A big thank you to Douglas Justice for writing today's entry! – Daniel

The similarity of Xanthoceras sorbifolia and Aesculus hippocastanum is not evident until their husky capsules begin to split open. There is an obvious resemblance, but the genera are classified in separate subfamilies of Sapindaceae. Aesculus – the classical name for a kind of oak with edible acorns – was the name given by Linnaeus to the horse chestnuts and buckeyes. His reasons for applying this name to a genus that is so un-oak-like and whose fruits are poisonous, are evidently lost. Not so Xanthoceras, which means “yellow horn,” in reference to the small yellow projections on flowers of this species. See the previous BPotD entry on Xanthoceras here.

The glossy seeds of the horse chestnut are rich in toxic saponins. The seed and its extracts have been used for medicating horses suffering from gas, children's games (“conkers”), production textile whiteners and military armaments (see this excellent wikipedia entry). According to Ken Fern (Plants for a Future), “saponins can be easily obtained by chopping the seed into small pieces and infusing them in hot water. This water can then be used for washing the body, clothes etc. Its main drawback is a lingering odour of horse chestnuts.” The seeds of Xanthoceras are reported to be quite edible.

The fruit of Embothrium coccineum (featured on BPotD in flower here) is botanically known as a follicle (scroll down to the middle of the page). In this photograph, the follicles have split open to reveal a dozen or so winged seeds in each.

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).

This isn't my best photograph of Cylindropuntia bigelovii or teddybear cholla, but it is one of the better ones I have from this particular location: the Cholla Cactus Garden in Joshua Tree National Park. This small area has the densest concentration of teddybear chollas within this massive park. While enjoying this tiny natural wonder, a thought did creep into my head: “Why build a road (and then highway) right through it?” I'm sure the decision was made before I was born, but I wonder if any thought has been given to rerouting the highway around this small patch, and then reclaiming the decommissioned road for the cholla.

Despite the common name of teddybear cholla, you do not want to hug this plant. Its needles have barbed ends that pierce and lodge. Tweezers or a comb are recommended to pick the needles out if they become embedded in your skin; attempting to pluck them out with your fingers will merely sink them into your fingertips (as I experienced).

The Living Desert has a good resource page on teddybear cholla, while Brad Biringer has photographs of the Cholla Cactus Garden taken in superior light conditions in this photo essay.

Photography resource link: Photoshop Tips and Tricks from the tips section of the Pacific Northwest Nature Photographers group.

Thanks again to marcella2@Flickr for sharing a photograph (original image | BPotD Flickr Group Pool). The last time a photograph from marcella2@Flickr was featured on BPotD, over three dozen images of plants were available by clicking on the marcella2@Flickr link – now there's over five dozen, so you might like to revisit them.

I should first of all note that I've changed the name of the plant posted by marcella2 from Sparganium ramosum to the catch-all Sparganium erectum (a number of Sparganium are listed as being synonymous to Sparganium erectum). I'm following the nomenclature suggested by Missouri Botanical Garden's TROPICOS database, but with reservation. In a conversation with Richard Lansdown ten days ago or so, Richard expressed the opinion that many of the less-examined plants sharing the same name in both Europe and North America are actually quite different from one another. Even the Flora of North America expresses reservation about the nomenclature within this genus, because the last work done on it (in the mid 1980s) did not contain detailed studies of the species across their complete ranges. A grain of salt is required, it seems.

I've an inexplicable soft spot for plants in the genus Sparganium, despite the fact that some have been declared a noxious weed. It may be that the soft spot stems from the exotic appearance – exotic, at least, to someone first learning plants through observing the native plants of Manitoba. I still find them interesting, and I know if I encountered some similar to these, I'd spent quite a bit of time photographing them.

Botany resource link: The northernmost botanical garden in the world, Tromsø Botanical Garden at nearly 70° N in Norway. Tromsø BG has a growing season from late May to mid-October, thanks to the effect of the Gulf Stream.

A thank you to sandy130 @ UBC Botanical Garden Forums from Abbotsford, BC for sharing today's image of the (inaptly-named) toad cactus or star cactus (it's not a cactus!). A better common name in use is African carrion flower. Check out the discussion thread to see a second photograph and the ensuing discussion. Much appreciated, sandy130!

Formerly placed in the genus Stapelia (an example), Orbea was resegregated as its own genus by Leach in this paper: Leach, LC. 1978. A contribution towards a new classification of Stapelieae (Asclepiadaceae) with a preliminary review of Orbea Haw., and descriptions of three new genera. Excelsa Taxonomic Series, No. 1. Aloe, Cactus and Succulent Society, Rhodesia.

Stoffel Petrus Bester of the South Africa National Herbarium has written an excellent summary of the genus Orbea, so I'll kindly ask you visit that site for more information about Orbea variegata and its relatives.

I'll also add that this species is an exotic invasive in South Australia. See: Dunbar, KR and Facelli, JM. 1999. The impact of a novel invasive species, Orbea variegata (African carrion flower), on the chenopod shrublands of South Australia. Journal of Arid Environments. 41(1): 37-48.

Photography resource link: for inspiration, the alpine photography of Jack Brauer. Locales photographed include Turkey and Patagonia.

Take one recently-repaired digital camera, swap out the protective glass over the sensor with a different piece that only allows infrared light to pass through, and a whole new way of seeing the world emerges. I took my first infrared photographs yesterday and here is one result – still a lot more to learn.

Pictured is one of the many cultivars of Acer palmatum, or one of a group of maples collectively known as “Japanese maples” Hundreds of other photographs of Japanese maples are available on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums, thanks to the efforts of dozens of maple enthusiasts.

The International Legume Database and Information Service (ILDIS) notes that Burchell's clover is native to the montane shrublands, grasslands and bamboo thickets of eastern and southern Africa. This species is rarely found in cultivation, despite its attractive, thimble-sized inflorescence. Instead, a trip to Africa would reveal that it is an important perennial legume for livestock grazing at 3000m or higher above sea level.

This (cropped) photograph was taken three years ago, and I've not had the opportunity to verify if these plants remain (it's not something you'd casually notice when not in flower due to its size!).

Photography resource link: “Just Say Yes!”, an article by Alain Briot for Nature Photographers Online. After reading this essay, all I can say is “Yes!”

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).

I've just spent the last few hours updating the software on the UBC Botanical Garden discussion forums, so I can only write a short entry today.

A thank you to fotrristi@Flickr from Stockholm, Sweden for providing today's image (original). Check out fotrristi's other flower photographs if you've a bit of time, too.

Common names for this plant include giant scabious and Tatarian cephalaria. The latter name reflects its native distribution from the Caucasus Mountains to Siberia (home of the Tatars), though it is now cultivated throughout Europe and North America.

For gardening information, visit the Kemper Center for Home Gardening's page on Cephalaria gigantea.

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.

Thank you to “maryland grower” on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums for today's image, submitted here. Much appreciated!

Seven-son flower was previously featured on BPotD with a black-and-white image of the trunk, so today's image is a good complement to the previous posting. As pointed out by maryland grower, the mass of pink is not due to the petals of the flower, but rather the persistent sepals. This colouration is evident in autumn (today's image was taken in October).

For more reading about this species, see the previous detailed entry on Heptacodium miconioides.

Entomology resource link: The University of California Integrated Pest Management program's Natural Enemies Gallery features insect predators of common insect pests in California (and elsewhere). Discovered via the Librarians' Internet Index.

Many thanks to silvercreek_garden@Flickr aka Terry for sharing today's photograph (original image). Terry has also posted a related image on the UBC BG Forums: Tomato Bounty. Makes me hungry!

The scientific name for the tomato in general use for over two hundred years was Lycopersicon esculentum. However, molecular studies in the past fifteen or so years have helped to shift the name back to the one originally assigned by Linnaeus, Solanum lycopersicon.

Purdue's Center for New Crops and Plant Products has a good set of links about the tomato (under the taxon's old name): Lycopersicon esculentum. Among the resources suggested by Purdue is a link to a short essay about the history of the tomato, “How the Tomato Succeeded” – quite a good read.

The epithet amplexicaulis means “stem-clasping”, describing (in this case) the attachment of the leaves to the stem. You can see what is meant by amplexicaulis via the secondary photograph in the Kemper Center link below or via this image of Asclepias amplexicaulis.

'Firetail' red bistort or mountain fleece is an RHS Award of Garden Merit plant. For gardening info about this plant, visit the MBG's Kemper Center for Home Gardening.

Botany resource link: The blooming of Amorphophallus titanum at Brooklyn Botanic Garden, suggested by Karen V, a BPotD commenter. Thanks, Karen!

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.

Peter Wharton stood outside my work door early yesterday morning and proclaimed “The Magnolia delavayi is in bloom.” I could predict the next sentence to be uttered. “Do you want to take a photo of it?” Here is one of those photographs, rendered in black and white.

I am hoping that Peter will have the time today to add more information about the plant in the comments. For now, I'll share that this is an evergreen magnolia from southern China. It is rated as endangered by the 2006 IUCN Red List because of its fragmented populations (five or fewer) and continuing degradation of habitat – not encouraging.

This particular plant can be seen east of the junction of Handel-Mazzetti trail and Lower Asian Way in the Asian Garden. Each flower lasts less than a day, so this flower has already dropped its tepals. If you'd like a chance to see this rarity, it should have enough flower buds that it will continue to blossom through the upcoming weekend.

I'm glad that a few photographs turned out from my weekend trip to Vancouver Island. Otherwise, I'd be even more cross at the one hour delay for one ferry (on the way there) and the four and a half hour delay on the way back. I didn't get home until 4 AM Monday morning; 4 AM was also the time I started on Sunday to reach Botanical Beach at low tide, the site of today's photograph.

Sea sacs are an algae of the intertidal zone, the area between the high tide mark and the low tide mark. The narrow band of the intertidal requires its inhabitants to have developed a number of strategies or structures to survive in this harsh area; mechanical pounding of the surf, temperature and moisture fluctuations and salinity variability are just a few of the conditions requiring special adaptations.

As noted in this essay on Halosaccion glandiforme, one adaptation of this alga to live in the intertidal is its gross morphology. The short, tubular shape of sea sacs helps to prevent damage from churning water. A second adaptation is the ability of sea sacs to retain water internally in the sac, moderating the extremes of temperature and moisture that would otherwise be experienced by the organism.

More photographs of Halosaccion glandiforme can be seen on California Biota and Seaweeds of Alaska.

photo fiddler@Flickr, from Nova Scotia in Canada, submitted today's image (BPotD Flickr Pool | original image). If you get a chance, be sure to visit his Flickr page – quite an intriguing series of photographs! Thanks, photo fiddler!

Known commonly as Queen Anne's lace or wild carrot, Daucus carota is the parent species of the modern-day cultivated carrot, though it is barely edible. A few sites suggest to not even attempt sampling it, because of the similarity between this species and other members of the Apiaceae (or parsley family), some of which are deadly poisonous. I'd agree with that recommendation.

The Center for New Crops and Plant Products at Purdue state the nativity of Daucus carota is unclear, but that it is probably native to western Asia or the Near East. It is now found throughout much of the world, including most of North America (where it is sometimes considered invasive). Given that the cultivated carrot can be grown in nearly every climate, it is not surprising that the wild species shows a similar ability.

This photograph from a resort garden in Bukit Tinggi, Malaysia is courtesy of Lindsay McGhee, a UBC biology student. Lindsay is working with me on the garden's John Davidson project. Thank you, Lindsay!

If you attempt a search for images of Hoya pubicalyx, you are likely to find photographs of the red- to dark-coloured cultivated forms of the species, e.g. Hoya pubicalyx 'Silver Pink'". However, I am fairly certain that white to pink is the typical colour range for the flowers of this species in the wild.

For an introduction to the diversity within the genus Hoya, visit the online photograph gallery of the International Hoya Association. Similarly, a written introduction to the genus Hoya in Singapore and Malaysia is available from the Nature Society of Singapore.

This photograph is courtesy of John Harvey. I'd previously suggested John's site as a photo resource link, including the section on Learning Photography. John participates from time to time on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums, where he submitted this (and other) photos via the BPotD Submissions Forum. Thanks John!

I don't think I can add much to what Richard Hebda of the Royal BC Museum has written about showy Jacob's-ladder, so I suggest visiting that web page to learn more. Since the species occurs in Washington state, the ever-reliable Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture has a section on Polemonium pulcherrimum with a variety of photographs.

The specific epithet for this taxon, carnosus, translates to “fleshy”, in this case referring to the thick petals. The common name, fleshy-flowered spindletree, obviously mirrors the scientific name.

The genus Euonymus belongs to the family Celastraceae. Browsing through the listing of other genera in the family, I feel confident in stating it is one of the few members of the Celastraceae to succeed in adapting to temperate climates.

Photography resource link: The plant images of Wikimedia contributor Stan Shebs. Many photographs from UBC Botanical Garden are in the gallery, including this one of today's plant, Euonymus carnosus. It's a rather good illustration of the thickened petals!

Like yesterday's Actinidia deliciosa photograph, today's picture features an important food crop. Opuntia ficus-indica, commonly known as Barbary fig, prickly pear or Indian fig, is grown throughout arid and semi-arid regions of the world as both a sweet fruit crop (tuna) and a vegetable crop. Like Oryza sativa (rice), Opuntia ficus-indica is a cultigen.

The USDA PLANTS database has a number of images of prickly pear, if you'd like to see a specimen image of the plant. I chose to focus on the spines in this photograph taken in Santa Barbara Botanic Garden in March.

For a fascinating read, learn about cochineal, a crimson dye extracted from Dactylopius coccus, an insect feeder on Opuntia species.

Chinese gooseberry, kiwifruit and Macaque peach are only a few of the common names for this woody vine. The sixty or so species of Actinidia are native to temperate eastern Asia with a range stretching from Siberia to Indochina. The association of the name “kiwifruit” with this plant was a successful marketing tactic by New Zealand growers. However, since the name was not trademarked (and any entity can therefore sell “kiwifruit”), a trademark name is now being used to identify fruit originating from New Zealand as opposed to other countries, Zespri™ (no comment). Wikipedia goes into more detail about the evolution of the common name for Actinidia deliciosa in its entry on kiwifruit. Purdue's Centre for New Crops and Plant Products also has a detailed report from an economic botany perspective.

This particular plant at UBC Botanical Garden stretches about 20m high, weaving its way up through the branches of a western red cedar (in fact, it is rooted about 5m behind the stump from yesterday's photograph). Ripe fruit are never harvested, due to squirrels sampling nearly every fruit. Occasionally, the squirrels cause the fruit to drop on unsuspecting visitors.

Photography resource link: Dr. Ian Cumming is a Professor Emeritus in UBC's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. On his official ECE web page, however, Ian shares his wildflower and hiking photographs (with an emphasis on British Columbia).

I suspect today's photograph won't be for everyone, but c'est la vie. I experimented with night-time photography for the first time last night. What you see is neither the result of the in-camera flash nor an external flash unit. Instead, a 2.25 million candlepower spotlight was used to “paint” the light on the western red cedar trunk and stump. Considering the spotlight is supposedly visible from over 1.6km (1 mile) away, it still took a few experiments to paint a particular area for a long enough period of time to get the exposure right. I should admit that this image is actually a composite of two exposures – the trunk was better exposed in one image while the stump was superior in another, so the two images were blended together to produce this one. I imagine that bit of trickery won't be necessary with practice.

As it turns out, even a garden in an urban setting can be a little scary at night when the wind causes leaves to scratch along the paved paths.

Thanks to Eric in SF@Flickr for today's photograph (original), taken in San Francisco's Conservatory of Flowers (adding yet another place for me to visit when I next travel to San Francisco!).

Spicy jatropha or peregrina is native to Cuba. Introduction into south Florida for its ornamental value has resulted in the plant becoming naturalized in some areas.

Although its a member of the Euphorbiaceae or spurge family, it does not have the highly specialized cyathium inflorescence found in the genus Euphorbia. Instead, it has “typical”, albeit unisexual, flowers (the flowers in Eric's photograph are male flowers; an image of both female and male flowers can be seen on Dr. Gerry Carr's page about the Euphorbiaceae).

The Plants of Hawaii web site shares a few photographs of the plant in cultivation. If you live in a tropical or subtropical area, you might also like to read this fact sheet about Jatropha integerrima (PDF).

It's been a little while since we've had a fungus on BPotD, so I'm glad a few people are contributing photographs recently. Today's image is from Ken in Australia, aka kjbeath@Flickr (original image via the Flickr BPotD Group Pool). Thank you, Ken!

A member of the stinkhorn family of fungi, Aseroe rubra is commonly known as the starfish fungus or sea anemone fungus (for obvious reasons, I hope). Tim Geho of MushroomExpert.com writes that it is not only widespread throughout the south Pacific, it is also the most common stinkhorn in Hawaii. It apparently can also be found in southeastern North America, but like Tim, I've not been able to verify whether it is native or not.

Some interesting factoids are also available on this summary from a radio or television show in Australia with Tim Entwistle of the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. Two of my favourite tidbits are: 1) it was the first fungus ever collected in Australia by Western explorers; and 2) its name literally means “disgusting red”.

Updated November 6, 2007 at 3:00pm local time: Thanks to the comment from Harry Luther below, I've updated this entry to the proper name. This entry was originally posted as Neoregelia 'Maya'. – Daniel

Kind thanks to Van in NYC@Flickr for sharing today's image (original image), photographed at the Montréal Botanic Garden.

It's a holiday long weekend here in British Columbia, so only a selection of links about this pineapple relative today! The genus Guzmania via Wikipedia gives a brief overview of this group of tropical plants. For more photographs, the Florida Council of Bromeliad Societies has a photo database. Lastly, the Mount Holyoke College Botanic Garden has an excellent page showing some of the diversity within the Bromeliaceae.

The textile in this scan is courtesy of the garden's new education coordinator, Nadine Diner, who purchased the item during a recent trip to the Jalapão region of Brazil. The object is woven from the scapes of capim dourado – golden grass (Syngonanthus nitens) – and bound with fibres of buriti palm (Mauritia flexuosa).

Despite its common name, it isn't a true grass – it belongs to the family Eriocaulaceae, not the grass-encompassing Poaceae.

Instead of rewriting what already exists online, I'll direct you to the best resources: a short summary of capim dourado with photographs; some of the textile products made with capim dourado; two galleries of photographs from the Jalapão region (gallery 1 accompanied by a written blurb and gallery 2); “O brilho do Capim Dourado” (in Portuguese, accompanied by photographs) and the dissertation of Isabel Schmidt (PDF), who studied the optimal time to harvest Syngonanthus nitens (again, mostly in Portuguese).

I hope it's okay to feature an ornamental herb from the same plant family two days in a row! Yesterday's sage is joined by this ornamental oregano, 'Barbara Tingey'. Today's photograph was taken in the UBC Alpine Garden two years ago.

Some of the alpine plant enthusiasts who read BPotD will doubtless know the origin of the cultivar's name. I noted that one of the alpine garden society's has an award named for Barbara Tingey, so I am supposing that's the connection.

A few good places to visit online to learn more about ornamental oreganos: Pacific Northwest Magazine has an article, “Beauty With Virtue”; Denver Botanic Gardens is currently featuring 'Barbara Tingey' oregano on its What's Blooming web page (this link won't last forever!); and sagellyn@Flickr, who often submits images to BPotD, has a photograph of Origanum 'Barbara Tingey' to share as well.

Photography resource link: A few months ago, I suggested visiting the photography web site of Mike Mander, Sublime Photography. It's worth visiting Mike's site again. In the time since it was last featured on here, Mike had a digital camera converted to take infrared photographs only. These new shots are absolutely otherworldly, including these photographs from UBC and UBC Botanical Garden. I should note that I met Mike on Tuesday and had the pleasure of seeing some of these photographs in print.

The genus name Salvia is derived from the Latin salvere, meaning “to be saved” i.e., to heal. Unsurprisingly, some species of sage were historically used as healing herbs. Salvia patens, however, does not seem to have a history as one of the healing species. It is instead an ornamental sage, cultivated since 1838 in Western gardens.

Wayne Armstrong has a page on the genus Salvia that is well-worth reading if you've the time.

Today's image is courtesy of Janet Davis, garden writer extraordinaire and author of the Beautiful Botany web site (previously featured as a resource link). Janet used this image of butterfly milkweed and a monarch butterfly to illustrate her article on butterfly plants. Please keep in mind that the usual copyright terms apply to this image since it is from someone not employed by UBC Botanical Garden. Thank you, Janet!

As mentioned in a previous entry, milkweeds are the exclusive food of monarch butterfly caterpillars. Toxins in the milkweed sap accumulate in the tissue of the caterpillar, rendering it (and the subsequent adult) poisonous and inedible to birds.

Asclepias tuberosa has two features that distinguish it from other milkweeds: 1) its sap is not milky, and 2) its leaves are alternately arranged, instead of opposite. The Shenandoah National Park in the US has an excellent factsheet on Asclepias tuberosa for more information.

On a final note, monarchs have been in the news and editorials recently regarding an international agreement to conserve monarch habitat. “Is the mighty monarch butterfly on its last wings?” is an editorial questioning the utility of the agreement in the face of other dangers to the monarch.

Photography resource link: The Making of a Fine Art Photograph, an article by Pete Myers for The Luminous Landscape web site. It examines the process and time spent in “digitally developing” an image for fine art after pressing the shutter.