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May 31, 2007
Etlingera elatior
Today's image is courtesy of Monika (aka monika&manfred@Flickr) of Vienna, Austria (original | BPotD Flickr Group Pool). Much appreciated!
Now cultivated throughout the tropics, torch ginger is thought to be native to Indonesia, Malaysia and southern Thailand (via Flora of China), though other sites suggest a native distribution restricted to a few islands in Indonesia. Whatever its origin, widescale planting of Etlingera elatior has made torch ginger the hallmark species of this genus of approximately 70 species. That's a very loose approximation, because researcher Dr. Axel Dalberg Poulsen reports that Borneo alone contains 29 species, 10 of which were undescribed as of 2003 via this poster on the ecological and economic qualities of Etlingera. Dr. Poulsen also has a small photo gallery of Etlingera as well as photographs from his late 2006 / early 2007 field trip to Papua New Guinea (also discussed here).
An illustration of the flower from the 1880 work “Fleurs, fruits et feuillages choisis de l'ille de Java : peints d'après nature by Berthe Hoola van Nooten can be seen here (note that it uses a synonym for Etlingera elatior, Elettaria speciosa).
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 5:08 AM | Comments (8)
May 30, 2007
Frasera fastigiata
I'll share one last photograph from my trip to the Palouse area before moving on. Clustered green gentian is native to Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California, where it can be found on open mountain meadows. The distribution range is similar to yesterday's elegant mariposa lily, though, as mentioned, it is found in more open areas. You can find a few more images of Frasera fastigiata via one landowner's attempt to record the plant biodiversity on his / her property in the Palouse.
The genus Frasera is named after John Fraser, a British nurseryman, plant explorer and plant collector. Fraser sounds like quite the character, according to Robert Zahner: “Biographers and modern natural history writers in America portray mixed characterizations of John Fraser. Apparently there is a general impression that Fraser’s botanical competence was not on a par with his contemporaries. He has been called a botanical entrepreneur and an insufferable egotist. Fraser himself reveals something of his ego, stating his determination to excel the French botanist Andre Michaux in plant discoveries, thus obtaining equal honors for Great Britain.” and “One of Fraser’s more telling personality indictments comes from Michaux himself, in a well documented incident during the time Fraser accompanied Michaux on this 1787 exploration into the (Appalachian) mountains. Michaux notes in his journal on May 29th that he found Fraser a superficial bore and that after some time he managed to escape from Fraser’s ‘irritating chatter and foolish questions.’”. If you have a bit of time, I'd encourage you to read the rest of Robert Zahner's article, Bartram's Mountain Magnolia, via Chattooga Conservancy. Magnolias and Firs: The John Fraser Connection via Appalachian Voices is a similar account of the story.
I should point out that in UBC Botanical Garden's newly-planted Carolinian Forest, both Fraser and Michaux have groves named in honour of them.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 5:26 AM | Comments (3)
May 29, 2007
Calochortus elegans
In a small bit of coincidence, I stumbled upon this plant exactly 201 years after it was first collected by Lewis and Clark (images and stories of some plants collected by Lewis and Clark are available via James Reveal and The Lewis and Clark Herbarium). I was driving along the narrow Skyline Drive through McCroskey State Park, waffling as to whether I should stop and photograph the abundant fritillaries. After making the decision, I spotted these elegant mariposa lilies along the bank as soon as I stepped out of the car. The 30m long strip of the embankment was the only place I observed the plants on the trip. Considering there were only about a dozen plants, each measuring less than 15cm (6 inches) tall, I felt pretty lucky to have found them, in retrospect. For comparison's sake, their cousin, Calochortus macrocarpus, reaches 50cm / nearly 2 ft. in height.
I've discussed the imprecision of distribution maps before, but I think this is another good example to point out. A glance at the state-level distribution map for Calochortus elegans from the USDA PLANTS database suggests a broadly-occurring plant throughout the western United States. The Flora of North America's distribution map (species account), which uses only sites where the plant has been collected, gives a much better idea of the relatively restricted locations this plant can be found. Within these areas, it is restricted to open forests with rocky soils at elevations between 1500m and 2500m (approx. 5000-8000ft).
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 5:10 AM | Comments (0)
May 28, 2007
Triteleia grandiflora var. grandiflora
One of the highlights for me of attending Botany BC was this plant, large-flowered triteleia (some references may use large-flowered brodiaea, due to a synonymous scientific name, Brodiaea douglasii). I hadn't encountered it before, and to see it in large clusters of plants with a sagebrush background was mightily impressive. I later often encountered it in the Palouse hills, but in populations that were nowhere near as dense as these in the White Lake Grasslands Protected Area (photo of White Lake).
Triteleia grandiflora is a native of western North America; the Flora of North America account has a distribution map. The Plants for a Future database cites a source claiming it is “said by some people to be the tastiest of the North American edible bulbs” (making one wonder about those tasty inedible bulbs). In the southern interior of British Columbia, the bulbs were consumed by the Okanagan, Nlaka'pmx and St'at'imc peoples (source: Plants of Southern Interior BC).
The southwestern North American Themidaceae, including Triteleia, are closely related to the onion family, the Alliaceae.
Link of interest: Something I missed pointing out last week was that a demographic tipping point had been reached (symbolically) on May 23: the day the world's human population became more urban than rural.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 1:06 AM | Comments (3)
May 27, 2007
Palouse Hills
Botany Photo of the Day will have brief written entries on weekends, holidays and my vacations from April through September. – Daniel
Here are a couple more photographs of the Palouse Hills, taken from Steptoe Butte State Park.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 1:30 AM | Comments (10)
May 26, 2007
Palouse Field
Botany Photo of the Day will have brief written entries on weekends, holidays and my vacations from April through September. – Daniel
A different perspective on the farmland in the Palouse area – an infrared photograph.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 4:53 AM | Comments (7)
May 25, 2007
Mitella stauropetala
I had a bit of a laugh of disbelief when I learned the common name for this species: small-flowered mitrewort. The reason? The first species of mitrewort I ever became familiar with, the boreal Mitella nuda, has flowers that are perhaps a quarter the size of these – far more deserving of the adjective!
The genus Mitella contains a dozen species or so, distributed in temperate to arctic North America and eastern Asia. The states of Washington and Oregon are the centre of diversity, with eight species occurring in Washington and one fewer in Oregon (see Mitella of Columbia River Gorge for photographs of five other species). Mitella stauropetala is divided into two varieties, variety stauropetala (meaning cross-petaled) found in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana and variety stenopetala (meaning narrow-petaled) found in Idaho, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado. Considering today's photograph was taken within a stone's throw of the Washington-Idaho border, it is safe to say this is variety stauropetala; photographs are generally lacking online for comparison of the two varieties (for example, the Burke Museum, which is usually an excellent source of Washington native plant images, only has one for Mitella stauropetala var. stauropetala).
Greya moths have a mutualistic relationship with the Saxifragaceae, akin to the relationship between yucca moths and Yucca plants. Not surprising perhaps – Greya and Tegeticula (the major genus of the yucca moths) are both in the family Prodoxidae. Mitella stauropetala is used by Greya mitellae as a host plant. The adult female moths lay their eggs in the flowering scapes of the Mitella, and the larvae subsequently feed on the developing seeds. As a benefit to the plant, the moth acts as a pollinator.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 11:00 AM | Comments (4)
May 24, 2007
Palouse Hills
The Palouse area of eastern Washington and north central Idaho elicits mixed feelings in me. As an admirer of topographic form, the rolling hills are a delight to discover and explore. At this time of year, combinations of earthy browns and greens (with splashes of verdant green from newly-emerged seedlings) dominate the landscape under dusty blue skies. In June, the earthier tones make way for the multiple shades of green of different crops under clear blue skies. Harvest gold, of course, follows in the autumn. It is the most beautiful cultivated landscape I've ever observed in person.
The structure of the landscape is the result of wind-blown silt (loess), deposited during the ice ages. Similar to riparian silt deposits, it is very fertile soil and conducive to intensive farming.
It is difficult for me, however, to suppress imagining what the landscape would have looked like two hundred years ago, when the hills were a far-reaching prairie covered with Pseudoroegneria spicata (bluebunch wheatgrass) and Festuca idahoensis (Idaho fescue). The area, however, suffered the same fate of most North American prairie. Only remnant patches of original prairie remain where some rare (and endangered) endemics can be found, like Calochortus nitidus (broadfruit mariposa lily) and Driloleirus americanus, the giant Palouse earthworm (thought to have been extinct by the 1980s, most recently seen in 2005).
Wikipedia's entry on the Palouse region provides some area history and the environmental changes brought about by agriculture.
The Palouse Prairie Foundation “promotes preservation and restoration of native Palouse Prairie ecosystems in Latah and Whitman Counties (in Idaho and Washington), through public awareness, education, literature resource, encouraging responsible local seed production, and acting as a leader or consultant in Palouse Prairie restoration efforts.”.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:13 AM | Comments (10)
May 23, 2007
Bromus tectorum
I'm back from Botany BC and the subsequent trip to southeast Washington state. I wish I could report that all went well, but a post-Botany BC bout of illness (that left more than half of the attendees sick) hit me as well. I didn't spend nearly as much time photographing and exploring as I had planned, needless to say.
That said, I did manage to find a number of uncommon plants along the way. Today's plant, however, isn't one of them. In fact, it's likely one of the most ubiquitous plants in temperate areas of the world: cheatgrass or drooping brome. Native to southern Europe and southwestern Asia, the Global Invasive Species Database (GISD) lists Bromus tectorum has having invaded “most of Europe, southern Russia, western and central Asia, Japan, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Greenland, Canada and the United States.”. The Germplasm Resources Information Network entry adds a few more areas to the above list, including southern South America, India and Pakistan. In the second photograph, Bromus tectorum covers the right and foreground hillsides, and occurs in patches on the left hillside. In the third photograph, it forms most of the groundcover between the sagebrushes. Why is it such a successful invader? The GISD notes: “It usually thrives in disturbed areas preventing natives from returning to the area. Disturbance such as overgrazing, cultivation, and frequent fires encourage invasion. Once established the natives cannot compete and the whole ecosystem is altered.”.
I chose to feature Bromus tectorum today for a couple reasons. Most important of these is that it is a species named and described by Carl Linnaeus in Species Plantarum. As of today, it's been 300 years since the birth of Linnaeus, “the father of modern taxonomy”. The New York Times has a write-up: “The 300th Birthday of the Man Who Organized All of Nature”. Happy Birthday, Carl!
My other reason for featuring this weedy invasive is a bit of an ironic one. Yesterday was The International Day for Biological Diversity (did you know? hear about it on the news at all?) and Bromus tectorum growing in swathes is symbolic of the loss of biodiversity in many dryland areas.
A final note to end this ramble: these photographs were taken in the Saddle Mountain area of the Hanford Reach National Monument. Wikipedia has a summary of the Hanford Site (I didn't photograph any radioactive tumbleweed, by the way).
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM | Comments (6)
May 22, 2007
Fagus grandifolia
Today's written entry is courtesy of Raakel Toppila. Raakel is a summer student working with UBC Botanical Garden's plant collections. – Daniel
Today's photographs are courtesy of fancymefoxy@Flickr (original image 1 | original image 2 | BPotD Flickr Group Pool). Thank you!
The American beech can be found throughout the forests of eastern North American among sugar maple (Acer saccharum), red maple (Acer rubrum), yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis) and American basswood (Tilia americana). Together, they create a stunning fall colour display, characteristic of the eastern deciduous forests. The American beech’s stark, light grey bark and buttressing base is easy to spot in the forests throughout the year, or from the road while practicing high-speed botany.
The thin, grey bark is no match for numerous insects, which pierce and suck sap from the trees. Small, woolly beech scale can be found feeding on the sap of the tree in some regions. The insect was introduced to North American in the late 1800s. Damage done by the scale makes the tree susceptible to fungi in the genus Nectria. Together, these minute organisms can be deadly for a large American beech (see beech bark disease via the USDA Forest Service).
A large “mother” tree can often be found amongst a thicket of smaller beech trees, which have arisen from root suckers. Offspring also arise from seeds, which provide food for deer, bears, squirrels and chipmunks. Beech nuts can also be roasted for human consumption (see this thread on the UBC BG forums).
For additional information, please visit Fagus grandifolia in the Silvics of North America.
Interested in beeches? Talk about them in the beeches discussion forum.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM | Comments (6)
May 21, 2007
Masdevallia notosibirica
Botany Photo of the Day will have brief written entries on weekends, holidays and my vacations from April through September. – Daniel
Thank you to Eric in SF@Flickr for sharing today's image (original | BPotD Flickr Group Pool).
There are over five hundred species in the genus Masdevallia, distributed from Mexico south to Brazil. For this particular species, its epithet notosibirica translates to “of the south Siberia”; this refers to the cloud forests of Serranía de Siberia in Bolivia (learned via Orchids of the Pleurothallid Alliance).
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM | Comments (4)
May 20, 2007
Cycas revoluta
Botany Photo of the Day will have brief written entries on weekends, holidays and my vacations from April through September. – Daniel
Thank you to “ginger749” on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums for submitting this photograph from Gold Coast, Australia (original image in this thread).
In another example of a misleading common name, sago palm is a cycad, not a palm. The Palm and Cycad Societies of Australia has a factsheet on Cycas revoluta.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM | Comments (7)
May 19, 2007
Chloraea magellanica
Botany Photo of the Day will have brief written entries on weekends, holidays and my vacations from April through September. – Daniel
Thank you to Krystyna Szulecka, who is a frequent contributor on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums, for contributing today's photograph (original in this thread). Krystyna is associated with the FLPA nature photography agency, and you can see more of her excellent images by searching for “Krystyna” on the FLPA web site.
Krystyna photographed this porcelain orchid in Lanin National Park, part of Patagonian Argentina. Its occurrence here places Chloraea magellanica among the southernmost distributed orchids in the world.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM | Comments (1)
May 18, 2007
Nelumbo nucifera
Botany Photo of the Day will have brief written entries on weekends, holidays and my vacations from April through September. I'm on vacation today. – Daniel
Thank you to “yousatonmycactus”@UBC Botanical Garden Forums (aka Guy Webb) of Ventura, California for today's photograph. The original image, and a series of related ones by Guy, can be seen in this thread. Much appreciated, Guy!
Indian lotus is native to southeast Asia, though it has become naturalized in Australia and other areas of Asia. Wikipedia provides a detailed account of the economic, botanical and cultural importance of Nelumbo nucifera.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM | Comments (4)
May 17, 2007
Ranunculus aquatilis
Botany Photo of the Day will have brief written entries on weekends, holidays and my vacations from April through September. I'm on vacation today. – Daniel
Thank you to marcella2@Flickr for sharing today's image with us (original image | BPotD Flickr Group Pool).
White water-crowfoot is native to ponds, lake margins, marshes and slow-flowing rivers throughout much of the northern hemisphere. In Europe, Asia and Africa, it can be found from Norway south to northern Africa. In North America, it stretches from the Arctic to Mexico (note that some treatments suggest it is distributed only in western North America, while others list all of North America).
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM | Comments (5)
May 16, 2007
Fruit Medley
Botany Photo of the Day will have brief written entries on weekends, holidays and my vacations from April through September. I'm on vacation today. – Daniel
Thank you to codiferous@Flickr for sharing today's photograph (original | BPotD Flickr Group Pool).
codiferous names the fruits from his autumn Washington hike in the comments accompanying the original photograph.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM | Comments (4)
May 15, 2007
Foeniculum vulgare 'Purpureum' (tentative)
Botany Photo of the Day will have brief written entries on weekends, holidays and my vacations from April through September. I'm on vacation today. – Daniel
Thank you to Jacki of Oregon, aka jacki-dee@Flickr for today's photograph (original | BPotD Flickr Group Pool).
Read more about fennel via Gernot Katzer's Spice Pages.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM | Comments (5)
May 14, 2007
Aloe plicatilis
Botany Photo of the Day will have brief written entries on weekends, holidays and my vacations from April through September. I'm on vacation today. – Daniel
Thank you to badthings@Flickr for today's photograph (original image | BPotD Flickr Group Pool). badthings is also the writer behind the weblog Two Gardens, where you can see many more fine photographs and accompanying writing.
Read about the African fan aloe via the South African National Biodiversity Institute's PlantZAfrica.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM | Comments (5)
May 13, 2007
Rosa 'Ausmas'
Botany Photo of the Day will have brief written entries on weekends, holidays and my vacations from April through September. – Daniel
Thank you to Lorraine E. of Chicago, Illinois for submitting today's photograph – much appreciated!
The Kemper Center for Home Gardening has an excellent factsheet for Rosa 'Ausmas'.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 2:00 AM | Comments (4)
May 12, 2007
Corydalis scouleri
Botany Photo of the Day will have brief written entries on weekends, holidays and my vacations from April through September. – Daniel
Scouler's corydalis or western corydalis is native to British Columbia, Washington and Oregon (Corydalis scouleri in Flora of North America). More images are available to view via the Burke Museum.
Lastly, for local readers, here's one final mention of tomorrow's Perennial Plant Sale. Corydalis scouleri will be available.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM | Comments (3)
May 11, 2007
Ornithogalum nutans
Botany Photo of the Day will have brief written entries on weekends, holidays and my vacations from April through September. I'm on vacation today. – Daniel
Thanks to Vicki of Maryland, USA for sharing this photograph (check out Vicki's Pics@Flickr).
Drooping (or nodding) star-of-Bethlehem or silver bells is native to Ukraine, Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, though it has now naturalized in some parts of North America and elsewhere. Missouri Plants has a good writeup on Ornithogalum nutans. Also, check out an 1885 illustration of the species.
Note to local readers: the Canadian Geranium and Pelargonium Society is having its annual plant sale and art show this weekend. As always with these plants, look for vibrant colours and interesting scented foliage!
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM | Comments (1)
May 10, 2007
Potentilla ×ananassa 'Frel'
Botany Photo of the Day will have brief written entries on weekends, holidays and my vacations from April through September. I'm on vacation today. – Daniel
This cultivar will be available at the upcoming Perennial Plant Sale on Sunday, but you won't find it listed as Potentilla ×ananassa 'Frel'. Instead, look for Fragaria PINK PANDA (the all-capitalized words signify its tradename, in this case). As for whether it is a Fragaria or Potentilla, please see the text of this interpretative sign.
Paghat has written about this cultivar here.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM | Comments (1)
May 9, 2007
Gilia capitata
Botany Photo of the Day will have brief written entries on weekends, holidays and my vacations from April through September. I'm on vacation today. – Daniel
Thank you to Cliff aka The Marmot@Flickr (original | BPotD Flickr Group Pool) for today's image.
Globe gilia or bluehead gilia is native to western North America. The epithet capitata refers to tightly-clustered flowers forming at the apex of a stem.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM | Comments (2)
May 8, 2007
Dodecatheon pulchellum
Few-flowered shooting star (or darkthroat shootingstar or prairie shooting star or pretty shooting star) is native throughout western North America. I've so far found it on grass-covered hills with localized moist (but not saturated) soils owing to springtime melts.
Pollination of plants in the genus Dodecatheon is aided by buzz pollination (more), in which a strong pulse of rapid buzzing by a bee vibrates the anthers, causing the pollen to discharge.
The Primulaceae (or primrose family) are predominantly found in the northern hemisphere (map). Viewed together with the closely-related Myrsinaceae and Theophrastaceae, a representative of this trio of plant families can be found almost anywhere in the world, excluding central Africa, parts of Australia and polar regions.
More photographs of this species can be found on the stellar Burke Museum site: Dodecatheon pulchellum.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 5:58 AM | Comments (2)
May 7, 2007
Saruma henryi
Today's photograph and accompanying text are courtesy of Douglas Justice, Curator of Collections at UBC Botanical Garden. — Daniel
Saruma henryi is just one of the many interesting offerings at the annual Mother’s Day Perennial Plant Sale held at UBC Botanical Garden. This beautiful herbaceous perennial is seldom commercially available, which is unfortunate, as it is an easy, adaptable plant for the shaded, woodland garden. A clumping perennial, it will grow to 1m in height. The name Saruma is an anagram of a related genus, Asarum, the wild (hardy) gingers, and the epithet henryi commemorates the great Irish plant explorer, Augustine Henry (1857–1930). The species is monotypic (the only species in its genus) and somewhat unusual in its family, as its closest relatives have simple, tubular, flesh- coloured, fly-pollinated flowers or convoluted weirdly shaped flowers adapted to specific pollinator behaviour (including providing specific brood sites for insects).
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:35 AM | Comments (8)
May 6, 2007
Amorphophallus titanum
Botany Photo of the Day will have brief written entries on weekends, holidays and my vacations from April through September. – Daniel
Thanks once again to van swearingen@Flickr for sharing a photograph with us (original photo | BPotD Flickr Group Pool).
Excluding economically-vital plants, I suspect titan arum receives the most minutes of airtime and most inches / centimeters of newsprint than any other species of plant. Considering its impressiveness as the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world and the fact it can be cultivated (unlike the largest flower), it is perhaps no surprise that it is a media darling when it blooms.
View a set of photographs of Amorphophallus titanum taken at Kew in April 2007 by whatsthatpicture@Flickr to see how the inflorescence changes as the plant blooms. RBG Kew provides a detailed mini-site on titan arum, while Wikipedia provides links to current and historic blooming events along with an information summary.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM | Comments (6)
May 5, 2007
Trillium nivale
Botany Photo of the Day will have brief written entries on weekends, holidays and my vacations from April through September. – Daniel
I suppose there's no denying I've an affection for trilliums. Ah well.
Dr. Michael Hickman, Professor and Associate Director at the University of Alberta Devonian Botanic Garden near Edmonton sent along this photograph taken last week with the words “We have spring!”. It looks like DBG is setting up a What's In Bloom feature on their web site, so that's something to keep an eye on.
Snow trillium is native to the northeastern USA (see the Flora of North America entry for a range map). John Hilty's Illinois Wildflowers provides an excellent summary: Trillium nivale.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM | Comments (6)
May 4, 2007
Anagallis arvensis
Botany Photo of the Day will have brief written entries on weekends, holidays and my vacations from April through September. I'm on vacation today. – Daniel
Today's photograph is courtesy of our friends at Dias com árvores, especially Paulo Varaújo and Maria Carvalho. Paulo shared the photograph on the BPotD Submissions forum here with mention that it would subsequently be blogged on Dias com árvores, which Maria did: The Scarlet Pimpernel.
Read more about scarlet pimpernel on Wikipedia, Missouri Plants and Plants for a Future database.
For local BPotD readers: the Alpine Garden Club of BC has its annual spring sale tomorrow – some of the best deals on plants you can find, all offered by great and friendly people.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM | Comments (6)
May 3, 2007
Potentilla cuneata
It's been a while since I've shared a plant featured in UBC Botanical Garden's 2005 book “The Jade Garden - New and Notable Plants from Asia” (the series of 5 BPotD coinciding with the release of the book starts here). Since I discovered this plant is also going to be available at the UBC BG Perennial Plant Sale, I thought it worthwhile to coincide a mention of both the book and the event.
Cuneate cinquefoil, as written by Brent Hine in “The Jade Garden”:
“Among the indomitable dwellers of the higher reaches, the genus Potentilla truly stands out. It is a vast group, and Potentilla cuneata is a fine example. Technically a subshrub, this groundcover behaves in cultivation like a herbaceous perennial. The specific epithet refers to its leaf bases, which taper down (wedge-like) to the petioles. In its native habitat, it grows on exposed hills and meadows, slowly creeping during the short growing season. What makes this perennial so eminently suitable in cultivation is its ability to adapt and thrive under markedly different conditions. A prime example derives from a seed collection taken in Nepal at 3870m. Coming from what can be an unforgiving climate for most of the year, our plant has been thriving in cultivation at UBCBG for 30 years. Locally, it experiences a mostly snowless climate at close to sea level. So this little fellow has proven itself a marvel of adaptability. Its value is further evident in its multiseason good looks, including an extensive bloom of golden yellow flowers.”
“The short rhizomes of Potentilla cuneata slowly form a close-knit carpet in gritty soil, and after many years the plant has reached a diameter of about 2m. Meanwhile, from midsummer the extended flower show begins. The bright blossoms are short-stemmed and produced in such profusion as to turn the plant into a reflection of the sun. Although the main flowering season of these 2.5cm single “roses” is about 6 weeks, intermittent bloom lasts until the cooler nights of the fall. The perennial has charming trifoliage, silky, incised leaves that exhibit a warm-toned colourful display before they drop.”
The account in the book continues on to include hardiness, cultivation and propagation information.
“The Jade Garden - New and Notable Plants from Asia” is available locally in the Shop in the Garden and other fine bookstores. You can also purchase the book online from Amazon.com
Photography resource link: In this thread on the forums, Liz from Victoria, Australia pointed out the work of the late Peter Dombrovskis, an environmentally-influential German-born Australian photographer. I vaguely recall hearing of Dombrovskis from a documentary some years ago. The National Library of Australia has made of some of his images available online; from the Pictures Catalogue, type Dombrovskis into the search field. This photo is among my favourites.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 6:55 AM | Comments (3)
May 2, 2007
Arisaema sikokianum
Almost every year I photograph the reliable and intriguing woodland plant Arisaema sikokianum — a few older photographs can be seen here. Its common names are generally a reflection of its Japanese origin: Japanese Jack-in-the-pulpit and, more romantically, snow rice-cake plant (link to Paghat's site with gardening information). It is also known as gaudy jack.
View more photographs of Arisaema sikokianum via the International Aroid Society.
Botany resource link: Stannous F sent me a note letting me know that the folks at Earth Science Picture of the Day have had a few plant-related photographs recently. Here are two: Xanthorrhoea australis (grass trees) in Brisbane Ranges National Park, Australia and a Boreal Forest Ring from the Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada area.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:24 AM | Comments (8)
May 1, 2007
Dawsonia longifolia
Thank you to Eric in SF@Flickr for sharing another photograph from Borneo (original | BPotD Flickr Group Pool). This photo is one of over 150 photographs in Eric's Borneo: All Other Plants, Flowers and Bugs photo set. Always appreciated, Eric.
What's particularly special about this moss is its freestanding height (and what that signifies). Eric noted a height approaching 15cm (6in) and alluded to online references suggesting a maximum height approaching 1m (3ft). That latter figure is higher than I've previously read for any member of this tallest family of mosses (~ 2/3 of that figure), but certainly plausible in ideal circumstances.
At the level of cells and tissues, Dawsonia is one of the most structurally complex of mosses. Some cells differentiate into analogues of the water and nutrient-conducting cells of vascular plants, while others become the thick-walled cells necessary to support the free-standing height. This combination, only present in a rudimentary way in some mosses (and absent in many), provides Dawsonia with the ability to internally transport water and nutrients. In most other mosses, the absence of this quality limits their height to under 10cm (4in).
Paradoxically, despite its tallest freestanding moss reputation, Dawsonia produces some of the smallest spores among mosses. Up to 65 million spores measuring 5-8 µm in diameter can be generated by a single sporangium, like the one shown in the upper part of this photo.
More photographs of Dawsonia longifolia (and there aren't many online) can be found in the University of Singapore's Interactive Malesian Moss Database.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 6:04 AM | Comments (2)
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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.