Flowering Plants (05)
November 7, 2005
Verbascum eriophorum
This mullein species has no English common name (mullein is the common name for the genus), which is not surprising considering its rarity in horticulture. In fact, a Google search for the name suggests that the alpine garden at UBC is one of the few places in the world you can see it in cultivation. To see it in the wild, you would need to travel to the Balkan Mountains.
If you were to visit the garden at UBC though, you'd notice that it is labelled as “Verbascum sp. (seedling of Verbascum eriophorum)”. It is a prime example of the difficulty in maintaining the genetic integrity of the plants in garden collections. From a research perspective, the most valuable plants in collections are often those of documented wild origin. These plants are known to share the genetic makeup of their wild counterparts, and can therefore be assumed in research undertakings to represent the true taxon. Plants of cultivated origin, or n generations removed from the wild populations, may have hybridized at some point – a particular risk in botanical gardens where a number of species from the same genus or closely related genera may exist in close proximity. With the possible introduction of foreign genes, it is impossible to be absolutely certain that the plant continues to be representative of the wild type, making it less valuable in research that relies on genetics.
Woody plants that do not reproduce for decades are the easiest plants to retain as known and documented wild origin, followed by woody plants with shorter generation times. Some perennials are difficult to keep genetically intact, while plants that are biennial or annual are virtually impossible (they would require seed to be collected from wild populations to be sown every one to two years). This is the case with this Verbascum, a biennial. The original seeds were wild-collected, and the first generation of the plant could be said with certainty to be of known and documented wild origin. As this is now the second generation, the possibility of hybridization has occurred, making the plant less valuable from a research perspective. Outward appearance and comparison of the second generation plants to the first generation (photographs – yes, it is over 2.5m tall) make me comfortable enough to write that it seems to be a similar enough genetic entity for the purpose of BPotD, but I would not bet a Ph.D. on it.
Botany resource link: The name Acacia retained for Australian species via the Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research in Australia. Long-time readers of BPotD will know I often write about name changes – here's an instance where a decision was made to keep a name, instead of a strict interpretation of the rules.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 1:03 AM| Comments (3)
November 6, 2005
Osmanthus heterophyllus
Holly osmanthus, false holly and holly tea olive are just a few of the common names attached to this fragrant shrubby member of the olive family. As I mentioned in the BPotD entry on Osmanthus suavis, the genus has a reputation for sweet fragrance; indeed, the word Osmanthus is derived from the Greek osme, meaning fragrance, and anthos, meaning flowers.
Osmanthus, however, is not the only fragrant genus in the family. Other members of the Oleaceae known for their scent include Syringa (lilacs), Chionanthus (fringetrees), Jasminum (jasmines) and Ligustrum (privets).
Photography resource link: For inspiration, the incomparable photography of Mike Moats.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 4:36 AM| Comments (8)
November 5, 2005
Camellia sasanqua 'Setsugekka'
Updated February 6, 2006 at 11:58pm: Found the label, and my tentative identification was correct.
I couldn't find a label on this camellia in the winter garden, but based on the location, the plants in the location, and a bit of sleuthing I'm fairly confident it is Camellia sasanqua 'Setsugekka'.
As a name, setsugekka is composed of three parts: snow (setsu), moon (getsu), and flowers (ka). “Setsugekka no toki mottomo kimi wo omou”, from an ancient poem, translates into When I see the snow, moon, or flower, I always think of you. (source). Yasunari Kawabata, in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, discussed the phrase setsugekka; Professor Isamu Kurita goes into more details in an article entitled: “Japanese Art and the Japanese View of Nature”.
Botany resource link: Economic Uses of Algae, a small site produced by the Smithsonian Institution. The secondary products pages are worth a read.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 1:55 AM| Comments (4)
November 2, 2005
Abutilon 'Nabob'
Darrell (aka “dweeb” on Flickr) of the University of California, Davis, supplied this photograph of a deep-red abutilon via the Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Group Pool (original Flickr post). Thanks, Darrell – much appreciated!
A search of Google images reveals a diversity of floral morphology and colour within Abutilon that reflects its popularity in horticulture, particularly indoors.
Abutilon is a “traditional” member of the mallow family, Malvaceae, along with other plants such as cotton, okra and hollyhocks. Recent studies, however, support a notion of a much larger Malvaceae that includes the previously separated families Tiliaceae (the lindens), Sterculiaceae (the cocoa family) and Bombacaceae (the silk-cotton tree family, which includes baobabs). For an excellent resource on the changes, check out Malvaceae Info.
Photography / conservation resource link: Images for Conservation Fund – “Conservation of wildlife through sustainable development using the power of photography while integrating art, education and natural history.” via Nature Photographer Online Magazine's Nature Photography Supports Conservation.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (1)
November 1, 2005
Lilium sp.
After spending most of the past twenty-four hours wrestling with the garden's web server (with more to go since it's still not working properly), I know I'd appreciate a flower picture today for a bit of stress relief. In case the problems caused you to miss yesterday's photograph, here's the link: Solanum laciniatum.
Today's photograph features an as-yet unidentified lily from UBC's David C. Lam Asian Garden, photographed in July of this year. If you were to look at the label for this plant, you would observe that it's been designated Lilium sp. SICH.2255. “SICH.2255” is the plant's wild-collected number, and signifies that this plant was collected during the Sichuan Expedition to western China. When the plant is finally identified, it will retain the wild collected number, since the number is the only identifier attached to the propagated plants distributed post-expedition and the associated herbarium specimens. It can then be used to synchronize the identification with the distributed material.
Speaking of expeditions, Peter Wharton, curator of the Asian garden, is the garden's resident “plant-hunter”. He is soon to travel to Burma Vietnam to scout the region for what hopefully will become a long-term project on plant conservation in the area. I'm hoping that when he returns, he'll share some of his photographs with all of us on BPotD.
In BPotD news, the main page of the AOL web site on October 28 mentioned BPotD in their LiveWeb Blog section. Not sure how I feel about the site being listed under “more online distractions”, but it's still a welcome plug.
Lastly, Circus of the Spineless Number 2 is live. I didn't contribute any BPotD entries this time, but I'm still compelled to recognize the effort behind putting together an assemblage of writings about organisms and biodiversity. I particularly like this item from it: the creosote bush katydid.
Botany resource link: From the University of Pennsylvania, the Ethiopian Famine Food Field Guide delves into the wild plants consumed in Ethiopia. Be sure to click on Field Guide, then use the Category links across the top to dive into the information on the one hundred or so species of plants detailed (with photographs).
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 2:44 AM| Comments (2)
October 31, 2005
Solanum laciniatum
Apologies that today's entry is so late – I was updating the garden's web server last night, and ran into some difficulties that eventually spiralled into the site being entirely unavailable for twelve hours. Anyway, it's obviously up and running again, and everything is mostly working fine, though there are still a few troubles, so a short entry today.
The common name for this tomato relative is “kangaroo apple”, which hints at its native distribution: Australia and New Zealand. This plant is grown as an annual in the alpine garden, though it often survives a mild winter and persists as a perennial. The “Plants for a Future” database has a good account of the plant: Solanum laciniatum.
Nature / photography resource link: The Photography of Josef and Lubomir Hlasek contains hundreds, if not thousands, of nature images. Discovered via Scott's Botanical Links.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 1:17 PM| Comments (6)
October 30, 2005
Tropaeolum majus (tentative)
Kind thanks to Ken McCown for this image of a nasturtium shared via the Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Group Pool (Flickr posting). This photograph was taken in the Huntington Botanical Gardens Herb Garden in California. As Ken mentions in his comments on Flickr, best seen at original size (warning, it's big!).
Unfortunately, I need to attach “tentative” alongside the name as it may be a cultivar that I'm not familiar with – there are nineteen cultivars listed in the RHS Plant Finder for Tropaeolum majus, after all. For a gardening perspective, read this article on nasturtium by Dr. William Welch of Texas A&M University.
The family Tropaeolaceae is monotypic, which, if you'll recall from an earlier entry, means that it contains only the one genus, Tropaeolum. It is distributed natively in the New World, from Mexico south to the southern tip of South America.
Botany resource link: Why the Banana Needs Protection via Jeremy Cherfas on the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute Public Awareness weblog. You may have seen media reports a few months ago about the impending extinction of bananas. As is most often the case, things are a little more nuanced than that.
Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:43 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.