Just a quick one for today; Taisha will have some lengthier entries for later this week. Today's photograph is from long-time contributor Lotus Johnson of Victoria, BC (aka ngawangchodron@Flickr (original image via the Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Pool). Thank you!

I've previously shared the silvery autumn foliage of Elaeagnus commutata, or silver-berry, on BPotD, With today's image, Lotus demonstrates the green spring foliage, the flower and the fine-scaled leaves of this western and northern North America native. Please see the prior entry or the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center's information sheet for additional reading about Elaeagnus commutata.

Butte County fritillary or Eastwood's fritillary is oft-considered to be endemic to northern California, but the Flora of North America distribution map also shows an occurrence in southwest Oregon. The Oregon Plant Atlas displays a single dot, from observations and an herbarium specimen deposited by Frank Callahan (my understanding is that Callahan is an exceptional plant "finder", with a reputation for finding new species or species range extensions in Oregon). By some coincidence, the Oregon plants happen to be on Callahan's property and even he seems to be uncertain whether it is native to the site or not (see his photograph from the observation: Fritillaria eastwoodiae, which he annotates "(native?)"). Apparently a bit of a mystery to be resolved, though it does seem like Callahan's property lies within the same High Cascade Range bioregion as where some of the plants occur further south (scroll down for a range map from the Jepson eFlora: Fritillaria eastwoodiae).

The plant in today's photograph, however, was growing in the densest occurrence cluster for the species in California's Butte County. If you browse through the Calphotos site for photographs of Fritillaria eastwoodiae, you'll note colour variation in the flowers from greenish-yellow to red. I was fortunate to find an individual with (in my opinion) the more attractive red flowers that could be safely photographed. When photographing rare species, it's critical to minimize damage. In order to do so, one often needs to do "slow walking", where one considers each next step carefully. It's the same sort of walking one does around poison oak, though it becomes even slower when both poison oak and the rare species occur together (as in this instance). Add in another danger--rattlesnakes, for which one stomps in order not to surprise them--and I'm sure that my behaviour is at least mildly interesting to any passersby.

On the topics of passersby and coincidences, while photographing this plant, a US Forest Service botanist happened to walk by on the trail. After a bit of discussion about some of the intriguing plants in the area, we exchanged introductions. He happened to be Lawrence Janeway, who I immediately knew as the person who rediscovered the presumed-extinct Clarkia mosquinii (named after my uncle) (see: Janeway, LP. 1993. Noteworthy Collections. California: Reporting the re-discovery of species thought to be extinct: Clarkia mosquinii ssp. mosquinii and C. mosquinii ssp. xerophila (Onagraceae) Madroño 40:268-269).

And another entry written by Taisha:

Today's photo of Pelargonium tetragonum was taken by Christopher Young (aka c.young@Flickr). Thank you, Christopher.

Pelargonium tetragonum, or the square-stemmed pelargonium, is a shrubby member of the Geraniaceae found in an inland strip of dry habitats paralleling the southern coast of South Africa. Its preference for dry, rocky and well-draining soils helps classify it as a xerophyte.

This species is characterized by its succulent square stems (tetra being the Greek prefix for "four"). Pelargonium tetragonum carries a pair of flowers upon its jointed stems; each flower has four petals with the upper petals larger than the lower. Petals are cream to pink in color with red streaks. These contrasting streaks serve as a nectar guide for its pollinators, who require a long tongue or beak to reach the nectar at the base of the extended floral tube (shown in the photograph). The evergreen leaves of this plant are hairy, fleshy, lobed, and dark green in color, with a dark central blotch (description inspired by Fogg's 1964 work, Geraniums and Pelargoniums).

Among the two hundred or so members of Pelargonium, there is exceptional diversity in colour, size and morphology of the plants, flowers and leaves. Differences in flowers correlate with a difference in pollination syndromes. Species are variously pollinated by bees, long-proboscid hovering flies (illustration), butterflies, hawkmoths, and presumably by a small percentage by birds (see: Struck, M. 1996. Floral divergence and convergence in the genus Pelargonium (Geraniaceae) in Southern Africa: Ecological and evolutionary considerations. Plant Systematics and Evolution. 208:71-97.). From Struck's paper, Pelargonium tetragonum is putatively pollinated by long-proboscid flies, as partly suggested by the length of the floral tube and several observations during the study.

Again, Taisha is the author of today's entry:

Today's plant photographs are of Sanicula europaea, with the first photograph by Stephen Buchan (aka --- Green Light Images ---@Flickr) and the second photograph by beranekp@Flickr. Both were submitted via the Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Pool. Thank you!

Sanicula europaea, or wood sanicle, is a member of the Apiaceae and can be found throughout most of Europe and southwestern Asia growing in shaded and damp wooded habitats.

This perennial herbaceous species reproduces vegetatively by rhizome cleavages (for extremely local dispersal), but it also has hooked seeds permitting long-distance dispersal through attachment to animal fur (see: Gustafsson, C. & J. Ehrlén. 2003. Effects of intraspecific and interspecific density on the demography of a perennial herb, Sanicula europaea. Oikos. 100: 317-324). Sanicula europaea is an evergreen that reaches 20-60cm in height. The basal leaves are long and petiolate, and bear teeth ending in a short stiff hair or bristle. Inflorescences of this species are considered to be false umbels, taking as long as 16 years to appear in mature plants.

Sanicula europaea has been used as a traditional medicine for treating dermatological, gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases. Air-dried leaves of Sanicula europaea have also been studied by Karagöz et al. for their apparent ability to inhibit Human Parainfluenza Virus (type 2), but the mechanisms of inhibition are yet to be determined (see: Karagöz A. et al. 1999. Antiviral activity of Sanicula europaea L. Extracts on multiplication of Human Parainfluenza Virus Type 2. Phytotherapy Research. 13: 436-438.

Today's entry was again authored by Taisha, who writes:

Thank you to Sandy Steinman (Sandy Steinman@Flickr) for today's image of Sidalcea malviflora that was submitted via the Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Pool.

Sidalcea is a genus of about 25 species, with confusion of delimiting species due to supposed hybridization, morphological variation, and gynodioecy. The malvaceous Sidalcea malviflora has seven accepted subspecies. These subspecies are mostly endemic to California, but some can be found in Oregon and Baja California. Generally, checkerbloom or checkermallow grows in more or less dry, open places at elevations under 2300m.

This perennial herbaceous plant grows from a woody caudex and creeping rhizomes, and reaches 15 to 60cm in height. Its entire leaves are variably toothed or lobed, with the upper leaves along the stem often reduced in size. The stellate, or star-like, flower is bright to deep pink. Often, flowers are veined white. Like other members of the hibiscus family, the filaments of the stamens are united around the style. Seemingly unique to the genus in its family, Sidalcea has filaments fused into two groups near their tips (see: Andreasan, K. and B. Baldwin. 2003. Reexamination of Relationships, Habital Evolution, and Phylogeography of Checker Mallows (Sidalcea; Malvaceae) Based on Molecular Phylogenetic Data. Am. J. Bot.. 90(3):436-444.). More photographs of the species are available via Calphotos: Sidalcea malviflora.

Moerman's Native American Ethnobotany mentions this species being used as edible greens by the Luseño peoples of southern California and as a dried spice (made by mashing the leaves) to flavor black manzanita berries by the Yana of northern California.

Today's entry was both photographed and written by Taisha. She writes:

To highlight tomorrow's upcoming plant sale and event, A Growing Affair, I chose a plant that will be included in the sale. I did want to do a grass, as Daniel will be manning that post, however they weren't cooperating photographically yesterday and instead Clematis cirrhosa, aka early clematis or winter-flowering clematis, caught my eye.

Clematis cirrhosa from the Ranunculaceae is native to the Mediterranean. This species belongs to the subgenus Montanae, which uniquely possess nodding flowers and small bracts on the pedicels. This evergreen climber can reach 8m in height on a slender, 6-ribbed stem. Flowers are solitary or paired and generally have 4 sepals that are creamy-white and can sometimes be flecked with purple markings inside and green on the exterior. The fruit is an achene (a dry indehiscent fruit) with a silky plumose tail, as seen clearly in today's photo.

Plants do well in sunny spots with moderately-draining soils. It is recommended to keep the roots cool by shading the base of the plant. During hot summers, this species may go into dormancy, but no need to panic, as when the temperature drops in autumn it will start to re-grow. To avoid a single stem and promote branching, cut back this "group one" clematis in the early summer. Any pruning should be done immediately after flowering to ensure a nice display for next year, as the new flowers grow from nodes of the previous year's shoots. Clematis can be propagated either by double leaf bud cuttings or layering in the spring, or grown by seed.

Clematis cirrhosa has been noted to have antifungal activity (see: Ali-Shtayeh, MS & SI Ghdeib. 1998. Antifungal activity of plant extracts against dermatophytes. Mycoses. 42:665-672). An aqueous extract made from the plants secondary metabolites was 90-100% effective in reducing colony growth of Trichophyton violaceum, a fungus that can cause scaly lesions of skin, nails, beard and scalp.

Today, we introduce a new writer to Botany Photo of the Day. Taisha Mitchell has been hired through UBC's Work Learn program to assist with BPotD for the summer. Welcome, Taisha!

Taisha writes:

Thank you to Bill Higham (Bill Higham@Flickr) for today's photo of Almaleea subumbellata, or wiry bushpea, taken in Frodsley, Tasmania, Australia.

Almaleea subumbellata (PDF), formerly known as Pultenaea subumbellata, is a member of the Fabaceae. Like the other four species in the genus Almaleea, it is endemic to Australia. All members of this genus can be found in continental southeastern Australia, with Almaleea subumbellata being the only representative to also occur naturally in Tasmania. This species grows in poorly drained areas of wet heathland at elevations ranging from sea level to 1500m.

Members of Almaleea are distinguished in part by their free stipules and an involucre of bracts at the base of the flower. The glabrous stem of Almaleea subumbellata stands up to 1.2m high and terminates with an inflorescence surrounded by stiffly pointed and hairy bracts. The simple, alternate leaves of this shrub are narrow-elliptic to oblong in shape. The papilionaceous (meaning butterfly-like, and associated with a subfamily of the Fabaceae) flowers are orange to yellow with red markings.