Cultivated Landscapes
October 10, 2008
David C. Lam Asian Garden
I'm on vacation, so please accept my apologies for the brief entries. -- Daniel.
While I'm on vacation in Manitoba, these are the sorts of scenes I'm missing back in Vancouver -- the foggy afternoons with warm low sunlight in the David C. Lam Asian Garden. This photograph is from a couple years ago, taken while slightly leaning out my office window.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (13)
August 13, 2008
Greenheart Canopy Walkway at UBC Botanical Garden
Apologies, but I'm going to interrupt the pollinator series today. Instead, here's a photograph from the new Greenheart Canopy Walkway at UBC Botanical Garden. It opened this Wednesday morning to the public, and garden staff were among the first to experience this walk in the treetops.
The walkway is independently operated by Greenheart Conservation Company Limited and provides visitors with a lengthy 300+ m (1000+ ft.) suspension walk reaching a maximum height of 15m (50ft) above ground level.
It was pretty amazing to get up close and personal with some of the largest second-growth trees in the David C. Lam Asian Garden -- grand fir (Abies grandis), Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), western red-cedar (Thuja plicata) and big-leaf maple (Acer macrophyllum). Looking down one can see a combination of temperate coastal rainforest understorey shrubs and ferns interspersed with some fine specimen plants of Asian origin. All in all, very cool and it will definitely be the source of a few photographs in upcoming BPotD entries. Intriguingly, it will also be an opportunity to highlight research at UBC, as it is expected a number of researchers will be making use of the canopy as well.
Just a warning to other photographers: the range of light in the forest is going to be a challenge. If you have one, bring a polarizing filter to cut down on glare from the metalwork and foliage. I didn't use one today (had my point-and-shoot) so there are a lot of burned-out areas in the photographs I took. I'll have the advantage of going back when light conditions are more advantageous -- you may not.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 11:13 PM| Comments (19)
May 21, 2008
University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley
I've been a bit tardy about posting a follow-up to this image of University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley by John Davidson. This was taken last month when I briefly visited the garden on my way home from points further south.
Dr. Paul Licht, Director of UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley, was kind enough to take some time out of his day to point out the approximate location of the original photograph. I tried my best to capture a similar image, but things have changed quite a bit -- for one, I think the place where the original photograph was taken from is now part of a garden bed (and, respecting the rules of the garden, I didn't hop into the bed). What hasn't changed, though, is the columnar cactus on the right-hand side of the image. Labeled Echinopsis pascana (perhaps now considered a synonym of Echinopsis atacamensis subsp. pascana), this particular plant is present in John Davidson's image as well. It's a 1932 accession. For details about the changes in the photograph (including what happened to this particular cactus), see Dr. Licht's comment on the previous entry.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 9:32 PM| Comments (2)
February 29, 2008
University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley
High on my list of places to visit when I next travel to California is the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley. This undated photograph by John Davidson is clearly from the garden's early days. It is an early image, perhaps, of the New World Desert garden, or that particular garden's predecessor (almost all cacti are distributed in the “new world”, hence the guess). The details of the hills in the background might make it possible to take a modern-day photograph from the same point.
A photograph of the present-day New World Desert Garden is available on the mission and history page for the UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 11:56 AM| Comments (20)
January 31, 2008
Nitobe Memorial Garden
Eric La Fountaine has been very helpful to me these past few weeks while I work to meet a deadline, so once again, here are a couple of his photographs and a write-up!
Vancouver has been graced with a few good snowfalls this year. These photos were taken late January, in Nitobe Memorial Garden. The garden was not yet open for the day, so the fresh layer of snow was undisturbed, except for the few paths that had been cleared by horticulturist, Junji Shinada, who has tended the garden for over 15 years. The white snow outlines the graceful form of the cherry trees and highlights the bridges, ponds and other structural elements typically found in Japanese gardens.
Opened in 1960, Nitobe Memorial Garden is one of the most authentic Japanese gardens found outside of Japan. Professor Kannosuke Mori of Chiba University came from Japan to design the garden and remained to oversee construction until the official opening. The planning and construction of the memorial was chronicled in the garden's journal, Davidsonia, by John W. Neill, now deceased, who was the University of British Columbia landscape architect appointed as the university liaison to work with Professor Mori during construction.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 9:12 AM| Comments (12)
December 20, 2007
Old UBC Botanical Garden
This image is a scan from the garden's John Davidson lantern slide collection. UBC Botanical Garden has been continuously operating as a university botanical garden since 1916, but it has not always been in the same location. When the Point Grey campus was originally constructed, the garden occupied the heart of the campus. This image from that era gives an idea of what it looked like; formal evolutionary beds for teaching purposes formed the core of the garden, with an arboretum of mostly native plants ringing the edges. Much (95%?) of these original plantings have since been destroyed.
There is one object that connects the first iteration of the botanical garden with the present third version. The plinth in this image now stands at the centre of the modern Physic Garden, though the sundial on it has since been replaced.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 8:59 AM| Comments (10)
October 22, 2007
Fothergilla major
Yesterday's wet and rainy day was spent indoors being treated to André Gallant's visual whirlwind of travel photography, people photography and “dreamscapes”. On the latter theme, he talked about three techniques: panning, composite montages (which I've never tried) and Orton imagery. It inspired me to share another photograph using the latter technique today (a link from the previous entry, added here for easy finding: Orton Imagery - A How-To Guide for Photographers).
I wasn't certain what to title today's entry, as I would normally title it using the name of the garden area. However, this garden bed currently lacks a descriptive name. It is planned to transform this into a themed area (incorporating elements, if not more, of a sensory garden), but plans can often be difficult to turn into reality for whatever reason.
In any case, I've decided to name the entry after the most prominent plant in the photograph. The orange-red Fothergilla major (witch-alder) is native to the southeastern United States, where it characteristically grows on dry highland ridges. It's been recognized as a horticulturally-desirable plant, having won a Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit (Fothergilla major via BBC Gardening). An extensive factsheet about witch-alder is available from the Center for Plant Conservation.
The genus Fothergilla is named after John Fothergill, a philanthropist and patron of Sydney Parkinson and William Bartram.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 6:03 AM| Comments (10)
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 (8)
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 (11)
March 11, 2007
UBC Botanical Garden Entrance Boardwalk
Now that the temperature has climbed again, a sustained warm spell should, in a week or so, yield this view from the boardwalk near the entrance to the garden. The structure to the left of the magnolia and palm in the photograph is a ting.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 1:31 AM| Comments (4)
February 18, 2007
UBC Food Garden
Tony Maniezzo is the horticulturist at UBC BG who tends the Food Garden. He's responsible for tending these espaliered apple trees, a display that is one of the highlights for many visitors to the garden. As noted in that link, espalier is a style of training fruit trees into compact shapes – a very valuable technique in small urban gardens. Tony has an upcoming course on how to espalier fruit trees on June 15, but he is also teaching a different course this week, “Vegetable Gardens for Beginners”.
I should note that I've attempted to photograph these espaliered fruit trees many, many times and this is the first time I've been satisfied with the attempt, mostly because of the heavy fog masking the background.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (6)
December 6, 2006
BC Native Garden
Another quiet scene from the BC Native Garden, taken a couple weeks ago before the still-lingering snow.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 7:00 AM| Comments (0)
November 30, 2006
David C. Lam Asian Garden
After trudging through much of the garden yesterday in an attempt to photograph a scene that demonstrated the snowfall, I ended up liking this one the best. Walking around the garden was no easy task, as I blazed a few trails, climbed over and under snow-laden trees across paths and occasionally had to reroute to where there are no paths. For those of you familiar with the garden, you'll recognize the irony – this photograph was taken from the boardwalk at the garden's entrance, no more than forty steps from my office.
Damage to the plant collections throughout the garden was, in a word, extensive. Two of the Larix griffithii are devastated, one uprooted from the ground entirely and the other with its trunk broken about 3m off the ground (the plant having had a height of about 10m). A precious Sinojackia looks as if it exploded. I easily counted a dozen broken trees and shrubs in the Asian Garden, and I didn't venture very far.
I did revisit a few plants I've previously shown on BPotD to take a photograph for comparison's sake – one of these I've posted as a comment in the entry on Acer carpinifolium.
One last anecdote: I couldn't stand in the spot where I took the photographs of the Callitriche stagnalis. Usually, that path skirts under 15cm (6in) diameter willow trunks leaning about 2.5m (8ft) off the ground. Yesterday, those trunks were at knee-level. I doubt the willows are damaged, as they tend to be very flexible, but it was jarring to see.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 1:34 AM| Comments (9)
November 25, 2006
BC Native Garden
A small vignette from yesterday afternoon in the BC Native Garden. I promise tomorrow's photograph will be of a colourful flower.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:56 AM| Comments (7)
November 2, 2006
View from UBC Botanical Garden Parking Lot
Since my attention is mostly set on completing my presentation for tonight (see the latter half of this entry for details if you'd like to attend), I thought I'd simply show a small scenic photograph today.
This image was taken in late October of 2003, eight months or so after I started taking an interest in photography. I've yet to witness a similar intensely-coloured sunset from the garden, but I do wait in anticipation to see how three additional years of experience and learning may help in attempting to photograph how such a scene makes me think and feel.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:57 AM| Comments (4)
October 14, 2006
UBC Arbour Garden
UBC Botanical Garden's Arbour Garden contains a small collection of woody vines. Illustrated in this photograph is Boston ivy, or Parthenocissus tricuspidata, a member of the grape family (Vitaceae). Other woody vines that can be found smothering the arbour (though harsh pruning has helped in the past year) include Dutchman's pipe (Aristolochia), wisteria and trumpet vine (Campsis radicans). I'm not certain if any of the former ivies (Hedera spp.) remain, as the garden has been aggressibly removing all ivy species in an effort to prevent and combat potential invasiveness.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 1:19 AM| Comments (0)
October 3, 2006
David C. Lam Asian Garden
This photograph on a subdued, foggy day in 2005 illustrates the dark-red autumn colour of Euonymus carnosus. Every year I photograph this plant in the autumn, and every year, I'm not entirely pleased with the results. Of course, this is what keeps me going back to it and challenging myself to do better.
For local readers, do try to attend Ron Long's presentation on “Wildflowers of Death Valley” this Thursday night at 7:15 at the Vancouver Museum (part of the NPSBC's South Coast Study Group meeting). Ron visited Death Valley in 2005 to photograph the “bloom of the century” – if you didn't get a chance to see the bloom in person during 2005, Ron's photography is a good substitute.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:29 AM| Comments (2)
August 8, 2006
David C. Lam Asian Garden
I suspect today's photograph won't be for everyone, but c'est la vie. I experimented with night-time photography for the first time last night. What you see is neither the result of the in-camera flash nor an external flash unit. Instead, a 2.25 million candlepower spotlight was used to “paint” the light on the western red cedar trunk and stump. Considering the spotlight is supposedly visible from over 1.6km (1 mile) away, it still took a few experiments to paint a particular area for a long enough period of time to get the exposure right. I should admit that this image is actually a composite of two exposures – the trunk was better exposed in one image while the stump was superior in another, so the two images were blended together to produce this one. I imagine that bit of trickery won't be necessary with practice.
As it turns out, even a garden in an urban setting can be a little scary at night when the wind causes leaves to scratch along the paved paths.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:36 AM| Comments (6)
June 16, 2006
Tea Plantations
Today's photographs are courtesy of Lindsay McGhee, from her December 2004 trip to Malaysia. Lindsay is a UBC biology student and aspiring botanical illustrator (who also happens to be working with me on the garden's John Davidson project). She's kindly offered to share a few photographs from her trip, so expect more in the future.
The Cameron Highlands are Malaysia's largest tea-producing region. The tea plantations date back to the time of the British Colonial era, when tea was a valuable commodity. Tea, however, dates back much longer – three thousand years, give or take, since a brew was first derived from the leaves and leaf buds of the tea plant, Camellia sinensis.
The tea plant is a native of southeast Asia, though it is now widely cultivated around the world in tropical and subtropical areas.
To read more about the tea-making process, visit Camellia sinensis from Purdue University's Center for New Crops and Plants Products.
A few more photographs of the Cameron Highlands and area can be seen here.
For local readers: Douglas Justice, the garden's Curator of Collections, will be leading a three hour-long tree walk this Sunday (June 19) at the Riverview Grounds in Coquitlam. If you haven't seen Douglas talk about trees before, you're missing out. For location information, see the Tree Tours page from the Riverview Horticultural Centre Society or read their recent newsletter.
Conservation (of a different sort) resource link: the Antarctic Conservation Blog, hosted by the Natural History Museum in London. Follow the stories of three conservators who are documenting and conserving the artefacts within the Antarctic explorer's hut left by Shackleton after his 1908 expedition.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (5)
June 2, 2006
BC Native Garden
Updated 8:47 AM on June 2, 2006: Added the word former to precede “Vice President”. I had heard that the title could still be applied, but perhaps I had been misinformed. In either case, this is less confusing.
Today's photograph is a small scene from UBC's British Columbia Native Garden. The pendulous conifer is a wild-collected Larix occidentalis, or western larch. Auxins, a set of related plant hormones, likely play a key role in determining why some conifers form pendulous shapes.
In web site news, the first of the forty small thank-yous is done; when commenting on any of the weblogs, you can now use img tags to embed your own images or use the s tag for strikethroughs.
Environment / conservation resource link: Last night, I attended the inaugural UBC Global Citizenship Lecture featuring former Vice President Al Gore. All I can say is wow. A thousand times wow. Gore was on fire, and delivered a passionate and clarion call to tackle the global issue of the Climate Crisis – or to paraphrase Gore, “the moral and ethical imperative of our time”
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:47 AM| Comments (4)
May 20, 2006
Agave Border in Lotusland
Ganna Walska Lotusland in Montecito, California was previously featured on BPotD, so if you missed that entry, I'd encourage you to read it. Of particular relevance to today's image were the sentences alluding to Ganna Walska being a bold personality. What could be bolder than an Agave border? The same theme is seen throughout Lotusland – plants usually seen as specimen plants or in small groupings are displayed en masse, and the effect is stunning.
Entomology / horticulture resource link: Discovered via the Librarians' Internet Index, Insect Pheromones: Mastering Communication to Control Pests – “...explores the trail of research that ultimately led to the design of pheromone-based pest management. The story behind the measures that are beginning to transform agriculture provides a dramatic example of how science works, by illustrating how basic research produces knowledge that can lead to practical results of human benefit.”
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 4:35 AM| Comments (2)
April 25, 2006
Field of Tulipa
John Harvey has kindly shared this recent photograph of his trip to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival via the BPotD Submissions Forum (original thread | photograph on John's site | John's copyright statement and terms of use). John has previously been featured on BPotD as a photography resource link in this entry; he continues his helpful ways with this: John's Unofficial Guide to Taking Pictures of Tulips on Farms. Thanks John!
If you read through John's article, you'll learn (as I did) that the tulips grown in Skagit Valley are grown for bulb production (cut flowers are secondary, unlike here). For more depth on raising tulips as a bulb crop, read Tom Guffey's article on exploring the area from a touristing photographer's perspective, “A Wonderful Shooting Hotspot in Washington State”.
Photography resource link: Snapshots from Wild Kamloops, the photography of Robert Koopmans. A few of Robert's photographs will be showing up on BPotD from time to time, but that's all the more reason to check out his photo galleries. Don't miss the “fading yellow bell” in his wildflowers gallery, his (better) version of yesterday's plant. Also, this BPotD entry has a Koopmansian counterpart: see the landscapes gallery and look at “dead Ponderosa pine, Cinnamon Ridge”.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (2)
April 19, 2006
Fields of Hyacinthus and Narcissus
I'm loathe to admit it, but I've only now looked at the Flickr Botany Photo of the Day Group Pool of images for the first time since I left for vacation and returned. All I can say is: “Wow! What great photographs!”
Today's photos are contributed via Flickr by Wontolla65 from The Hague, Netherlands. The original photographs, taken in Noordwijkerhout and Voorhout, can be seen here and here. Many thanks for sharing these swaths of colour!
There is big money in flower production. According to An Overview of the BC Floriculture Industry, the worldwide trade in floriculture was 7.9 billion USD in 2001. The Netherlands is the hub of the industry: over half of global exports of flowers either originated domestically from the Netherlands or were imported to the Netherlands, brokered and then resold. Colombia, the second largest exporter, accounted for 7.5% of total exports.
However, competition is increasing around the globe. The industry has recently become established in several African countries and China. The role of the Netherlands in the global marketplace is shifting from a reliance on production toward the brokerage role (taking advantage of the supply networks they've established). For more, see this chapter from “The World Cut Flower Industry: Trends and Prospects”.
Photography resource link: Not just for techies, Camerahacker.com provides some reviews and tips in addition to hacks like building a bicycle camera mount (which I won't do) or making a pinhole lens for SLR cameras (which I'm considering).
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:37 AM| Comments (1)
April 17, 2006
David C. Lam Asian Garden
This photograph was taken last year in the David C. Lam Asian Garden at UBC on April 10. If the weather forecast for this week is correct, a similar scene should be visible this weekend. The cool spring weather in the local area has contributed to a closer-to-average timing of flowering for many plant species, unlike last year's early display. While such phenomena as flowering times vary from one year to the next, studying the long-term trends can help inform about climatic changes on scales from micro- to regional to global. The recording and comparison of the timing of recurring natural events is known as phenology.
One of these days, I'm going to whip up a quick database to help the Friends of the Garden post the results of their fifteen year (or longer?) phenological observations of the magnolias at UBC.
Another note for local readers: I've two presentations in the next two weeks, both to the Vancouver Natural History Society. This Thursday, I'm presenting to the VNHS Botany section on “Plants of the Southwestern United States” featuring photographs from my recent trip. On the following Thursday, I'm presenting on John Davidson at the VNHS Annual General Meeting.
Photography resource link: Artful Vacation Photos, an article by photographer Gloria Hopkins on capturing images with a bit of stylistic flair during your travels.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (3)
April 13, 2006
Desert Garden in Huntington Botanical Gardens
A small scene packed with diversity of form and colour from the 4ha (10 acres) Desert Garden at Huntington Botanical Gardens. Instead of me pointing out the desert adaptations visible in the photograph, I'll open it up for you to identify and elaborate in the comments today. I quickly count five visible phenomena that help these plants survive in the desert, but there are likely more.
For local readers of BPotD, I've been informed that tickets remain available for tonight's lecture by Robert Bateman on “Thinking Like a Mountain”. The event is part of a biodiversity lecture series hosted by the in-construction Beaty Museum of Natural History at UBC. I highly encourage you to attend.
Photography resource link: I missed out on attending / promoting a few local photographic highlights while away, including Ron Long's Cedar Series Lecture about last year's wildflower display at Death Valley (this year was a below-average to average year) and David Blevin's workshops – I've previously linked to David's work on BPotD, but there's been a new addition to the site worth investigating: “A Nature Guide to Boundary Bay” promotes a book with David's photography and Anne Murray's writing. However, it also stands as a resource web site in its own right, particularly since the site includes a number of photographs which didn't make it into the book.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:08 AM| Comments (18)
April 10, 2006
Cycad Collection in Lotusland
The cycad collection of Ganna Walska Lotusland in Montecito, California was purchased with the proceeds from the sale of some jewelry – a million dollar's worth, in fact. The species of cycad in sharp focus (more on this later) was previously featured on BPotD: Encephalartos horridus.
On the strong encouragement of David Tarrant, we fit a visit to Lotusland into our trip (having to spend an extra day in Santa Barbara to do so since they were already fully booked on the day we hoped to visit the garden – book well in advance!). If you ever visit Santa Barbara, a trip to Lotusland is worth every penny. I say this despite the fact that you can't wander to your heart's content; the only option available is the two hour guided tour. This is difficult for anyone who wants to admire the plants and gardens for more than a few minutes in a particular place, and absurdly so if you want to attempt to photograph it (speaking from experience!).
Bold gardens are usually the creations of bold gardeners (or bold personalities). To read more about Lotusland and Ganna Walska, here are two articles: Forget About Rubies – She Wanted Cycads from the Christian Science Monitor and What The Diva Wrought, published in the Wall Street Journal.
Lotusland was one of four gardens I visited on my vacation (along with Huntington BG, Santa Barbara BG and the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum). Other numbers from my trip: I visited 6 US National Parks, 6 State Parks, 2 US National Forests (that I photographed in – passed through a few more), 1 US National Seashore (Point Reyes) and 3 US National Monuments. I travelled over 10 000km (6000 miles); the southernmost point was Rodeo, New Mexico while easternmost was Albuquerque, NM.
In terms of photography, I pressed the shutter button on the camera nearly 2500 times (I'll probably keep a thousand or so of these images). This number would have been higher if the weather had cooperated. In general, I was accompanied by cool weather with milky clouded skies, so photographs of landscapes were unspectacular. Those sorts of skies are usually great for flower photography – except there were few flowers thanks to the extremely dry winter in the southwest US. Anyway, I did the best I could with what I had available to me.
In preparation for the trip, I purchased a few lenses: a wide-angle lens (for landscape photographs), a quality telephoto lens and the one I used for today's image: the Lensbaby 2.0.
Photography resource link: Flickr photographs tagged with “lensbaby” and “flower”, to give you an idea of what this lens does.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:30 AM| Comments (9)
April 9, 2006
Cercidiphyllum japonicum 'Morioka Weeping'
You probably expected a photograph from my recent travels today. Alas, no – all in good time. Instead, I thought I'd share a photograph taken late Friday in UBC's Asian Garden, where the early evening sun illuminated the cascade of still-growing leaves. I don't often take images with human constructs in them (i.e., the bench), but it seems appropriate today as I return from vacation. Perhaps I was sitting in the bench and now I'm back to work? Or perhaps the empty bench is inviting you to stay and enjoy? Or...? Let's leave it open to interpretation.
In the local urban landscape, I sometimes think katsura trees are overused. That sentiment changes once I smell the burnt sugar scent from the decaying leaves in late autumn – then there can't be enough of them. The garden's interpretative sign for Cercidiphyllum goes into more detail about the genus. You can also see photographs of this particular katsura tree taken from a different perspective in both late spring and winter in this thread on the garden's forums.
Science resource link: Science Buzz from the Science Museum of Minnesota (and its weblog commenters!) won the 2006 Best Overall Museum Web Site at the Museums and the Web conference I attended in the middle of my vacation. Kudos to them and their commitment to science education!
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:31 AM| Comments (10)
February 19, 2006
UBC Winter Garden
A small scene from the UBC Winter Garden in muted, cool tones; the flowering shrub in the foreground is Rhododendron moupinense, while the conifer is a cultivar of Cupressus arizonica (another cultivar of the same species, 'Blue Ice' was featured two months ago).
Agriculture resource link: Our Vegetable Travelers – “The original publication of Our Vegetable Travelers by Victor R. Boswell appeared in the August, 1949 issue, Volume 96(2) of National Geographic Magazine and is copyrighted by National Geographic Magazine. Reprinted as a special feature in the PLANTanswers section of Aggie Horticulture by permission of the National Geographic Society. February, 2000.” It's important to keep the date it was written in mind when reading about each of the vegetables, as the language occasionally reflects a different era.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 2:52 AM| Comments (2)
November 26, 2005
David C. Lam Asian Garden
A scene from this past week's foggy Monday in the David C. Lam Asian Garden.
Botany resource links: The American Chestnut Foundation – “Once there were 4 billion trees. Then came the blight...” and Chestnuts and the Introduction of the Chestnut Blight.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 2:27 AM| Comments (3)
November 17, 2005
David C. Lam Asian Garden
A quick entry today, since I spent a bit of time making a few renovations on the site instead of researching and writing – more on that at the end of this entry.
The highlight of this small scene in the David C. Lam Asian Garden is Cotoneaster perpusillus, or rockspray cotoneaster. I've used the nomenclature from the RHS Plant Finder, but I suspect the scientific name used in the link from the common name will prevail, since that is the name used in the Flora of China treatment of Cotoneaster (PDF), i.e., Cotoneaster horizontalis var. perpusillus. By any name, though, I still find the bright pinkish-red colour appealing on a grey, rainy day.
Today's BPotD renovations: 1) I've changed the Creative Commons License for use of the photographs taken by myself and others at UBC – it is now less restrictive, in that derivative works are allowed (but attribution and non-commercial motives are still required for use, same as before). 2) In a similar vein, I've added an image use and attribution section on the About Botany Photo of the Day page. 3) Lastly, a new feature: Recent Comments across all BPotD entries. Often, people post a comment to older entries, but there's been no tidy way to notify everyone that the conversation is continuing. This is one small, imperfect step in solving that problem. For your convenience, I've added a link to the recent comments page at the bottom of each day's entry. I'm hoping this will inspire a few more comments, since it should (in theory) make comments on previous entries more readily available to people who check in once a day to see the current photo and current comments, but don't look back on older entries to see follow-up conversations.
Photography resource link: Develop Your Creative Vision, an essay by Glenn E. Mitchell II on the subject of “Taking the Ordinary and Bringing Out the Extraordinary” via The Luminous Landscape.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 1:12 AM| Comments (7)
November 4, 2005
Vineyard near Osoyoos, British Columbia
Osoyoos, British Columbia and its surrounding area is Canada's only bona fide desert (receiving less than 250mm of precipitation annually). Hot summers, mild winters and (despite locally low precipitation) readily-available water for irrigation provide an ideal environment for viticulture.
As you might imagine, though, Canada's only desert and surrounding region contains (or contained) a number of species that are very sensitive to encroaching development and agriculture; the South Okanagan-Similkameen region holds roughly thirty percent of the provincial red-listed species (source: “Canada's Endangered Desert Country”). These threatened species include plants like the Columbian carpet moss, endemic to semi-arid regions of western North America. As the link reports, one of the few remaining populations of this moss was possibly eradicated by the establishment of a vineyard.
Ensuring that the natural denizens of the region are not displaced or exterminated by expanding agriculture and development is obviously one of the challenges in the area. Some of the wineries recognize this fact and participate in conservation initiatives. As an example, the winery where this photograph was taken from supports conservation directly through sales and fundraising events and indirectly through public education – at the very least, a good start on tackling the challenges.
Photography / nature resource link: Digital Morphology via the University of Texas. “A dynamic archive of information on digital morphology and high-resolution X-ray computed tomography of biological specimens.” The site favours vertebrates, but there are a few plants on the site (click on Browse the Library by Common or Scientific Names), including a tulip – be sure to try the “dynamic cutaway” movies.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (1)
September 24, 2005
David C. Lam Asian Garden
This scene from the David C. Lam Asian Garden was originally taken as an unremarkable colour photograph. It was then transformed into black-and-white using Photoshop's Calculations command via a 100% overlay of the green and blue channels. I've said it before, but it bears repeating - if you like playing around with black-and-white, the Calculations command is a far better path of action than simply transforming a photograph directly into greyscale.
The main plant in this scenic shot, Petasites japonicus var. giganteus, will be featured in an upcoming Botany Photo of the Day entry; I'll write more about it in accompaniment to that photograph.
Photography resource link: Polarizers via The Luminous Landscape. Concluding quote from the article: “A polarizing filter is the most productive accessory that a [nature] photographer can have in his kit, second only to a decent tripod and head.”
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:15 AM| Comments (4)
August 31, 2005
UBC Botanical Garden Main Lawn
At first glance, you might be thinking that the purpose of this photograph is to highlight the minotaur sculpture. If so, you'd be wrong - he's actually incidental to the image (and yes, he's definitely a male), but if you're interested, you can read more about him here: Minotaur Unleashed!.
In fact, there are at least three botanical (garden) stories to tell with this image. To start off, though, it might be handy to see the location of where this image was taken from in the garden (for more aerial perspectives, see aerial photographs of UBC Botanical Garden).
The first story dispels the myth that the Vancouver area of British Columbia is always lush and green. As you can tell from the brown grass, the region is subject to summer drought; these conditions occur every normal year. Although the scientific living collections are watered during times of drought, the lawns are left to brown as per our water use policy. Plans for future areas of the garden are being made with water conservation in mind, i.e., plant collections that are generally adapted to drought regimes.
Secondly, the band of cattails in the middle of the photograph is an area I call “the slough”, although it is more properly known as the cattail pond. Even though this area of the garden is being redeveloped, the cattail pond will be retained in a manner very similar to its present state. The cattail pond performs “ecosystem services”, including filtration of run-off water from the university prior to deposit into Georgia Strait and curtailing the flow of run-off water (releasing it in a slow, steady stream instead of rapid, more eroding pulses).
The third story is that of the hill behind the pond. This is the site of the planned Carolinian Forest, an area that is partly a horticultural experiment. Conventional wisdom has suggested that plants from eastern North America do not perform well in the Pacific Northwest. Taking into consideration the number of close relationships between eastern North American and Asian plants, and UBC's success with Asian plants, the horticulturists and curators at UBC think that conventional wisdom ought to be challenged. Although it can't be seen in this photograph, one of the beds is already being prepared for a “demonstration forest” that will be used to illustrate the beauty of eastern North America and the potential of this new garden component to prospective donors.
In Botany Photo of the Day news, I've made a few additions recently. On the About BPOTD page, I've added the list of equipment and software that I use, as some people have requested it. On the main Botany Photo of the Day page, I've added the del.icio.us social bookmarks link, which is where I'm compiling the daily resource links. Lastly, I've upgraded the software running Botany Photo of the Day to Movable Type 3.2 and installed the MT-Notifier 1.04 plugin, so it is now possible to subscribe to Botany Photo of the Day via email and receive a daily note that the site has been updated.
Photography resource link: Thoughts on Photography by photographer Bruce Percy. Quote: “The strength of an image lies within the photographer and not with the equipment.”
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 2:17 AM| Comments (5)
July 31, 2005
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew - Cacti Beds
This entry was posted while I was on vacation, hence the brief written accompaniment. -- Daniel
An archival photograph from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in Surrey, England. The date that this picture was taken is currently unknown, though its photographer was John Davidson.
In the time since this photograph was taken, most (if not all) of the cacti and succulents in Kew's collections have been moved indoors into glasshouses, I assume at least in part to protect the plants from winter-wet. At UBC Botanical Garden, we've recently received funding to modify our unused glasshouse in the Alpine Garden to create an open-air glasshouse that will protect a collection of Opuntia and other cacti from the winter-wet of our climate.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (4)
July 24, 2005
David C. Lam Asian Garden
This entry was posted while I was on vacation, hence the brief written accompaniment. -- Daniel
The David C. Lam Asian Garden at UBC, a coastal woodland garden with Asian plants set amongst a backdrop of native flora. Since I refer to it so often in Botany Photo of the Day, I thought it'd be appropriate to give you an idea of the general “look and feel” of the garden.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (3)
May 26, 2005
UBC Physic Garden
The last couple early evenings have been difficult for photography here in sunny Vancouver - bright sun and blue skies tend to produce photographs that are high in contrast. The end result is that the shadows in the photograph tend to be too dark (like in this photograph) and the brights and whites are oversaturated (which you can notice an example of in the plinth). Still, I've photographed much worse than this, and I find the photograph pleasing enough to inspire me to try again when the light is better, so there you go. Maybe if I improve upon it, I'll post a follow-up someday.
Anyway, this is the Physic Garden at UBC. It's one of the smaller gardens, built around the theme of medieval and Renaissance European medicinals. Along the European theme, it is also the most formal garden with its brick-lined paths, yew hedge, small beds, and physical structure centrepiece (in this case, the plinth and sundial).
Although there are a number of display labels and a few signs, this garden is a candidate for even more interpretation - the plants span the history of Western medicine prior to the 20th century, and you can only imagine how much was written about them (both correct and incorrect). For example, one of the tenets previously believed by practitioners of medicine was the “Doctrine of Signatures” - that the physical appearance of the plant was a hint as to its utility for healing people.
As a slight aside, if you're in the Vancouver area, it's an ideal time to visit the garden - the Asian Garden has highlights of Himalayan blue poppies here and there along with masses of 20 metre high climbing Clematis on its conifers (which I've been trying unsuccessfully to photograph!), the Alpine Garden easily has hundreds of different kinds of flowers in bloom and the Food Garden is just starting to get going with this year's plantings.
As incentive to visit the garden and to tie in with this particular photo of the day, I'm going to hold a small contest. The prize: I'll send you a “Seaweeds” poster from Celebrate Biodiversity. The contest: be the first person to send me an email with the answer to the following question: “What is the subtle joke on the sundial in the Physic Garden?” A hint: you'll need to be familiar with the University of British Columbia. A request: Please don't enter the contest if you already know the answer to the question.
As a final note, if you are a local resident who appreciates the garden and the Photo of the Day, I'd like to ask you to plan to set aside a few minutes of your day tomorrow - I'm going to make a special request with tomorrow's entry that should only take a few minutes of your time, but could potentially mean a lot to the garden.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (2)
May 24, 2005
Edinburgh Rock Garden
A few comments have been made recently about mixing up the photographs a bit to include more landscape and habit shots. I'm quite happy to do that, since it pushes me out of the comfort zone of taking photographs with my best lens (the macro). Instead, I'll be testing the limits of my cheapest lens and learning how to digitally correct for lens distortion.
In the meantime, I thought I'd dip into the garden's archives to share a cultivated landscape shot. This is a scanned lantern slide, photographed and hand-painted by John Davidson sometime in the first few decades of the 1900s. The subject of the slide is the alpine garden at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Scotland.
Unfortunately, I'm not versed enough in identifying alpine plants by habit and shape to be able to determine whether Davidson's hand-tinting of colours is accurate. I suspect it might be, though, as my impression of him from exposure to his lantern slides and written archives is that of a very thorough person. If the colours are accurate, it meant he either coloured all of the plants in the scene from memory or he sketched the scene with annotations about colours for the slide tinting process. I don't think it was the latter, as I've not seen anything in the archives to suggest that was the case. It would be an interesting project for an enterprising person to see if RBGE has archived maps of its beds from the era and then cross-reference to this slide.
It's also an opportune time to mention that UBC Botanical Garden and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh have signed a reciprocal membership agreement. UBC's Garden Pass Members receive free admission to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and its specialist gardens at Benmore, Dawyck and Logan on production of a valid UBC Botanical Garden Membership Card (and RBGE members receive equivalent privileges at UBC).
Lastly, a note of thanks to Dr. Scott Russell of the University of Oklahoma who runs Scott's Botanical Links. Dr. Russell posts a botanical link of interest every weekday, and featured this site on May 19. In his comments, he mentions a page I've set up that aggregates botanical RSS feeds - you can see it here - it includes the Botany Photo of the Day, Scott's Botanical Links, and Botanical Electronic News. If you know of any other botanical RSS feeds, please drop me a note or leave a comment.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (0)
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.
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.