Flowering Plants (01)
April 30, 2008
Atriplex hortensis
Sorry about the errant entry notification sent earlier today. I made some updates to that entry and the upgraded software decided that was enough to send out a new notification, so I'll have to figure out how to suppress that in the future.
Here's today's entry, written by Connor:
Also known as orache and mountain-spinach, Atriplex hortensis can be found in cultivation worldwide. It is possibly native to central Asia, but the widespread cultivation obscures its origin. Mountain-spinach was formerly in the Chenopodiaceae before this entire family was included in the Amaranthaceae (via Wikipedia).
Plants For A Future Database reports a number of intriguing uses of orache. Not only do they taste like spinach, the leaves of mountain-spinach are suggested as an externally-applied remedy for gout. The seeds, when mixed with wine, are thought to be a possible treatment for jaundice.
Atriplex hortensis is a halophyte, meaning it grows well in saline soils. This is an increasingly valuable trait in cultivated plants, given the widespread use of irrigation. About one-half of the Earth's land surface is "perennial desert or drylands" requiring irrigation for use in cultivation, a consequence of which is soil salinization (from Improving crop salt tolerance (PDF)). Irrigation salinity is "the rise in saline groundwater and the build up of salt in the soil surface in irrigated areas. Inefficient irrigation or applying more water than the plants can use means that this excess water leaks past the root zone to groundwater (recharge). This excess water can cause the watertable to 'mound' under irrigation areas and in some cases the ground becomes waterlogged."
Species of Atriplex are able to tolerate saline soils because they concentrate the accumulated salt in specialized cells on the leaf surface called trichomes (from Vesiculated Hairs: A Mechanism for Salt Tolerance in Atriplex halimus L. (PDF)). In Introduction of a Na+/H+ antiporter gene from Atriplex gmelini confers salt tolerance to rice, the ability of transgenic rice plants to tolerate saline soil was evaluated. A gene from Atriplex responsible for a protein pump which transports salt ions across the cell membrane and the vacuole membrane was incorpoarated into rice plants. The transgenic plants were more tolerant of saline conditions not because they transported more ions into their cells reducing water loss through osmosis, but because they were able to transport more salt into the vacuoles of individual cells. Older leaves of the transgenic plants died because of this but the younger leaves continued to grow.
Many thanks to annkelliot@Flickr for a great photo (original via the UBCBG BPotD Flickr Pool).
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 10:59 AM| Comments (2)
May 16, 2005
Amsonia elliptica
Like many Chinese genera of plants, Amsonia also occurs in eastern North America. Atypically, however, the centre for diversity for Amsonia is in eastern North America rather than Asia (compare with Magnolia or Acer Section Macrantha (the snakebark maples)). Of the twenty or so species of Amsonia, 16 occur in eastern North America, while only 4 are distributed in Asia. Amsonia elliptica is the only member of the genus that occurs in China.
The Flora of China summary for Amsonia elliptica reports that a “decoction of all parts is used to cure chills and to induce sweat.”
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (3)
May 15, 2005
Trochodendron aralioides
Only a quick note today and tomorrow, as I'm out in the field taking some photos of native wildflowers and landscapes.
The wheel tree is now in full flower, which will last several weeks. Trochodendron has an interesting way of preventing self-fertilization - check out what was written for the interpretative sign.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (0)
May 14, 2005
Philadelphus delavayi
Last year, I had the luck of being able to attend the awarding of an honourary degree from UBC to Bishop Desmond Tutu, and I keenly remember him asserting, “I am, because you are.” (which is deceptively simple). To me, the people who live this philosophy are the real heroes - the individuals whose sense for the “other” is so keenly developed that they cannot help but act or speak out; they are the embodiment of the human potential for good. I'm generous with who I accord as personal heroes - it includes broad swaths of people, from palliative caregivers to artists who provoke me to think differently to scientists who (after looking at all of the facts) cannot help but advocate for the Earth and its organisms.
I had the privilege yesterday of meeting one of those scientists: Dr. Daniel Pauly (a profile of Dr. Pauly from Science). I noticed Dr. Pauly at the entrance to the garden, so (boldly for me) walked up and introduced myself. Needless to say, I was delighted when Dr. Pauly, his wife and guests from Germany accepted my offer of a personal tour.
Now, I'm certainly not the best person at the garden to give a tour - I can think of at least a half dozen other staff members who'd be better, along with the Friends of the Garden who are typically responsible for tours. Still, the plants in the garden make it easy, and the Asian Garden is in fine shape: the 30m high Clematis montana scrambling up the native cedars is a cascade of blooms, the Meconopsis betonicifolia (Himalayan blue poppy) punctuates the green foliage here and there, and this Delavay mock orange stands out with its combination of colours. As that linked page suggests, the contrast of the calyx and petals is best seen before the flowers are fully open, which is why I'm pleased with this photograph; it has the flower buds at a number of stages. I also took a photograph of the flower fully open, for your interest.
Speaking of scientists I regard as heroes, it's an ideal time to explain the rest of the tagline for the Photo of the Day, which I alluded to in the entry on Salvia discolor. As I interpret her comments, Sandy is okay with being imitated, so I've readded the word “Daily” to the tagline (I'm not creative enough to think of anything more suitable), but what is the inspiration for “In science, beauty. In beauty, science.”?
The thread of that idea can be traced back to a talk given at a 1982 meeting of the Canadian Botanical Association by the late Dr. J. Stan Rowe (disclosure: biography written by my uncle) entitled “Beauty and the Botanist”. I wasn't at that meeting, but fortunately, it was later made into an essay and is available online (and hosted on my uncle's site). A quote: “The perception of beauty in the world is the proof of our belonging, the bridge to a wider sympathy extended beyond our own kind.” I am because you are.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (0)
May 13, 2005
Enkianthus campanulatus
Our current understanding of the plant family Ericaceae (which includes rhododendrons, blueberries and heaths) suggests that plants from this genus, Enkianthus, are the “oldest”, if you are speaking in evolutionary terms. In other words, if you investigated all of the genera of plants within this family, used shared characteristics to determine how closely plants were related, and then calculated the relationships between the genera based on those characteristics, you would discover that Enkianthus has been around the longest.
All other woody members of Ericaceae have characteristics which Enkianthus lacks; one of these is “tetradinous” pollen. This simply means that the fully-developed pollen grains are fused as a unit of four, and this is the case for nearly all woody Ericaceae except for Enkianthus. By contrast, Enkianthus has “monadinous” pollen - each mature pollen grain is a single unit. It could be argued that the evolution of tetradinous pollen in this family was one of the changes that allowed the woody plants of the family Ericaceae to diversify (it could also be argued otherwise, as there are other characteristics that are different between Enkianthus and the others - see Kron, K. A., Judd, W. S., Stevens, P. F., Crayn, D. M., Anderberg, A. A., Gadek, P. A., Quinn, C. J., Luteyn, J. L. Phylogenetic Classification of Ericaceae: Molecular and Morphological Evidence. The Botanical Review 2002 68: 335-423). Perhaps if the development of fused pollen grains in woody Ericaceae hadn't happened millions of years ago, you wouldn't be consuming blueberry jam or cranberry juice today.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (2)
May 11, 2005
Passiflora alata
Only a quick note today - I'm helping with the garden's annual plant collections inventory this week, so time is scarce.
Even if you aren't familiar with the genus Passiflora, you are probably aware of the fruit of the cultivated Passiflora edulis: passionfruit. The plant in the photograph is a different species, and is commonly known as fragrant granadilla. It is also cultivated, but only as a fresh fruit (not for juice) - Source: Fruits from America: An Ethnobotanical Inventory - Passiflora alata. The Fruits for America site also includes a photograph of the mature fruit.
This particular plant was photographed in a non-public glasshouse at the garden. We unfortunately do not have a public display glasshouse (yet), which would be ideal for showcasing plants such as these.
P.S. Note the photographer's prop in the upper left: flagging tape to suspend the viny stem from a pipe so as to be able to photograph inside the flower...
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (3)
May 10, 2005
Trillium ovatum
Photographed in the Honeymoon Bay Ecological Reserve ten days ago, this trillium was one of many which dotted the area. Rarely growing in clumps, the plants were instead often growing as individual plants here and there - perhaps a result of the way their seeds are dispersed.
According to the authors of Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast, seeds of the western trillium are dispersed by ants. Oil-rich appendages on the seeds are attractive as a food source, so the seeds are taken back to the colony and the appendages are eaten by the adult ants or fed to the larvae. The seeds are then tossed in the ant colony's rubbish pile, which may result in the seed being “planted” a considerable distance away from the parent.
There are (more or less) 43 species of Trillium recognized by scientists - 38 of these occur in North America.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (0)
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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.