Natural Landscapes (01)

October 2, 2006

E.C. Manning Provincial Park

Autumn colours in E.C. Manning Provincial Park, taken last year on October 2. This photograph doesn't rank among my favourites, but it serves as a reminder of the photographic potential here – warm, autumnal colours set against the cool blue rock of the area. I'm not certain I will get a chance to return to the park this autumn, but if I do, I hope I'll be able to improve upon this image.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 1:11 AM| Comments (1)

September 6, 2006

Lower Nicola Valley

I spent part of last weekend breathing in smoke and ash from the Tatoosh and Tripod wildfires while on a trip to British Columbia's Southern Interior. Haze can create exceptional light and shadows or transform landscapes into unique scenes. Although I didn't take full advantage of the photographic opportunities (the weekend wasn't dedicated to photography), I did manage to take a few pictures to share.

The area where this photograph was taken is approximately 95km (60mi) north of the Tatoosh fire. Although I associate this type of scene with the narrow slice of time post-sunset or pre-sunrise, it was actually taken an hour before sunset.

To add a botanical element to today's entry, I suggest reading about the ecology of fire from Wikipedia.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 6:27 AM| Comments (1)

August 29, 2006

Trail to Botanical Beach

Today's photograph is a companion image to last week's entry on Alnus rubra (the trees forming the walls and ceiling of this outside hall).

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 1:18 AM| Comments (4)

August 23, 2006

Cliff at China Beach

I couldn't resist sharing today's photograph in both vertical and horizontal orientations. The correct perspective is the vertical, since this is a cliff with seeping water. Still, I imagine the horizontal image could be used to trick more than a few people.

The challenges of the vertical environment for plants include exposure to wind and sun, poor or lacking soil, nutrient availability and gravity. These factors would be studied by cliff ecologists; cliff ecology is a specialized discipline within ecology that examines and studies organisms of cliff environments and how they interact with each other and the physical environment. Never heard of cliff ecology? A book review for “Cliff Ecology: Pattern and Process in Cliff Ecosystems” explains why. Here's the lede of the review: “Question: What is vertical, predominantly rock, virtually unstudied and largely taken for granted by land managers? Answer: A cliff. Perhaps no other landscape feature has been so consistently ignored despite being pervasive and prominent across the world. Ecologists haven't studied cliffs, and land managers haven't assumed responsibility for protecting them.”.

Two of the three vascular plants I noticed growing on this particular cliff face are in this photograph: Adiantum aleuticum and Saxifraga mertensiana (I've yet to ID the third, but it is not in this image). If I had to identify the moss, I'd hazard a guess and suggest it is Hypnum subimponens (Hypnaceae). This tentative ID is based on environment (seeping cliffs), habit (mat-forming), and colouration (yellow-green new growth, brownish-green in older areas) via the description in “Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast” by Pojar & MacKinnon.

Photography / agriculture resource link: International Plant Genetic Resources Institute's Image Bank contains images on the subjects of plant and crop diversity (my favourite is this photograph of an orange-fleshed banana).

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:56 AM| Comments (2)

August 21, 2006

Alnus rubra

The photographic opportunities at Botanical Beach are rich. Along with the hundreds of tidepools and the seashore, early morning oceanside fogs in the associated forest yield yet more reasons to carry a camera when visiting. I think this complex scene would be extremely difficult to render under any condition other than a background fog (and I'm speaking from personal experience, having tried similar other photographs dozens of times and having been disappointed).

The trees in the image are red alder. As mentioned and better illustrated in a previous BPotD entry, the bark of red alder is grey, yet often appears mottled with white and green because of a covering of lichens and mosses. The effect is not easily visible in this black-and-white image.

More information on Alnus rubra is available via the Flora of North America project, including a mention of the importance of the tree to First Nations peoples.

Photography resource link: for inspiration, the photography of Oregonian Mark Hudon.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 4:54 AM| Comments (2)

August 17, 2006

Botanical Beach

Hundreds of tidepools can be found at Botanical Beach in Juan de Fuca Provincial Park; many of these contain this species of surfgrass shown in the photograph, Phyllospadix scouleri. I wanted to write about both the adaptations (how does a vascular plant survive in a salt water environment?) and sex lives of these dioecious plants (how does the pollen travel from the male to the female plant?), but entertaining texts for these already exist online, courtesy of the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute: Phyllospadix – the Surfers (about adaptations) and Seagrass Courtship (about reproduction challenges).

Today's entry is number 500 in the BPotD series of images and write-ups. Thank you all for your continued contributions and support.

Botany resource link: Celebrating Wildflowers, a site from the USDA Forest Service, assembles some very valuable information: where to see wildflowers in the US. Discovered via the Botanical Electronic News.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (8)

July 24, 2006

Chiricahua National Monument

If you're like me, you look at this photograph, note the yellowish-green colouration of the rock and then ask, “What lichen causes that?”. If you're also like me, you've spent hours trying to figure out what lichen it might be, and not knowing has stopped you from posting a photograph of the Chiricahua National Monument until today. I still don't know what it is, but I'm sharing this photograph from late March anyway. After dozens of false leads on the lichen identification, I'm pursuing a laborious path: the process of elimination, using this listing of Lichens of the Chiricahua National Monument. Considering it's one of the few National Parks and Monuments for which the travel literature actually mentions lichens, you'd think it would be easy to find the scientific name. No such luck.

The Chiricahua National Monument lies at the intersection of four large-scale plant communities: the Chihuahuan desert, the Sonoran desert, the southern Rocky Mountains and the northern Sierra Madre. Like many other confluences of landforms, biodiversity is high. Read about the animals and plants of the Chiricahuas from the US National Park Service site or see a series of photographs of plants from the different zones here: Sky Islands and Montane Communities. The monument's geology makes the area even more stunning to a naturalist.

Science resource link: Dendronautics – exploration of the rainforest canopy by airships and similar aerial platforms (with photos!).

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (14)

July 20, 2006

Garibaldi Provincial Park

I'd intended to show a landscape from Arizona today, but Sarah D. made a request in yesterday's comments for “a picture of somewhere really cold”. Since I don't have anything to share from a trip to Yukon / Alaska eight years ago, I've dug up this photograph from Garibaldi Provincial Park in British Columbia. I hope this scene is cold enough for you, Sarah! This was taken in early August of 2003, before I started to take a deep interest in photography (though I did needlessly haul up a tripod on this hike).

This scene is a good companion to yesterday's photograph, though, since it again shows subalpine fir. This time, however, Abies lasiocarpa is growing in areas that have snow for the majority of the year – the herb meadows and heath meadows of the Mountain Hemlock Zone (PDF).

The large black structure in the top of the photograph is Black Tusk Mountain, a remnant core of basaltic rock that formed within a volcano in the area over 25 million years ago. Outside of the frame of this photograph to the left-centre is where I suspect this photograph of the Black Tusk Meadows was taken.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 1:24 AM| Comments (6)

July 19, 2006

Mount Kobau, British Columbia

One of the unique plant communities which would receive increased protection from the Proposed South Okanagan-Similkameen National Park Reserve is the subalpine fir-Engelmann spruce-sagebrush plant association of Mount Kobau. I didn't even imagine that such an association could exist, since I had considered sagebrush to be a plant of lower elevations. After finding it by accident when I travelled to Mount Kobau, I became curious as to how it came to be. Fortunately, an article from Living Landscapes gives a brief explanation about the development of this plant community: “History and Future of Mid-High Elevation Steppe/Grasslands in the Southern Interior of British Columbia” (see the section on Vegetation History). It seems the first plant communities in the area post-glaciation (eleven thousand years ago) were a mix of sagebrush, grasses and conifers, with the number of conifers increasing over the ensuing two thousand years. The pollen evidence then suggests that steppes of sagebrush and grasses became dominant for the next three thousand years; Living Landscapes mentions the possibility that this is due to an extended period of drought and heat. Stands of conifers have since recolonized the area.

I'll add another reminder to sign the petition if you've not done so but were considering it. As mentioned by K. Oakley in the comment section on Agropyron cristatum, it only takes a minute. I'll also add that international interest in establishing the park is likely as persuasive to the decision-makers as Canadian interest.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (6)

July 13, 2006

Eagle tree

Apologies for the earlier entry on Brodiaea – I realized while verifying all of the links that the plant wasn't a Brodiaea (or at least not the species I thought it was), so removed that entry for now.

Instead, I'll share with you a hastily-written entry on the garden's “eagle tree”, complete with one-half of the breeding pair of the local residents. If you'd like more information about the eagle, you can read the interpretative sign. I note that the bald eagle is another species on the IUCN's Red List of Threatened Species, but is listed as “of least concern” (on the Red List) because of a stable population.

I'll have to ask some of my co-workers or Friends of the Garden to comment on how long the eagles have been nesting at UBC Botanical Garden. It's a perk of employment to be having lunch at the picnic table and watching the eagles train their young in flying techniques. It goes beyond a perk and becomes an experience when I'm photographing in the garden and an eagle flies within 10 meters of me.

This photograph was handheld, so I can't guarantee the angle of lean of the dead tree is exact in this image. However, the leaning snag is monitored and documented, so that if it does change, it can be slated for removal as a hazard. In the meantime, though, this snag and many other dead native trees within the Asian Garden are retained to provide habitat for the native flora and fauna of the area.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 5:48 AM| Comments (3)

July 7, 2006

Manning Provincial Park

The immature fruiting heads of Anemone occidentalis were a common sight in the alpine meadows of Manning Provincial Park last weekend. There was little “colour” in the meadows at the time, other than sporadic patches of Veronica cusickii (Cusick's speedwell) and mats of Phlox diffusa. The paintbrushes of Paintbrush Trail were just starting to bloom, so mid-July would be an ideal time to return to see them.

To see what the area and plants will look like in the upcoming weeks, visit John Harvey's flowers of Manning Park.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 4:54 AM| Comments (2)

July 4, 2006

Cornwall Hills Provincial Park

According to the BC Ministry of Environment, Cornwall Hills Provincial Park is known for its “incredible bloom of wildflowers in July and August, encouraging visits from photographers and artists”. The flowers in the park and the nearby Three Sisters Recreation Site were indeed incredible (hundreds of lilies and paintbrushes at lower elevations and thousands of Polemonium pulcherrimum, or showy Jacob's ladder, in the subalpine), but they didn't seem to encourage visits. In a park of 1188 ha (nearly 3000 acres), my friend Chris and I encountered only one other person (a photographer) on a long weekend Sunday.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (4)

June 18, 2006

Hat Creek Road, British Columbia

This photograph won't win any awards, but that isn't why I took it. I was curious to see how it would compare to this photograph taken 70-85 years ago in the same area. The photographic comparison isn't as compelling as repeat photography of glaciers (check the box beside “long-term change photograph pairs” and press Submit), but you still get the notion of how much the landscape has changed in a less than a century. It is impossible to say that the bitter-roots were as abundant in this area as they were on the hillside from the linked Davidson photograph, but it is possible to suggest that the introduced Thinopyrum sp. (syn. Agropyron sp.) or wheatgrass and Medicago sativa (alfalfa – the green plant throughout the bottom quarter of the image) were not present in this landscape eight decades ago. Both of these European introductions were likely planted as forage crops, and the native Lewisia rediviva now has to compete with these plants for nutrients and water. Discovering a landscape that looks as it did in the days of John Davidson is likely impossible.

Photography resource link: How To Make Digital Photos Look Like Lomo Photography from the Digital Photography School Weblog. Want to make images that look like they were taken by a cheap Russian camera? This is for you.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 3:11 AM| Comments (0)

June 17, 2006

Cedars Mill Trail, British Columbia

If you were to walk ten steps forward from the exact spot this photograph was taken, you would look over the boulder-edged Lynn Creek of North Vancouver, British Columbia. Second-growth forest lines both sides of the creek, as lumber mills were active in the area during the late 1800s and early 1900s. Logging continued until 1929 when the area was recognized as a watershed.

Remnants of the logging operations line the trail, in the form of old, massive stumps and abandoned machinery. If memory serves correctly (this photograph was taken last June), very few wildflowers can be found along the length of the trail. This is typical – low-light conditions from the always-present conifer canopy prevent even seasonal wildflowers from establishing, unlike hardwood, deciduous forests. That's not to say that light is the only reason for fewer wildflowers in coniferous forests, but it certainly is a major factor.

Photography resource link: Images of Ireland from photographer Carsten Krieger. In particular, visit Outsight, Insight and Irrus.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (5)

May 17, 2006

Hope Slide

Forty-one years after 46 million cubic metres of rock, soil and snow cascaded down this mountainside, vegetation slowly reestablishes on the slope. I often find it a bit jarring to imagine what it would be like to witness such an event – from a safe distance away, of course.

An old photograph shows the barren landscape a short time after the slide occurred. Other photographs online (e.g., here via a UBC Earth Science course and here via the Wikipedia article) are more contemporary and do not show a drastic difference in vegetation. However, subtle changes can be seen if you spend some time making close comparisons between the photographs.

It might be interesting to speculate on why the vegetation has reestablished in the uneven manner that it has, so please feel free to comment.

Speaking of comments, I've enjoyed the back-and-forth discussion for the Quercus garryana entry – interesting perspectives!

Photography resource link: for inspiration (and some humour - see gallery six), the photography of Sue Alden from Pennsylvania.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 3:41 AM| Comments (8)

May 6, 2006

Phlomis fruticosa

Many thanks to Maureen aka MontanaRaven@Flickr for sharing today's image. The original photograph is here: Phlomis growing wild on Crete (via the Flickr BPotD Group Pool).

I'm making an assumption that this is Phlomis fruticosa, but I might be wrong in my identification – Daniel.

The genus Phlomis is distributed throughout Europe, Asia and northern Africa. This particular species is widespread in the Mediterranean region, but shrubby Jerusalem sage is also a common plant in cultivation.

The UK-based National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens Gloucestershire maintains a tidy web site on its (again, UK-based) National Collection of Phlomis that is worth investigating to see the diversity within the genus (when photographs are present).

Extra Flickr BPotD Group Pool Pics: also in the Lamiaceae, or mint family, Lamium purpureum 1 and Lamium purpureum 2. This plant is commonly known as red deadnettle. Thanks to Wontolla65@Flickr!

In local news, the Alpine Garden Club of BC is having their spring plant sale today – highly recommended for both selection and price.

Lastly, there's a small interview with me about BPotD over on the Small Business Blog that might be of interest.

Photography resource link: Not a resource per se today, but a photograph instead. From Deadvlei, Namibia, “Red Dragon” by Michael Reichmann of The Luminous Landscape. Wow.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (2)

April 28, 2006

Mimulus Creek

Today's image is a digitized hand-tinted lantern slide by John Davidson. Mimulus Creek is one of the many geographical features of the Garibaldi area named by Davidson, as he was among the first people of European descent to explore the region. The naming of places and geographical objects was more than a privilege in Davidson's era and field of interest – it was a necessity. As he collected specimens of plants for the provincial herbarium (of the time), he needed to be able to somehow georeference the areas where he collected the plants. Lacking a geographical location meant specimens would not have a specific provenance (or place of origin), thus reducing their value to science. Davidson therefore needed to first assign a place name and map it before collecting and documenting plants of the area.

Science / history resource link: The Darwin Correspondence Project from Cambridge. Why are the letters important?. Currently contains correspondence from 1856-1859.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:54 AM| Comments (5)

April 20, 2006

Saguaro National Park

This photograph was taken in the early evening within the Tucson Mountain District of Saguaro National Park. The saguaro cactus, Carnegiea gigantea, grows densely in this district located to the west of Tucson. The larger Rincon Mountain District (east of Tucson) has a more diverse landscape but not-as-dense populations of saguaros.

A note for local readers: if you're in the market for plants (and who isn't, it's springtime here!), Phoenix Perennials in Richmond, BC is holding a Charity Shopping Weekend for UBC Botanical Garden this Saturday and Sunday (April 22 and 23) from 10am to 5pm. Twenty-five percent of the total for each purchase will be donated to the garden to support our education and research efforts. In order for the donation to be applied, you must mention you are there to support UBC Botanical Garden when making your purchase. The chatter around the lunchroom table hinted that both David Tarrant and Douglas Justice will be making appearances (and also that the selection and quality of plants at Phoenix Perennials right now is spectacular).

Conservation resource link: Georgia Plant Conservation Alliance “is an innovative network of public gardens, government agencies, and environmental organizations committed to preserving Georgia's endangered flora”. The site features compelling accounts of their ongoing conservation projects and a good number of online publications. I think the GPCA's “Botanical Guardians” is a great name for a great idea.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:42 AM| Comments (3)

February 26, 2006

Santa Barbara, California

Today's images are of a rare snowfall in the mountains adjacent to Santa Barbara, California, taken last Sunday by Petra Cortright (petra cortright@Flickr | BPotD Flickr Group Pool) . Many thanks, Petra! As an aside, Petra was also kind enough to suggest a few locations around Santa Barbara for photography.

While taxonomists occasionally argue about the classification of plant species, analogous arguments can be heard from ecologists with regards to the classification of vegetation. What criteria should be used? Abundant species in the area? Climatic regime? Dominant plant habit (physiognomy)? Keystone species? In the system used by the World Wildlife Fund, the mountains near Santa Barbara, California are classified by a hodgepodge of location, physiogeographic features, biome and physiognomy: California Montane and Chapparal Woodlands (more info with regional map and photos). For conservation purposes, this seems like a suitable classification system. However, for current trends and suggestions for further improvement in vegetation classification, please read the Wikipedia entry on Vegetation.

Photography resource link: Lifting the Shroud: Creating an Interpretation, an essay by Michael Reichmann of The Luminous Landscape, draws attention to the notions of capturing and interpreting reality in photography.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 2:48 AM| Comments (0)

February 12, 2006

Sedum spathulifolium

A follow-up to the post on Eriophyllum lanatum, these are photographs on the same island by Sheila's friend and co-kayaker, Stephanie Meinke. Thank you, Stephanie!

As Sheila noted to me, these plants were “growing in rocky crevices and depressions wherever a little bit of soil could accumulate”, a similar phenomenon to what was mentioned in this entry on lichen diversity. Over time, most biologically barren surfaces will eventually be colonized by some living pioneers. These pioneers are often (partially) replaced by a succeeding wave of other organisms, which are in turn succeeded by others and so on - a process termed succession. As mentioned by Brent in the comments of the Eriophyllum entry, the nearby Winchelsea Islands sustain a Garry oak woodland community of plants, while these seemingly do not, i.e., the Winchelsea Islands are at a later seral stage (a later stage in the successional process).

Knowing that the Winchelsea Islands are larger in area than the Ada Islands and assuming 1) both groups of islands have the same geological origins and substrate (a fairly safe assumption); 2) the surfaces of both groups of islands have been exposed from the ocean for a similar length of time (a not so safe assumption); and 3) the Winchelsea Islands peak higher than the Ada Islands (could someone please confirm?), what do you think are the factors that have prevented the Ada Islands from going through the successional stages that would allow them to similarly host a Garry oak woodland forest?

A quick note from Olduvai George: Happy Birthday, Charles Darwin.

Photography resource link: While browsing in a bookstore a couple days ago, I was delighted to discover “Tree – A New Vision of the American Forest”, by writer-photographer James Balog. When someone takes an entire day to photograph a tree section by section, you can imagine the result is going to be something spectacular. It is. Site navigation is a bit tricky, but check out the section on Trees – two of my favourites are "Stagg" Giant Sequoia and Sycamore. As an aside, there is no Amazon link because I've decided such a program isn't the right thing for UBC BG in most cases (and I will be removing most of the few existing links to Amazon from the site).

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:06 AM| Comments (7)

February 6, 2006

Badlands National Park

Today's photograph was contributed by Justin of St. Paul, Minnesota (aka teerlinck@Flickr) through the BPotD Flickr Group Pool. The original image is slightly larger, if you'd like to check it out. Thanks for sharing, Justin!

Justin has titled this photograph, “Sego Lilies and Grass in the Badlands”. I think I recognize the grass, but I can't recall its name. There is a grass expert who reads BPotD, so maybe he'll chime in with an identification, unless someone else names it first. The resources I have available to me for grass ID aren't useful, since they don't document the grass at this development stage. As for the sego lilies, not enough details are given to positively identify them either, though I'm fairly certain they are one of Calochortus nuttallii or Calochortus gunnisonii.

As mentioned on the main page of the Badlands National Park web site, the region is extremely important in the understanding of mammalian evolution. It is rich in vertebrate fossils from the Oligocene, the epoch that saw the ancestors of modern mammals rise to dominance among vertebrates. Plant fossils are found, too, though the Denver Museum of Nature and Science suggests that locating plant fossils requires a bit more physical work: Follow a Plant Fossil.

On an opinionated note, I'm pleased to see that the Badland National Park's home page has not been subject to politicization (unlike the main page of a different well-known park famous in understanding geological history).

Environment resource link: Wetlands of International Importance via the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands site. The link contains photographs (of varying quality) and commentary from wetlands around the world – I particularly enjoyed the pages for Laguna Brava (Argentina) and Lac Tsimantampetsotsa, Madagascar.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:21 AM| Comments (7)

January 15, 2006

Castle Hill Wood (Part II)

Third in a series featuring photographs and writings from other staff and researchers at UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research. Today's photographs and comments are by Peter Wharton, Curator of the David C. Lam Asian Garden. – Daniel

View Part I here – NB: I mixed up the slide numbers so part I now has a different photograph!

... As generations pass, tree weight and windstorms increasingly cause individuals to assume prone positions, yet live on (today's photograph 1). These trees still thrive as their root systems remain undamaged, no doubt assisted by their renowned, flexible wood. If they fall across a ravine, their upper branchlets can take root on the opposite bank, thus the mother tree can in a sense move laterally! In many cases these prone “bridge trees” form vertical “stockades” of young growth along their upper trunks, from crown tip to root crown. This I have seen in the numerous gills or steep sided ravines that are a feature of this area. The final photograph (today's photo 2) shows a history of a mother tree, a falling event (or rooting lateral branch) and resumption of reiterative vertical growth. The vegetative propagative attributes of this species, on unstable bedrock, has helped sustain this tree in a region that is still too cool to allow reliable seedling regeneration. Our warming earth could of course change this situation rather soon.

The age of these specimens on Castle Hill Wood appear to range from 400 to 800 years, with a few no doubt approaching a 1000 years. Recent work in southern Britain is indicating that old coppiced specimens may live as long as several thousand years – competition for the English yew (Taxus baccata). It is gratifying to see the obvious improvements in ancient woodland conservation management in areas I knew as a boy. For instance, the retention of stumps, snags and fallen logs is the norm in British native woodlands.

Those wanting more information on veteran trees should investigate English Nature's Veteran Trees Management Handbook or The Future for Veteran Trees (PDF).

The extensive groundcover in the photos above is dog's mercury (Mercurialis perennis). This area is also home to a host of interesting British herbaceous natives, including ramsons (Allium ursinum), giant bellflower (Campanula latifolia), lady's slipper orchid (Cypripedium calceolus) – which my father saw on his honeymoon 56 years ago! –, daffodil (Narcissus pseudonarcissus) and Herb Paris (Paris quadrifolia).

Science resource link by Daniel: ScienceBlogs – “features blogs from a wide array of scientific disciplines... It is a global, digital science salon.”

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 3:06 AM| Comments (1)

January 14, 2006

Castle Hill Wood (Part I)

Second in a series featuring photographs and writings from other staff and researchers at UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research. Today's photographs and comments are by Peter Wharton, Curator of the David C. Lam Asian Garden. – Daniel

Updated Jan. 15, 2006 – I had the slide numbers mixed up, so there's a new photograph 1!

The small-leaved lime or linden (Tilia cordata) has a very scattered distribution in the United Kingdom and is often associated with limestone bedrock, where rocky bluffs or ravines provide a refuge for this species and associated calciphilic vegetation. Anyone wanting a detailed survey of this species in the U.K. should consult the encyclopedic lifework of Dr. Richard Mabey, Flora Britannica.

My father, a retired medical doctor, has spent much time rambling through the North Yorkshire Moors exploring the many fragmentary ancient woodlands that are a feature of steep sided river valleys which radiate from the moors. While on holiday last summer, my father directed me to a remarkable woodland dominated by impressive, ancient specimens of the small-leaved lime or linden, with a wonderfully rich herbaceous vegetation to match. Castle Hill Wood is underlain by Upper Jurassic Corallian Limestone and it forms a significant outlier from the surrounding Hambleton Hills, just south of the moors and near the market town of Helmsley. The river Rye and Rievaulx Abbey, a ruined Cistercian order monastery lies below, completing this aesthetic palette.

Castle Hill Wood is nationally classified as a “Site of Special Scientific Interest” and now receives appropriate protection. The veteran, semi-prone, ribbed trees pictured here present to the viewer a history of fortitude and longevity. My wife, Sarah, and I climbed through this wood in growing wonder as huge old hulks of the common oak (Quercus robur) and increasingly, our primeval linden friends enclosed us. In early summer these woods must glow bright yellow from the linden flowers, no doubt accompanied by the hum of innumerable bees. As normal upstanding trees or as multistemmed specimens they become increasingly fluted with age (photograph 1). With time they become increasingly prone to windfall on these thin soiled sites with a naturally fractured bedrock. As generations pass, tree weight and windstorms increasingly cause individuals to assume prone positions, yet live on... (photograph 2)

To be concluded in tomorrow's entry!

Photography resource link (by Daniel): Tripods 101 – a guide to understanding tripods and what to consider if you plan to purchase one. Very timely for me, as I'm very close to needing a new one.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 5:01 AM| Comments (6)

January 2, 2006

near Lac Du Bois Grasslands Provincial Park

I'll be taking some plant photographs for this time of year in the upcoming week. In the meantime, though, here is another image from a field trip last June to Lac Du Bois Grasslands Provincial Park near Kamloops, British Columbia. I'm fairly certain this image was taken outside of the park border. I'm also fairly certain that everyone takes a photograph of this dead tree as they walk in.

The grasslands of southern interior British Columbia form the largest portion of the 1% or so of the province that is grassland (most of the remainder are small patches near the Peace River area and the Garry oak meadows of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands). Despite containing a disproportionate amount of endangered and threatened species for the province, no provincially endemic vascular plants are found in this region (i.e., plants which are found only in British Columbia and nowhere else in the world). However, there is at least one species that can only be found in British Columbia and neighbouring Washington, Talinum sediforme (Okanagan / Okanogan fameflower depending on which side of the border you reside). There may be more, but I don't know an easy way to gather that information.

I should also explain the three images. The first is digitally processed in the typical steps I take. The black and white used Photoshop's Calculations command with red-red channels blended with soft light at 100%. The last image, however, uses a technique I haven't displayed before on BPotD. If you have ever shot landscapes with film, you'll likely know of Velvia film with its rich, saturated colours – in fact, this is a big part of the stunning colours displayed in the work of many of the photographer's I link to in the resource links. Paul Bleicher has created a Photoshop action that replicates Velvia film digitally so you can process your images as if they were shot with Velvia film; this is what I used for the third image. It certainly makes the original image I processed pale and flat in comparison...

Horticulture / botany resource link: Horticultural Myths from Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott of the Puyallup Research and Extension Center, WSU. Plenty of good information here – thanks to Ron B of the forums and weblog comments for bringing the site to my attention. It should have been linked here a long time ago.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 2:07 AM| Comments (2)

December 27, 2005

Populus tremuloides

Today's image is another photograph courtesy of Maureen from Montana, aka MontanaRaven@Flickr (BPotD Flickr Group Pool | original image). Thanks again, Maureen, and also thank you for your writings and photos on your weblog, raven's nest.

Maureen has written a short piece accompanying the photograph, which I hope is alright to share here. She writes:

“Aspens are my all-time favorite trees. I love the way each individual tree, although connected by underground roots and genetically related, like a close family, to all the other trees in it's vicinity – each tree takes on it's own personality and character as it matures. These have the twisted, dancing shapes that come from years of bending under heavy winter snows. The stark white bark stands in contrast to the darker forested background. A beautiful sight on any winter day, but especially on days like today, when the sun seems like it's purposely spotlighting this grove. Ah, what a great place to hang out, even when the temperature is only 10F!”

For more on the clonal reproductive strategy of aspens (both the North American Populus tremuloides and the Eurasian Populus tremula), see Aspen – Boreal Symbol via Scotland's Trees for Life.

Photography resource link: The colour-rich photography of Marc Adamus.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 3:19 AM| Comments (6)

December 20, 2005

Rumex crispus

Two photographs, two photographers, two locations.

The wintry scene is courtesy of “wrygrass” of Spokane, Washington, who submitted it via the BPotD Submissions on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums (original photograph and accompanying discussion). Thank you, wrygrass!

The second image is from my trip to Manitoba in early August. This was an all-too-familiar scene in 2005 in the southeastern corner of the province. Heavy rainfall through spring and early summer prevented many farmers from being able to access the fields, much less sow seed. As a result, the fallow fields instead grew “crops” of water-tolerant plants, including Rumex crispus (curly dock) – the tall reddish-brown plants – and Hordeum jubatum (foxtail barley), the tufted clumps. As an aside, everytime I saw distant clumps of Hordeum, I was reminded of flocks of sheep. I'm told I have an active imagination.

Curly dock is a native to Europe, Asia and northern Africa, but it has been introduced and naturalized throughout much of the rest of the world (see: Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) on Rumex crispus and Pacific Islands Ecosystems at Risk (PIER) for the plant). One of its noteworthy qualities is its ability to produce an estimated 100 to over 60 000 seeds per individual plant per year (photographs). If that weren't enough, the seeds can persist in the soil for many years, have a high germination rate and, once seedlings, have a high chance to survive to adulthood.

For more on this resilient plant, see: Zaller, JG. 2004. Ecology and non-chemical control of Rumex crispus and R. obtusifolius (Polygonaceae): a review. Weed Research. 44(6):414-432.

Nature resource link: Guide to the Mangroves of Singapore (flora part of site). It's unfortunate that the images are so small in the species pages, but I suppose they are larger in the guidebooks.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 5:31 AM| Comments (2)

November 29, 2005

Alpine Meadows near Black Tusk

Today's image is another scan of a hand-painted lantern slide by John Davidson from the early 1900s.

British Columbia is famous for its stunning alpine meadows. They occur in a few select areas where the right combination of ecological factors such as water, sunlight, fire and (particularly) soils are not conducive to tree colonization. Instead of the trees which dominate most mountains up to the treeline, open vistas of brightly-coloured wildflowers explode for a few weeks every year. Two of the finest (and most easily accessible) examples are the Taylor and Black Tusk Meadows in Garibaldi Provincial Park.

Sadly, due to a policy of fire suppression and the result of global warming, it is likely by the lifetimes of your children's grandchildren (if not sooner) that most of alpine meadows of British Columbia will either be lost or mere remnants of their former glory. The trees will gain the upper hand and colonize these fragile areas. For some reading on the topic in the broad sense, see The State of Ecological and Earth Sciences in Mountain Areas, and particularly “Effect of Rising Treeline on Connectivity of Alpine Meadows for Butterfly Populations” by Roland, Keyghobadi and Matter.

If you'd like to learn more about Garibaldi Provincial Park and you live in the Vancouver area, please consider yourself invited to my talk on Thursday night at VanDusen Botanical Garden's Cedar Lecture Series (registration / tickets). The title of the presentation is “The Flora of Garibaldi Provincial Park - A Historical Retrospective”; the talk incorporates many of Davidson's lantern slides of the area he helped explore and map in the 1910s and 1920s.

Photography resource link: The Art of Photography by Michael Reichmann of The Luminous Landscape, with commentary on light, focal lengths, the zen of photography and cost. One point often made by many of the professional photographers (and reiterated in this article) is that they say that they only take one or two images worth sharing or exhibiting after an entire day of photography. I suppose I have a lower standard of what is worthy of sharing by necessity of the daily pace, because I certainly couldn't spend every single day taking the “one best” photograph to share the next day (well, I suppose I could, but I don't think I'd stay employed very long).

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 2:16 AM| Comments (6)

November 3, 2005

Near Cache Creek, British Columbia

Updated November 3, 2005 at 4:18pm PDT: The server is back up and running. Right now, I'm not aware of any bugs. If you find something amiss, please let me know. -- Daniel. Please note the following – The garden's web server will be down for maintenance on Thursday, November 3rd from 7:45 AM PDT until completion (anticipated to be early afternoon). BPotD will not be available at this time.

Today, I'm dipping into the archival photographs from the John Davidson lantern slide collection (read more about this collection). Originally taken in black-and-white, this slide has been hand-painted, including all of the roughly five hundred pink flowers of bitter-root, Lewisia rediviva.

I'm guessing on the location (near Cache Creek), but the other slides in sequence are from the area. I was also in the region earlier in the year scouting for a similar profusion of blooms, and although I found some plants, I was at least two weeks too late. Had I found them, though, I likely wouldn't have been able to take a photograph like this; it was a cloudy day, and the flowers only open in the sun.

The epithet rediviva translates to “restored to life”. The story, via Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia by Parish et al., is that the pressed herbarium specimen from a plant collected by Meriwether Lewis in 1806 still showed signs of life months after being dried. When the herbarium specimen was planted (!), the plant grew, duly earning its name.

Botany resource link: The controversial, but interesting, botanist Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz – “an overly enthusiastic, but accurate observer driven by a monomaniacal desire to name every object he encountered in nature.”

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (0)

October 4, 2005

E.C. Manning Provincial Park

Sumallo Grove is the site of the largest trees in British Columbia's E.C. Manning Provincial Park. Seen in this photograph taken yesterday are Western red cedar (Thuja plicata) and Douglas fir (or as some would say, douglas) aka Pseudotsuga menziesii. Another large tree species found in the grove but absent in this photograph is grand fir, Abies grandis. Vine maples, or Acer circinatum, provide the colour in this image. In exposed sites elsewhere in the park, the vine maples displayed brilliant orange-red colours; in the shady forest, though, the vine maples only showcased a bright yellow.

Botany resource link: This is pretty nifty – an at-a-glance guide to Autumn Colours in forests managed by the UK Forestry Commission. The site also includes a photo gallery of autumn colours.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:14 AM| Comments (4)

September 9, 2005

Picea sitchensis

A photograph from the John Davidson lantern slide collection (more about the collection in this entry) that lacks any associated information. Who is the man in the photograph? Where is this stand of Sitka spruce? Or, more likely, “where was this stand of Sitka spruce?”, as this photograph seems to be taken from the edge of a clearcut. When was this photograph taken?

For more information about these largest of spruces, though, there are thankfully some resources at hand via the Virginia Tech Forestry Department and Tree Species of the World's Boreal Forests.

Botany resource link: Taxonomic Botany and Floristics in North America, North of Mexico: A Review by James Reveal and James Pringle, details a history of taxonomic botany that spans five centuries. It was written for the Flora of North America project.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 2:55 AM| Comments (1)

August 15, 2005

Horseshoe Canyon

Seventy million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous, this part of Alberta would have been forest and swamp. Many of the plant fossils in this area from that time are relatives of plants found in modern day China and South America. A walk through UBC's Asian Garden with its dawn-redwoods, ginkgos and magnolias (or the future Araucaria Grove) can well be imagined as experiencing an environment not unlike the one roamed by the dinosaurs of the late Cretaceous.

Horseshoe Canyon is partially protected by The Nature Conservancy of Canada. The Nodwell family, particularly the late Leila Nodwell (interview and article), have contributed greatly to preserving the site.

I'm going to start a new addition to Botany Photo of the Day today - a link to an extra resource that I've found helpful to learn about botany, or photography, or some other topic. I figure if it's been useful to me, it might also be useful to you. I'm also going to bookmark and tag each link on this del.icio.us page.

Photography resource link: The Luminous Landscape - I particularly found the “Understanding Series” and “Essays” of value.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 1:42 AM| Comments (6)

August 13, 2005

Grasslands National Park

Grasslands National Park, located in the southwest corner of Saskatchewan, protects some of the largest remnant blocks of (nearly) undisturbed mixed-grass prairie in North America. However, the prairie is not as it was prior to European arrival: the disappearance of bison with the associated loss of grazing pressure and soil disturbance means the dynamics and composition of the plant community have changed. Parks Canada is reintroducing bison into the park this upcoming winter in a limited area, with the intent of restoring the land to a more natural state (and likely also increasing visitors - we saw only about a dozen people in the park proper all day long).

There are no apparent plans, however, to reintroduce the plains population of the grizzly bear (more).

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 4:37 AM| Comments (10)

August 8, 2005

Banff National Park

This alpine tree-line is photographed from a close enough distance to illustrate the decrease in both density and size of trees as conditions become unfavourable for growth at higher elevations. The green band of plants growing above the tree-line consist of shrubby mountain heathers (Phyllodoce spp. and Cassiope) and various alpine wildflowers (including Castilleja spp.), but those also taper off with increasing elevation, leaving bare, exposed rock on the mountaintops.

The photograph was taken in evening light from the short trail to Peyto Lake along the Icefields Parkway in Banff National Park.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:00 AM| Comments (6)

June 27, 2005

Lac Du Bois Grasslands Provincial Park

Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa) is seen in the distance, eking out an existence. It is perched on the eroded bottom of the long-gone, ancient Tranquille Lake northwest of present-day Kamloops, British Columbia (Google Maps link centred on the area where this photograph was taken - zoom in for a close-up). This is the 15 000ha Lac Du Bois Grasslands Provincial Park, one of three provincial parks that protect British Columbia grasslands.

Photographed while on a southern ascent of Mara Hill (in the southeast portion of the park) I was struck by the lines of both the near and distant rockforms. The pine appearing in the groove was the icing on the cake.

I wasn't searching for any specific plants, but I did find one I've always wanted to see (I'll feature it tomorrow - it's cool). The point of the trip was to see hoodoos, naturally-formed columns of rock. The hoodoos of this area do not seem to be well-known, perhaps overshadowed by the Deadman's Creek Hoodoos further northwest. I still thought they were impressive, including the one that I've dubbed Rabbit Eating Douglas Fir Hoodoo.

I was planning on using this entry to also highlight the BC Grasslands Blog, but I see that it is being abandoned, and they are pursuing a newsletter instead. Somewhat disappointing.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 1:04 AM| Comments (3)

May 3, 2005

Sutton Creek, British Columbia

Honeymoon Bay Ecological Reserve, near Lake Cowichan on Vancouver Island, BC, was preserved for the dense concentration of Erythronium revolutum (pink fawn lily) that can be found blooming in late April. Knowing that this year's spring has been quite warm, I didn't hold out much hope for seeing many (or any) of the fawn lilies in bloom last weekend; as it turned out, I only found two plants blooming amongst thousands of seed capsules. I did however discover that the timing of the flowers roughly coincides with the blooming of the same species in the Native Garden, so I now have a timely indicator of when to visit the area in future years.

The trip had value beyond scouting for future trips; the trilliums and bleeding hearts were in full swing, and the vanilla-leaf (Achlys triphylla) was just starting to flower. The scenery was outstanding as well, so I was inspired to try out a few landscape shots, like this one.

Sutton Creek borders one side of the ecological reserve. I was intrigued by the moss-laden overhanging branches of Acer macrophyllum (big-leaf maples) that lined much of the creek, so this is my attempt at illustrating them.

One other thing to note is the “white-barked” trees on the other side of the creek. This is Alnus rubra (red alder), which actually has grey bark. Here though, the bark is near-completely covered with white crustose lichens, and I'll guess that one of the culprits is Graphis scripta (hieroglyphics lichen).