Plant Story--Beautiful Showy Milkweed, Asclepias speciosa

A few decades ago, milkweeds (genus Asclepias) were simply common native plants that could be poisonous to livestock, so they were ignored or eliminated. Then monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) populations were found to have decreased dramatically. Looking for causes, ecologists pointed to land development eliminating milkweeds, which are the only food plant of monarch caterpillars. Trying to help, people all over have been planting milkweeds for the monarchs. 

Showy milkweed, Asclepias speciosa with a monarch butterfly
perched on it

For people living in Eastern North America, common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) was the easiest milkweed to find and grow and it is a monarch magnet. In the West, though, common milkweed is not native. It is replaced by showy milkweed (Asclepias speciosa), which grows in many of the same habitats and looks quite similar. Over the last decade, western nurseries and gardeners have explained this and made showy milkweed seeds and plants available. Today you can google all kinds of information about showy milkweed (link, link, link and many more). What can I possibly write? I will draw some aspects of the wild plants to your attention.

Ruderals in Manchester, England

 I flew into Manchester England for the start of a tour of Wales. It was September and I wondered whether any plants were still flowering. Awaiting the tour, I stayed at a hotel near the Manchester Airport, a very urban area. It was cloudy with intermittent rain. Nevertheless, I became restless and went out to look for plants (to "botanize"). 

willowherb, Epilobium

Disambiguation of Some Common Plant Names

I think the word disambiguation is cute. It means to remove uncertainty, and in this context and Google's, to point out when two different things have the same name and clarify which is which. Scientific names were created to address this problem in plants and animals, but not everyone understands this and certainly not everyone uses scientific names. 

Below are disambiguations for sage, hemlock, bergamot, and yam. (More in future posts)

sagebrush, Artemisia is not the same as culinary sage, Salvia

Iceland in late September- Stunning

I had two nights in Iceland thanks to Iceland Air. It was the end of September and I signed up for a tour north and west of Reykjavik, to the Snaefellsnes Penninsula. It was spectacular. 

Plant Story -- Smooth Sumac, Rhus glabra

Sumacs are common shrubs in North America, and inconspicuous except in the fall, when the leaves turn a brilliant red. 

 

Travel Story--More of Wales

When I wrote a blog post about my visit to Wales a couple weeks ago (link), it got long before I had shared the full trip. Here are more pictures from Wales, starting at about Cardigan and continuing southward.

the countryside in Wales

Plant Story--New England Aster, Symphyotrichum novae-angliae

The New England aster (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae aster family, Asteraceae) is very widespread; in North America it is found from the Atlantic to the Pacific, missing only very dry states like Nevada. Distribution maps show it as native across all that range, but it is an attractive plant that was brought into gardens long ago and may have escaped and naturalized. 

New England aster 

Travel Story--Wales

I took a tour in Wales, mainly along the coast. Wales, the southwest corner of Britain, is about 170 miles long and 60 miles wide, but hills, mountains, and rivers make it a lot more complex.  My tour, with Road Scholar, began just north of Wales in Manchester, and circled south along the coast, finally turning east to Cardiff and then London. 

We saw lots of green pastures, with cows or sheep

American Squashes

zucchini and yellow summer squash

Sorting out the squashes is a job for experts, which I am not. They are wonderfully confused.

“True squashes” are plants in the genus Cucurbita (Cucurbitaceae, cucumber family). About 15 species make up Cucurbita, all of them native to the Americas. 

Melons, such as cantalope genus Cucumis, watermelon, genus Citrullus (blog about watermelon) and others--all the melons--are from Asia, Africa or Europe. 

Chrysanthemums: Fall Greetings!

red chrysanthemums 

As summer fades into fall, a different set of plants dominate the landscape.  In my garden, the chrysanthemums that were an unassuming cluster of leaves all summer are now covered in blossoms.  My fruit trees are dropping apples and peaches. Burning bush (Euonymous) and maples start to turn color.  

Pollinators and Flower Visitors

All sorts of small animals can be found on flowers. All of them can safely be called flower visitors. Of the flower visitors, some are pollinators. What is the difference?

Plant Story--Oxalis, Wood Sorrel

Wood sorrels, Oxalis, with flowers like little yellow stars, are common plants in disturbed areas across much of North America. They are worth a second look. 

common wood sorrel, Oxalis stricta

Gardening is Changing

Gardens and yards are changing. People are reducing their use of herbicides and pesticides. Planting more water-wise plants. Adding natives. Appreciating mixes of plants not just monocultures, whether in the lawn or the flowerbeds. All of this is revising our ideas of what an attractive yard is. 

front yard, natives (and others), no lawn grass

Travel--Cloud Forest in Ecuador

I visited the cloud forest of Ecuador in May. As mountains everywhere rise, they block the movement of clouds. Day after day, clouds full of water, rising off the ocean, hit the same areas on the mountains. On the Pacific slope of Ecuador, that is at about about 3000 feet in elevation. Every day, the clouds roll in, shading everything, covering the forest in fog. Actual rainfall is moderate (80", more than most of the eastern U.S. but low for tropical rainforests) but the humidity is 80-90% most of the time. Under these conditions, a very tall mountain forest grows, lush with epiphytes (plants that grow on other plants), mosses, vines, orchids...all kinds of botanical wonders. Which then support diverse animals. 

clouds on Ecuador forest

Plant Story--Black Medic, Medicago lupulina

Blooming near you in North America, generally ignored, is black medic, Medicago lupulina (pea family, Fabaceae). This is a little invader from Eurasia that is found all across the North America. 

black medic, Medicago lupulina

Fly Pollination

 Flies don't get much respect, we think of them mainly as pests. However, they are important pollinators.

Travel Story--Chicago Botanic Garden

Botanic gardens have many functions: as places to grow and protect rare plants, as places to show diverse plants to the public, as places to recommend yard and garden plants, as places to breed plants for human uses, and more. The Chicago Botanic Garden is no exception.  website

I visited for the first time in June. It is beautiful.

Chicago Botanic Garden

Plant Story -- Scentbottle Orchid, Platanthera dilatata

This post is about a native orchid, the scentbottle, Plantanthera dilatata (orchid family, Orchidaceae).

scentbottle orchid, Plantanthera dilatata

Plant Story--Coreopsis, Pretty Tickseeds

The bright yellow flowerhead nodded in the breeze, peeking out among a variety of leaves. Look! A coreopsis!

tickseed, Coreopsis grandiflora hybrid

Coreopsis is a genus of 35 species, most native to North America, in the daisy family, Asteraceae. They have the typical flower head structure of the family: a group of disc florets in the middle surrounded by ray florets which provide petals. Most are naturally some shade of yellow. Native ranges of the 28 species in the United States are mostly along the East Coast or California, but a few are found in every state. 

Gardeners discovered them long ago, so there are many color patterns and varieties, and the plant you see growing in a garden is probably a hybrid, not a natural species.

Rocky Mountain Wildflowers of July

It was a shady walk in the Colorado mountains at about 7000' elevation. Lots of wildflowers bloomed along the path. 

sidebells penstemon, Penstemon secundiflorus

One was sidebells penstemon (Penstemon secundiflorus, plantain family, Plantaginaceae), distinctive as a common species which has all its flowers on one side of the flower stalk. (Colorado has 61 species of Penstemon, often it is hard to determine which one you saw.)

Travel--Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Minneapolis-St. Paul

 I visited the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, Chaska MN (website), at the end of April. I had heard about it for years and I had traveled with them on several excellent garden tours, so I was eager to see it. I found it was much more than I had expected. 

a magnolia in flower

The Scandalous Orange Petunia, Glowing Petunias, and Black Petunias

Petunias Engineered. Petunia--the common one is Petunia x atkinsiana--are easy to grow. Petunias are fast-growing, hardy, diploid plants and so several plant research labs tried studying them. They soon became a model organism, widely used for research on plants, including plant genetics. (See previous blog on petunias generally). They were cutting edge for inserting and turning on genes from other species.

petunias in many colors

For this blog, I shopped a large garden store and came home with two transgenic petunias--orange and bioluminescent--and possibly the blackest flower in the world. Researchers inserted genes from corn into petunias to see how the biochemical pathways work; the successful insertion created an orange-flowered petunia. The orange petunia was a desirable garden plant which caused a scandal, a story I find fascinating.

Plant Story--Colorful Petunias for Summer Gardens

Petunias are everywhere: in summer street plantings, in decorative pots, in hanging baskets. And yet, petunias are anonymous. Poor petunia, we barely notice you.

red petunias

Flowers of Early June

My blog for this week, on petunias (Petunia), is running way behind. So, how about a post celebrating  early summer flowers? 

Blanket flower, Gaillardia (sunflower family, Asteraceae), below, is native to North America. There are 12 species, but only two are widespread, Gaillardia aristida and Gaillardia pulcella. The first is in the western and northern North America, the second in eastern and southern. Gaillardia xgrandiflora is their hybrid. I've seen them growing in gardens from Oregon to Florida, and if you were out hiking now, you could find wild ones in flower, all across the continent. 

blanket flower, Gaillardia

Ecuador: The Galapagos II. Plants

On my recent trip to the Galapagos I joined park rangers on hikes, and usually I was a laggard. I kept  stopping to see the plants. The rest of the group hopped from one animal photo op to the next. I tried to keep up but did a bad job of it.

the endemic tree cactus Opuntia galapagela

Just like its  animals, the Galapagos's plants include many that are unique and that differ from their mainland relatives and between islands. 

Ecuador: The Galapagos (I)

I recently visited the Galapagos for the first time, on a tour with the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum and Knowmad Adventures. The Galapagos Islands, whose animals and plants played a crucial role in Charles Darwin formulating his ideas of evolutionary change, is Must See location for biologists...so, contrarily, I scorned it for 50-odd years. But, eventually my curiousity sent me there. 

Galapagos

Yellow Sweet Clover, Melilotus officinalis, and White Sweet Clover, Melilotus albus

Sweet clover, genus Melilotus, is a group of some 23 species native to Eurasia, in the pea family, Fabaceae. Two of them, yellow sweet clover, Melilotus officinalis, and white sweet clover, Melilotus albus, are found all over North America. They are weedy and often quite aggressive, building up large populations quickly. But they add nitrogen to the soil, are good forage for livestock, are a source of honey for bees, and more. They have both supporters and detractors.

yellow sweet clover, Melilotus officinalis

white sweet clover Melilotus albus

Tallgrass Prairie in Spring

As winter ends, the tallgrass prairie is a chaotic place, the three-to-five foot grass stalks lying in a tangled mess. All is brown. There is little to see.

tallgrass prairie in April

Spring Wildflowers in a Minnesota Forest

The deciduous forests of eastern North America seem very dull as winter becomes spring. The snow vanishes to leave a layer of brown leaves under the leafless trees. 

central Minnesota forest in April

Nevertheless, as the temperatures warm, it is irresistable to wander outdoors in the forest.

And, then you spot a spring wildflower!

Can you see it? A pink flower (pink form of rue anemone,
Thalictrum thalictroides)

Parking Lot Edge Wildflowers, Estes Park, Colorado

Particular plant species generally have particular habitats where you will find them. Rainfall, temperature range, shade, soil characteristics and disturbance (level of trampling or grazing or similar effects) determining where a plant thrives and where it does not survive. Thus, if you go looking for flowers, which ones you find depends on where you walk. 

We tend to see the same ones over and over, because they grow well where people walk, liking the sunniness and not minding being stepped on sometimes. Conversely, hikers will likely see quite different plants when they get a mile into the wilderness area

Rocky Mountain forest wildflower
blanket flower, Gaillardia aristida

Plant Story Phacelia hastata, Silverleaf Phacelia

This rather odd-looking flower was common in the pine forest at 9000' in the Rocky Mountains in late June.  

silverleaf phacelia, Phacelia hastata

It is silverleaf phacelia, Phacelia hastata, in the waterleaf family, Hydrophyllaceae. 

Beetle Pollination

 Beetles are always included in lists of pollinators. In fact, it is likely beetles were the first pollinators, moving pollen between flowers in some of the earliest flowers. 

beetle on a daisy flower

Beetles are insects in the order Coleoptera, the largest of all orders, with about 400,000 species. As flower-visitors, they are looking for food, eating pollen, chewing petals, drinking nectar. Pollen adheres to their bodies and then brushes onto the flower's stigma to self-pollinate or be carried to the next flower for cross-pollination.

Thinking About Plant Folklore

I love folklore, I guess because it seems so fantastic. 

"In Norfolk, it was considered unlucky to cut holly, as distinct from breaking off berry-bearing twigs at Christmas time." (Vickery p 181).

holly, Ilex aquifolia

"In West Sussex, if you found nine peas in the first pod you gather, it boded good luck." (Vickery p.277). 

Pansy leaves are heart-shaped, so tea made from them will cure a broken heart. (Martin p. 11).

Spring Flower Folklore

It's spring. Every day or so a different plant comes into bloom. Exciting times! As you notice them, consider these bits of folklore.

Grape hyacinths (Muscari species) are good luck growing outside, but brought in, cause gloom and depression. 

grape hyacinths

Gazing upon periwinkles (Vinca sp.) restores lost memories. 

Spearleaf stonecrop, Sedum lanceolatum Common in the Rockies and the West

Sedum, known as stonecrop, in the stonecrop family, Crassulaceae, is a big genus with 400-500 species, native all over the Northern Hemisphere and into the Southern Hemisphere in South America and Africa. They are succulents with thick, fleshy leaves, allowing them to live in dry places.Their pretty flowers have put many stonecrops into the garden trade. 

Spearleaf stonecrop, Sedum lanceolatum

Spearleaf stonecrop, also called lanceleaf stonecrop, Sedum lanceolatum, is native across the western half of North America; in Colorado it is grows in the Rocky Mountains above 5000', its range goes west from there.  

Gardening for Moths

Moths are mysterious little pollinators, flitting around in the dark or near-dark, hard to observe. Yet providing plants that support them, so that they can pollinate, is important. Like other insects, their numbers seem to be dropping. Here are some ideas for gardens that promote moths. 

white lined hawk moth (Hyles lineata) and Persian cat mint (Nepeta racemosa)

Plant Story: Pincushion Flower, Scabious

I first remember noticing pincushion flower (also called scabious, honeysuckle family, Caprifoliaceae) on a hike on the coast of Italy. What a pretty flower!

scabious, Scabiosa or Krautia, in Italy

Scabious is used as the common name of a group of related plants. Some are classified in the genus Scabiosa (about 70 species), some in the genera Knautia (55 species) and others in Succisa (3 species). They all have flowerheads made of dozens of tiny florets. Most have pink or lavender flowers but the they range over to rich deep reds. They are native across Eurasia but not to North America. In some places in the United States, though, they have escaped from gardens and naturalized. 

Moth Pollination 3. Settling Moths

Pollinating moths come from only a few of the 124 families of moths, as far as we know (part 1 of this series). The sphinx moths, family Sphingidae (part 2) are important pollinators that fly in the evening and even by day; they are really cool insects to watch. All the other pollinating moths are collectively called settling moths, because the land on the flowers and then probe for nectar, while sphinx moths hover. Settling moths are quite mysterious.

a settling moth, the bindweed or four-spotted moth,
Tyta luctosa Denis & Schiffermüller (Noctuidae) on a cosmos (Cosmos) flower

Travel Story--Beaches in Taiwan

Taiwan is an island just east of the continent of Asia. It is subtropical to tropical, full of scenic vistas, rugged mountains, and, being an island, it is surrounded by beaches. When the Portuguese discovered it in the 1500s, they called it Ilha Formosa, "beautiful island" an aptly descriptive name, though no longer in use.

beach, looking south

It is the end of winter, Colorado is still brown and beige, so here is a photo tour of coastal Taiwan. My photos are not especially colorful, so remember to imagine the temperature is a very comfortable 80^oF, a light wind is blowing and the humidity is very high.

Moth Pollination 2. Sphinx Moths aka Hawkmoths and Hummingbird Moths

The sphinx moths are the family Sphingidae of the Lepidoptera, handsome moths that can hover in the air. Many fly by day or during dawn and dusk, so are more often spotted and admired than their relatives that fly in the dark. 

sphinx moth pollinating vervain

Citron, An Old Citrus Fruit

The citron, Citrus medica (orange family, Rutaceae) is one of the oldest of citrus fruits. Although we have many citrus fruits--lemons, limes, grapefruits, oranges, tangerines, etc.--all were produced by humans crossing a few wild plants with small and sour fruits and selecting for better fruits. The citron is one of those wild plants, ancestor to popular citrus fruits. It is not well-known. 

One of the varieties of citron, Citrus medica, the etrog

Moth Pollination I. Overview.

Moths are the secret pollinators. They fly at dusk or after dark, tend to be small, and have blotchy color patterns. For all those reasons, they get little attention. And yet:  Moths are very numerous. They make up most of the insect order Lepidoptera, moths and butterflies. Lepidoptera are the second largest group of insects, after beetles, with 180,000 species, which is about 10% of all described living organisms. Lepidoptera are broken into 126 families; two families are butterflies, 17, 000 species, the rest are moths. So nearly 10% of the world's organisms are moths. And yet we generally overlook them. 

big tropical moth, about an inch across

Of Brooms and Broom

 Everyone knows a broom:

broom

And lots of people know the plant, broom, common broom, Scotch broom Cytisus scoparius  

Scotch broom, common broom, Cytisus scoparius

I was surprised to learn that the plant named the tool, not vice versa.

The English Yew, Taxus bacata--Ordinary and Fabled

My earliest memory of yew is from a poem. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a historical novel, The White Company, as well as his Sherlock Holmes mysteries (The White Company).  As a teen I loved the book, and remember clearly a poem from it, celebrating a company of medieval archers, which goes in part, 

"What of the bow?

    The bow was made in England:

Of true wood, of yew-wood,

    The wood of English bows;

         So men who are free

         Love the old yew-tree

And the land where the yew-tree grows." (link),

of true wood, of yew-wood

English yews, Taxus bacata, as ornamentals

Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden, Vancouver, British Columbia

 In August,  I took a garden tour of Vancouver and Victoria in British Columbia, Canada, with the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. One of the important gardens on the tour was the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in Vancouver.

pond and willow, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden

Classical Chinese gardens date back to at least the Southern Song Dynasty (960-1279). They were best developed as the retirement retreats of government bureaucrats. The owner set rocks, plants, and water around his home, to have pleasing and different views in all directions. In southern and coastal China, the house could be quite open, the garden and the indoors linked most of the year. 

Stinging Nettles Part II: FIber, Dye, and Folklore

Stinging nettles, Urtica dioica (nettle family, Urticaceae) have been used for food and medicine for millennia (see previous blog link). 

Fiber

They have also been used to make cloth and rope. The individual stalks do not branch and so contain fibers that can be four feet long. These can be separated from the surrounding plant tissue and braided or twined into thread or twine and then used to make items from soft cloth and fish nets to rope. Online videos show people stripping the leaves and outer stem off stinging nettles without gloves, so apparently you can grip it firmly at the base and avoid contact with the stinging hairs. Once the outer layers are removed the long fibers are pliable and can be twisted or braided while fresh or softened further in an alkaline bath. link The older literature mentions weaving nettles into table cloths and sheets. It could be bleached very white. In Germany, nettle fiber was used to supplement cotton into the 20th century. Using stinging nettle for its fibers goes back millennia, but is pretty much a forgotten art in western culture. 

stinging nettle, Urtica dioica

Stinging Nettle, Urtica dioica Stinging and Useful

Stinging nettle is a plant that too many of us only criticize. It stings! The tiny venom-filled hairs on the leaves are really painful to brush against. So suburbanites, farmers, hikers, hunters and many others,  dislike it; it stings, it makes places that you go around rather than through, nasty plant. 

stinging nettle, Urtica dioica

And yet, this is an excellent vegetable and healing herb. Heat the leaves and the stinging hairs are quickly destroyed, leaving rich, nutritious greens. For millennia people gathered stinging nettles for food and medicine. Today that is rare or confined to commercial medical production, so we only see them as irritating.