« Previous Day: Pinus longaeva |
Main
| Next Day: Arctium minus »
Nov 6, 2009: Cypripedium montanum
Nov 7, 2008:
Ranunculus aquatilis
Nov 7, 2007:
Quercus suber
Nov 7, 2006:
Pediomelum esculentum
Nov 7, 2005:
Verbascum eriophorum
October 29, 2007 : Boronia hippopala
Interested in subscribing? Visit the main Botany Photo of the Day page and fill out the form in the upper right corner!
Keywords: Rutaceae | Boronia hippopala Duretto | Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Thank you to Nuytsia@Tas on Flickr for another wonderful photograph (original | BPotD Flickr Group Pool). Much appreciated!
The Australian genus Boronia has recently been the subject of taxonomic scrutiny. Marco Duretto of the Tasmanian published a paper in 2003, “Notes on Boronia (Rutaceae) in eastern and northern Australia” (Muelleria 17:19–135), that described several new species, including Boronia hippopala or velvet boronia. It seems like the taxonomic investigation was well overdue; in Tasmania alone, the number of taxa leaped from six to fifteen (see: Some Giant Steps for Threatened Boronias pp. 18-20 PDF). Of these nine taxa, one seems to have been a range expansion of a taxon known from elsewhere in Australia, one was a re-recognition of a previously-described species that had since been lumped together with another species, and the remaining seven taxa had never previously been described.
Members of the citrus family, or Rutaceae, boronias have some typical qualities of the family: evergreen woody shrubs with fragrant flowers. Your chances of sampling the scent of velvet boronia (and mine) are quite limited though; other than the few plants in cultivation, Boronia hippopala grows in a small woodland and scrubland area of eastern Tasmania measuring no longer than 7km (4.3 miles) at its widest. This factsheet on Boronia hippopala (PDF) contains more detailed information about the species, including description, ecology and threats.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at October 29, 2007 6:17 AM
Read recent comments on all BPotD Entries
Comments
Posted by: elizabeth a airhart at October 29, 2007 12:49 PM
Daniel, your photos are always beautiful and informative. Thanks for educating me.
Elizabeth, your comments would be much more interesting if you would learn to punctuate and capitalize. Proofreading your post before you send it would also help.
Posted by: Maggie at October 29, 2007 2:40 PM
Hello Maggie, first of all - not my photo this time (though I wish it was!).
To defend Elizabeth a bit, I think she is being somewhat poetic with her comments. I'd rather have poetic comments than none at all!
Posted by: Daniel Mosquin 
at October 29, 2007 2:49 PM
Sweet and lovely photograph. Thanks also for the info on the species.
Posted by: van at October 29, 2007 2:53 PM
I am told that the ability to detect Boronia perfume is controlled by a single gene. I don't know if that's true, but I do know that I can't smell it (sigh). It's certainly true of NZ Alseuosmia species, which my friends can smell from feet away and I can't - different family from Boronia - same gene?
Posted by: Elizabeth Revell at October 29, 2007 6:17 PM
It almost looks like marzipan flowers coated in icing sugar or maybe caster sugar. I can't help having my mouth water at the sight.
Posted by: Joe at October 29, 2007 9:04 PM
Just beautiful. The selective focus of the photograh really is great. What wonderful colours. It is really nice to learn more each day.
Thank you,
Margaret-Rae
Posted by: Margaret-Rae Davis at October 30, 2007 2:22 PM
I enjoy all the comments and especially Elizabeth's with her stream-of-consciousness imagery of Florida and her ability to express her appreciation of the natural world.
Posted by: Anthony at November 9, 2007 8:44 AM
Please share your comments about the photograph(s) and accompanying write-up. Telling a story about the subject of the photograph(s) is also much appreciated! If you have a gardening question, the best place to ask is on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums. Thank you!
Post a comment
XML Feeds: Atom | RSS 2.0 | RSS 1.0 | What is RSS? | RSS Tools
Botany Photo of the Day and all associated images are licensed under a Creative Commons License except when otherwise specified in the accompanying written entry.
About Botany Photo of the Day | Submit Your Photos via Flickr | Submit Your Photos via UBCBG's Discussion Forums
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.
a lovely photograph you say its part
of the citrus i guees our orange trees
here in florida would be in the family
today i am off to tasmanian for a
internet visit nuytsia has a fine
group abstracts are good we could
have another of daniels