taken only a few steps away from this Populus tremuloides in June.
Distributed throughout western North America, the specific epithet (formosa) for red or western columbine means “beautiful”. Apt.
According to Parish, Coupé and Lloyd in Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia, the word columbine is a derivation of the Latin columbina, meaning “dove-like” (Columbina passerina is the scientific name for the common ground-dove). Parish et al. write: “The arched petals and spurs of the flowers resemble a quintet of doves arranged in a ring around a dish (a favourite device of ancient artists).” I can see the resemblance, but I don't think I would have imagined it on my own.
As an aside, please note that if you come across the epithets formosana or formosanum, they have a different and unrelated meaning: of Formosa, or, using the modern name for that island, of Taiwan.
Botany resource link: Plant Physiology Online is a supplement to a printed textbook, but much of the writing can still be used without the context of the accompanying book, such as How Water Climbs to the Top of a 112m-tall Tree.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 2:00 AM | Comments (2)
December 11, 2005
Brassica oleracea [Capitata Group] 'Melissa'
![Brassica oleracea [Capitata Group] 'Melissa'](http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/potd/brassica_oleracea_melissa-thumb.jpg)
![Brassica oleracea [Capitata Group] 'Melissa'](http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/potd/brassica_oleracea_melissa_bw-thumb.jpg)
'Melissa' savoy cabbage is an F1 hybrid. For a brief explanation of the debate surrounding open-pollinated, heirloom, and hybrid vegetable seeds, check out “Heirlooms versus Hybrids: A Common-sense Approach”, an article by Renee Shepherd on the site of Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
For the black and white version, I repeated the same steps as I did for Rosa filipes 'Kiftsgate', except I instead screened the red and blue channels in the first step. I'm quite happy with this particular technique for generating images that have some dimensionality.
Photography resource link: Abstracting the Landscape via The Luminous Landscape.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM | Comments (4)
December 10, 2005
Rehderodendron macrocarpum
Today's BPotD entry is number 250, so I thought I'd share a plant in the same family as the first entry (Melliodendron xylocarpum), the Styracaceae.
Rehderodendron macrocarpum (interpretative sign) is native to southeast China and Vietnam (Flora of China entry | illustration). The genus name commemorates the German-born taxonomist Alfred Rehder, a former curator of the herbarium at the Arnold Arboretum.
The pictured fruit takes over six months to mature. This is perhaps not surprising, considering this 9cm long woody-shelled fruit develops from dainty 2cm long flowers. Despite blooming profusely with thousands of flowers, only a few of the flowers develop into fruit at UBC Botanical Garden – maybe a dozen to two dozen each year.
This was one of the favourite plants of the late Dr. Gerald Straley.
Botany resource link: Overview of Barley, via Oregon State University's BarleyWorld.org. “Think Barley!”
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 4:18 AM | Comments (3)
December 9, 2005
Rhododendron thomsonii subsp. thomsonii
It is almost possible to find a rhododendron in bloom every day of the year at UBC Botanical Garden. This species, Rhododendron thomsonii, has a few flowers emerging now. Many of its flower buds, though, were hit by the cold weather and aborted, littering the ground beneath the rhododendron with brussel sprout-sized green blobs. Fortunately, flowers in December aren't the only reason this native to southeast Asia captures winter interest. Particularly striking on rainy or misty days are the stems with their reddish peeling bark on a background of greenish-lavender.
You can learn a bit more about Rhododendron thomsonii subsp. thomsonii via the American Rhododendron Society.
Photography resource link: More serendipity today. I often browse through the photo critique galleries on Nature Photographers Online. Generally, I frequent the flora forum, but occasionally dip into the earth, sea and sky (landscapes) forum. While doing so yesterday, I discovered the work of Adam Gibbs and his stunning landscapes of western North America. He also takes great flora photographs (a runner-up in the Plants category for Wildlife Photographer of the Year in an exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London). Please note – if you browse through the main galleries on his site, use the unmarked navigation arrows below each set of images to advance to the next set of images (each season has 3 or 4 pages worth of photographs, but it isn't immediately obvious).
I noted from his profile on the Natural History Museum site that he lives in Burnaby, which is also my home. Curious, I had to look up his address in the phone book. No more than five blocks away... (and less than a block from my previous residence!). Small world.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 3:01 AM | Comments (4)
December 8, 2005
Omphalotus illudens
Please note that the Creative Commons license applied to most BPotD images does not apply to this image, so permission for use (beyond “fair use” or similar provisions) needs to be sought from the copyright holder.
Today's image is courtesy of Angie from St. Paul, Minnesota aka Angie in MN@Flickr. Like a few other postings this past week, Angie shared the image via the Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Group Pool (original image). Many thanks, Angie!
There are three good reasons this mushroom has the common name “Jack O'Lantern mushroom”. Angie took this photograph on October 6th, and it is typical for this mushrom to appear in October around Hallowe'en. The second reason is the colour. The third reason, though, is the particularly interesting one. As Tom Volk writes in his Fungus of the Month entry for Omphalotus olearius, the mushroom produces secondary metabolites called luciferases. What's a luciferase? To quote Wikipedia, luciferases are a generic name for enzymes commonly used in nature for bioluminescence – yes, these mushrooms glow in the dark, though it can be difficult to see the phenomenon. Michael Kuo has written a humourous piece on the glow in the dark conspiracy of Omphalotus illudens.
Changing scientific names do not only apply to green, leafy plants. Much of the literature on the web and in print mentions that this particular fungus should be lumped together with Omphalotus olearius, and not recognized as a distinct species (alluded to in the Tom Volk link above from 1997). While writing this entry, though, I discovered a 2004 paper with molecular evidence that says “No, no, it was correct to separate it out. Don't lump it in with Omphalotus olearius anymore. It's actually quite a distant relative.” So, this particular species is back to Omphalotus illudens (ref: Kirchmair, M. et al. 2004. Phylogeny of the genus Omphalotus based on nuclear ribosomal DNA-sequences. Mycologia. 96(6): 1253-1260).
Off-topic, but a reminder that Alex Waterhouse-Hayward's photography exhibit opens tonight in Vancouver. Details (and sample) are in the entry for Rosa 'Harwanna'.
Botany / photography resource link: Suggested by UBC Botanical Garden's own David Tarrant, the D.T. Fleming Arboretum, a Hawaiian botanical garden on Maui dedicated to native plants. In particular, David suggests the Pu‘u Mahoe Close Up Slide Show, featuring the macro photography of Bob Bangerter. The navigation is a bit strange (it changes with each image), but you can also simply let the slide show run without navigating via the arrows. It will progress to the next photograph after roughly a 7 second delay.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 2:00 AM | Comments (5)
December 7, 2005
Rosa filipes 'Kiftsgate'
One of these days, I'm going to figure out a way to take technically-proficient photographs of the 15m+ (45 feet+) high roses, clematis and other woody climbers in the garden. The challenges are many, including line of sight (the Asian Garden doesn't lend itself well to specimen shots of trees and tree-climbing vines, since it's within a second-growth native forest), perspective and blown out colours from the sky or reflections from the flowers. For the time being, though, I hope you can appreciate the lowest 2.5m of this climbing rose, Rosa filipes 'Kiftsgate'.
I didn't get a chance to visit Kiftsgate Court Gardens in Chipping Campden, UK, when I was in the Cotswolds a few years ago. If I had, I would have seen the original 'Kiftsgate' rose, purported to be the largest rose in England: 27m x 30m x 17m high (80 feet x 90 feet x 50 feet high). You can read more about that rose from the Kiftsgate Court Gardens site: The Kiftsgate Rose (includes a photograph of the flowers).
For the black and white image, I used the technique described in this BPotD entry on the Asian Garden (there's also a link to a how-to article in the comments section for that entry). In this case, the green and blue channels were screened at 100% to create a new alpha channel. I then processed the new channel and the green channel with the soft light calculation at 100%.
Botany / art resource link: A BPotD reader, Dave, sent along this link: The Romance of Orchid Discovery: The John Day Scrapbooks, an online exhibition from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Along with a bevy of orchid information, you'll want to investigate the galleries.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 2:07 AM | Comments (6)
December 6, 2005
Dichroa febrifuga
It's been grey, cloudy, somewhat snowy and (relatively) cold for much of the past few weeks locally. Yesterday's photographic expedition into the garden centred on finding some colours other than grey, green or white. Today's image of the fruit of Dichroa febrifuga or Chinese quinine, certainly qualifies. To see the flowers, you can check out this previous BPotD entry.
Dichroa febrifuga is not well-known in Western cultivation, though it is one of “the fifty fundamental herbs” in Chinese medicine according to Duke and Ayensu's Medicinal Plants of China (via the Plants For a Future Database). Its common name of Chinese quinine hints at its antimalarial properties (quinine was used to treat malaria). However, the principal antimalarial alkaloid present in this plant, febrifugine, is far more toxic to parasites when compared with quinine. Unfortunately, this particular chemical also has more potent injurious side effects. Synthetic analogs to febrifugine are being researched to replicate the antimalarial benefits without causing other difficulties (see: Jiang et al. 2004. Antimalarial Activities and Therapeutic Properties of Febrifugine Analogs. Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 49(3): 1169).
Botany resource link: Botany Online: The History of a Science (scroll down to table of contents) from the University of Hamburg's Botany Online program. The complete text is available only in German, but the first forty-five chapters have been translated into English.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM | Comments (3)
December 5, 2005
Calamagrostis nutkaensis
Thanks to Dale from California aka Dfunk@Flickr, you and I get to enjoy this image of Calamagrostis nutkaensis from Crocker Grove in California. Dale shared the image through the Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Group Pool; you can see the original image here if you are interested in a larger version. You might also like to check out Dale's other photograph of Crocker Grove.
As I was researching Pacific reedgrass, I came across two issues of Botanical Electronic News on the subject of the European “discoverer” of this plant, Tadeáš Haenke (it was certainly known to the native peoples of the region). By coincidence (a 4 in 1461 chance!), Haenke's date of birth is the same day as this entry, December 5. I highly encourage you to read both BEN 287 and BEN 288 for fascinating accounts of this Bohemian-born botanist. Frankly, his tale would make a good movie. He was born in Bohemia, trained by a Dutch botanist, permitted to be part of a Spanish expedition to explore the Pacific by an Austrian emperor, travelled as far north as northern British Columbia and died in South America. The next time you feel inconvenienced from missing a flight or connection, keep in mind that Haenke missed the two expedition boats he was supposed to be on – twice. Indeed, he missed the expedition boats when they left from Spain, by only a few hours! He finally caught up with the expedition eight months after it had left Spain. The written accounts from BEN also go into intriguing detail about the Malaspina Expedition and the fate of Haenke's plant collections.
You can also learn more about Calamagrostis nutkaensis from Calflora and the online version of the Jepson Manual.
Photography resource link: Biofoto – Forening For Naturfotografer is in Norwegian, but the gallery of photographs for your inspiration isn't restricted by language. I particularly like the images by Einar Ytrelid on page 4.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 2:47 AM | Comments (10)
December 4, 2005
Tsuga canadensis 'Frosty'
'Frosty' Canadian hemlock is not named in honour of the snowman, but rather for the white colour of the new needles on the tips of the branches. As you can tell, this phenomenon is not well-displayed by this photograph. Instead, the focus is on the cones and the shadows from winter's low sunlight.
I have the impression that the majority of conifer cultivars originate as a selection of a physical variant that is somehow different from a typical plant in the species, but if someone with more knowledge wants to qualify or dispute that assertion, please add a comment. As a comparison, though, you might recall from the entry on Gladiolus flanaganii that the thirty thousand cultivars of Gladiolus are virtually all due to hybridization and breeding.
Since I suspect that conifers might be on your mind this month, you might like to spend a little bit of time browsing around the site of the American Conifer Society or browse through the garden's conifer discussion forums.
Botany resource link: “hamadryad”, a member of the garden's discussion forums, submitted this article about a study from the University of Washington – “Wildflower seed mixes include some wicked bloomers”. From the article: “When growing 19 such packets of wildflower mixes, however, University of Washington researchers found that each contained from three to 13 invasive species and eight had seeds for plants considered noxious weeds in at least one U.S. state or Canadian province.”
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 2:37 AM | Comments (4)
December 3, 2005
Ericameria nauseosa
Updated February 24, 2006 at 2:17pm PST: Changed name from Chrysothamnus nauseosus to Ericameria nauseosa after reviewing Nesom, G and Baird, G. 1993. Completion of Ericameria (Asteraceae: Astereae), Diminution of Chrysothamnus. Phytologia. 75(1): 74-93. – Daniel
Today's photograph is courtesy of Maureen from Montana, aka MontanaRaven@Flickr, who shared it via the Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Group Pool (Flickr posting). Maureen also shares her thoughts and photographs on her excellent weblog, raven's nest, which is certainly worth your time to investigate. Many thanks, Maureen!
Rabbitbrush was previously featured on BPotD in this entry. I enjoy Maureen's photograph as a companion to the images from that entry, particularly because the colours are tonally opposite. In accompaniment to the photograph, Maureen wrote: “these are the seedheads that persist throughout the winter, giving this low growing shrub a fluffy, cloudlike character that adds winter interest.”
Photography resource link: A Great Mouth for a Picture, an opinion piece by Niall Benvie for Nature Photographers Online. “Perhaps the single most important attribute of a “fine nature photograph” is its ability to engage the viewer’s intellect as well as their heart, to lead them into lines of enquiry about what is happening beyond the frame.”
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 4:28 AM | Comments (4)
December 2, 2005
Magnolia sieboldii
Apologies for the brief writeup today. I'm still winding down from last night's presentation, which was seemingly well-received.
This particular plant was featured on Botany Photo of the Day nearly six months ago: Magnolia sieboldii. In that entry, I mention that the flowers of Oyama magnolia are pendulous. I hope it's clear that the branch suspending this flower has been manipulated to display the flower in an unnatural position.
Botany resource link: Millenium Seed Bank Project – “...an international collaborative plant conservation initiative. This worldwide effort aims to safeguard 24,000 plant species from around the globe against extinction.” The gallery of seed images has been done with aesthetics in mind. Check out Afzelia africana and Acacia cyclops.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 1:39 AM | Comments (6)
December 1, 2005
Rosa 'Harwanna'
Please note that the Creative Commons license applied to most BPotD images does not apply to this image, so permission for use (beyond “fair use” or similar provisions) needs to be sought from the copyright holder.
This scan of the Jacqueline du Pré rose is a creation of local photographer and writer Alex Waterhouse-Hayward (disclosure: Alex is the husband of one of UBC's Friends of the Garden). Alex has an upcoming exhibit in Vancouver that will include a number of super high-quality prints of his botanical scans, which he wrote about in “Getting Rid of the Box” (image gallery).
Alex writes that his methods to achieve the scan are as follows: “I placed it on my Epson Perfection 1640SU flatbed scanner. The initial scans are at 100% and 1200ppi. I have a green garden bamboo stick clamped to a lamp on my desk and I clamp (clothespins) the rose on the other end. I swing the rose so it is as close to the scanner's glass without touching. I do the scanning in the evening as I have the scanner's top off. This way the scanner reads my white ceiling as black.”
If you'd like to see these and Alex's other works, he's passed along an open invitation to attend his exhibition (with a note warning that there will be some artistic nudity). Here are the details: “Exactly As We Were” – photographs by Alex Waterhouse-Hayward. Artist's reception on December 8 at 7pm, exhibition from December 9 through to December 24, 2005. Location: Vancouver Gallery of Photography @ The Art Center, 2060 Pine Street, Vancouver, BC. 604.731.5412.
You may have noticed that I've titled the entry Rosa 'Harwanna', yet also called it the Jacqueline du Pré rose (this is the name Alex used for it). In what can only be described as something analogous to a tragedy of the commons, this rose has three “names”: scientific (Rosa 'Harwanna'), common or vernacular ('Harwanna' rose), and a marketing or trademarked name (Jacqueline du Pré rose).
In brief (far too brief), when a new plant is bred, it can be patented so that royalties are paid to the plant breeder. However, patents eventually expire, and once they do, royalties no longer need to be paid and anyone can propagate the plant for sale. In response, some nurseries came up with the idea of assigning a trademark to the new plant, essentially a name that only they could associate (or license to others to use) with the plant for marketing purposes. As long as it is protected from becoming a generic name, this marketing name is permanent, and enables the nursery (and its licensees) to sell the plant under an attractive name, (such as Jacqueline du Pré rose) while everyone else (once the patent has expired) has to sell the plant under the less attractive 'Harwanna' rose or Rosa 'Harwanna'.
This is akin to the tragedy of the commons scenario, so to rewrite what is on the Wikipedia entry:
Positive : the owner of the trademark receives all of the proceeds from each additional trademarked name
Negative : the understanding and communication of “what plant is that?” is slightly degraded by each additional name
Crucially, the division of these components is unequal: the individual owner of the trademark gains all of the advantage, but the disadvantage is shared between all people using names to communicate about plants. Consequently, for an individual owner of a trademark weighing up these utilities, the rational course of action is to trademark the new plant. And another, and another. However, since all potential trademark owners reach the same conclusion, confusion and misunderstanding and frustration about names is the long-term fate. Nonetheless, the rational response for a potential owner of a trademark remains the same for each new hybrid, since the gain is always greater to a trademark owner than the distributed cost is.
Tony Avent, owner of Plant Delights Nursery, has written an opinionated piece on the matter entitled, “The Trademark Myth (When is a Name Not a Name)”, which is a highly recommended (and entertaining) read. And yes, I agree with Tony.
Photography resource link: for inspiration, the photography of Wynn Bullock (page 2). Please be forewarned that the site contains artistic nudity.
If I were ever forced to create a list of favourite photographs, “Sea Palms” would be on it, though the small size of the image on the site doesn't do it justice. It's worth seeking out a print version in a book to get a better idea of it, such as Bullock's “The Enchanted Landscape”. I have the book, and to get an idea of Bullock's philosophy, he accompanied “Sea Palms” with this quote: “I feel the time of a thing just as strongly as I see its form or color. Equally, the spaces between the limbs of a tree are as real as the limbs themselves. When I can photograph spaces filled with smoke, fog, or mist, the effect is one that greatly adds to the visual and emotional impact of the picture. The photographer is slowly becoming aware of, and more and more will extend, his search for greater visual expression in a reality that is not frozen in time or limited to the surface appearance of objects.”
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM | Comments (6)
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Botany Photo of the Day and all associated images are licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Botany Photo of the Day is a project of the UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research, located in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada. UBC BGCPR is a department of the Faculty of Land and Food Systems within The University of British Columbia.