Thank you again to Mary F., aka miconia @ Flickr, for sharing today's photograph (original via the Flickr BPotD Group Pool). Much appreciated! Mary's weblog, A Neotropical Savanna is a must-read.

Mary's comments with the photograph include details on where this plant was found: "Growing spontaneously in an orchard in western Panama, 800 m elevation." This plant was the second one she has discovered so far this year. She wrote an extensive weblog post about the first Xanthosoma mexicanum she encountered. In fact, I don't think I have much to add to what she's written, so I do suggest following the link for more information. I'll only pipe in that the distribution of the species is from Mexico to Colombia and Brazil.

For more photographs of the genus, commonly known as elephant's ears by some, see Xanthosoma on AroidPictures.fr.

A huge thank you to Dr. Nathan Muchhala for sharing his photographs of a mammalian pollinator in action to round out the pollinator series.

The flower of the plant species, Centropogon nigricans, is exclusively pollinated by the tube-lipped nectar bat, Anoura fistulata. In other words, this is an example of obligate pollination. It's also thought to be a prime example of co-evolution (PDF). Dr. Muchhala described Anoura fistulata in a 2005 paper, so this bat species was unknown to science as recently as three or four years ago. Native to the outer slopes of the Andes in Ecuador, Anoura fistulata has the longest tongue relative to its body length of any mammal -- so long, in fact, that it is necessary for it to retract its tongue into its rib cage.

The story of the discovery was widely covered in the press in late 2006, so here are a few places to spend some time reading: Floral Long-Necks and Bat Sippers via the Human Flower Project, the transcript of a Nature podcast with Dr. Muchhala about Anoura fistulata, and A New World Record from Bat Conservation International.

Dr. Muchhala has a series of photographs of bat-pollinated flowers (and related bats) here: Bat Pollination in Cloud Forests.

As for the plant, Centropogon nigricans, there's not much to be found about it online, other than what is written about it in relation to this story, including: "Specialization on one species of pollinator is exceedingly rare in angiosperms, and Centropogon nigricans is the only example known in flowers pollinated by bats." The genus Centropogon has a distribution range that extends from Mexico south into much of South America (including Peru, Brazil, Chile and Argentina). Of the 230 described species, 65 are found in Ecuador.

This will be the second-last image in this pollinator series, as there are plenty of great non-pollinator images in the Flickr pool and the garden's BPotD submissions forum to share. Thanks to Eric in SF @Flickr for sharing today's photograph with us (original via Flickr BPotD Group Pool). Much appreciated, Eric, as always!

Passiflora caerulea, or passionflower, has previously been featured on BPotD -- but not with a honey bee! As stated by Eric on the Flickr page, this species is bee-pollinated. Wikipedia's entry on Passiflora mentions the pollinators of other species: "Some species can be pollinated by hummingbirds and bumble bees, others by wasps, still others are self-pollinating."

The University of Connecticut's Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Greenhouses have a page on Passiflora caerulea with horticultural information. Wayne Armstrong provides a brief summary of economic uses, religious symbolism and toxic properties of the genus in a small write-up on Passiflora.

The photographer behind today's image is Jack Dykinga, who I assume must have done some work for the USDA's Agricultural Research Service at one time (unless there are two exceptional photographers named Jack Dykinga). Artistic work commissioned by the US government has few restrictions on its reuse, and in this case, the photograph is licensed under the Creative Commons.

As noted on the above-linked page, this is a photograph of an Osmia ribifloris on a species of Berberis. The bee is commonly known as a blue orchard bee or, due to its success as a commercial pollinator of blueberry crops, the blueberry bee. In the wild, it is typically a pollinator of Californian manzanitas.

Wikipedia has an intriguing entry on Berberis (or barberry); the write-up for the genus includes details about the use of some species as spices or foods in Asia and South America. Somewhere around five hundred species of barberry are thought to exist, growing in temperate and subtropical regions of most continents except Australia (and, it goes without saying, Antarctica).

Thank you to Regina13 @ UBC Botanical Garden forums for submitting these two photographs from New York (shared via this thread on the BPotD Submissions Forum). Much appreciated!

If one recognizes two distinct varieties of buttonbush, Cephalanthus occidentalis var. occidentalis has a distribution range that spans much of eastern North America. The other variety, Cephalanthus occidentalis var. californicus, is native to southwest North America and south into Central America. Treated as one combined taxon instead of two distinct varieties, as is done by the USDA PLANTS database, this becomes a rather remarkable species -- a woody plant with a distribution range that spans from Canada into the tropics.

In most cases, if asked, I'd say that species with wide distribution ranges are tolerant of a broad suite of environmental conditions. In this case, though, I suspect it primarily (though not exclusively) has to do with having some consistency in habitat across its range; it is a species of wetlands and forested swamps.

The Missouri Plants web site has additional images of Cephalanthus occidentalis. For those of you who are gardeners, you should investigate the Kemper Center for Home Gardening's page on buttonbush (it is ranked as a Plant of Merit).

As for the lepidopterans in today's photographs, the first photograph features an eastern tiger swallowtail. I don't know the identity of the second butterfly, so I'll leave that up to one of you (thank you!).

My apologies for being so late with today's entry -- I had a grant application deadline to meet.

One bit of housekeeping before the write-up. If you are a student studying botany (or a related field) at UBC, please consider the Botany Photo of the Day Assistant work study position for this upcoming school year! Or, if you know a UBC student studying something related, please let him or her know about the posting. Thanks!

Not all hymenopteran pollinators are bees, though they get most of the glory. Hornets can also play a role in pollination, as in the case of this critter pollinating the shrubby penstemon. Ingrid Hoff, the garden's horticultural manager, identified this hornet a few years ago, but I can't recall if she said it was a blackjacket or a baldfaced hornet. I suspect it's a male of the latter, despite the fact that it has more white markings than usual. Since I've been stung more times by hornets than bees, I recall not wanting to get any closer for the photograph with my point-and-shoot camera (this was in June 4 years ago). I do remember being fascinated by how the segments of the abdomen seemed to pulsate.

Penstemon fruticosus is a widespread subshrub native to central western North America. It is commonly found in dry and warm well-draining sites from low to subalpine elevations. A particularly floriferous selection was introduced to the nursery trade by UBC Botanical Garden in the 1980s / 1990s called Penstemon fruticosus 'Purple Haze', a clump of which can still be found in some ornamental plantings near the BC temperate coastal garden.

According to Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia, Penstemon fruticosus was used by First Nations peoples for dye (for baskets), flavouring (for pit-cooked vegetables) and a set of medicines.

Apologies, but I'm going to interrupt the pollinator series today. Instead, here's a photograph from the new Greenheart Canopy Walkway at UBC Botanical Garden. It opened this Wednesday morning to the public, and garden staff were among the first to experience this walk in the treetops.

The walkway is independently operated by Greenheart Conservation Company Limited and provides visitors with a lengthy 300+ m (1000+ ft.) suspension walk reaching a maximum height of 15m (50ft) above ground level.

It was pretty amazing to get up close and personal with some of the largest second-growth trees in the David C. Lam Asian Garden -- grand fir (Abies grandis), Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), western red-cedar (Thuja plicata) and big-leaf maple (Acer macrophyllum). Looking down one can see a combination of temperate coastal rainforest understorey shrubs and ferns interspersed with some fine specimen plants of Asian origin. All in all, very cool and it will definitely be the source of a few photographs in upcoming BPotD entries. Intriguingly, it will also be an opportunity to highlight research at UBC, as it is expected a number of researchers will be making use of the canopy as well.

Just a warning to other photographers: the range of light in the forest is going to be a challenge. If you have one, bring a polarizing filter to cut down on glare from the metalwork and foliage. I didn't use one today (had my point-and-shoot) so there are a lot of burned-out areas in the photographs I took. I'll have the advantage of going back when light conditions are more advantageous -- you may not.

These are photographs from the first week I started using a digital SLR camera, just over four years ago. The second one is cropped a bit more than I'd usually post to BPotD, but you get a bit more of a close-up of the hummingbird this way. I believe this is a female rufous hummingbird, Selasphorus rufus, as there seems to be some red-brownish colouration along her side. Hummingbirds can be spotted year-round at UBC Botanical Garden, as we have at least one resident Anna's hummingbird who can be seen throughout the winter. These photographs, though, were taken in June when the migrant rufous hummingbirds join the mix in the garden.

Hummingbirds have a high rank in my list of favourite birds. I remember holding one as a child until it recovered well enough to fly away after hitting the kitchen window -- as light as a coin. I also vaguely recall discovering an unused nest in the caragana hedge in front of the house, a sight only witnessed again several years ago when visiting the hummingbird house at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum (but this time with mom in the nest).

The summer 2000 membership newsletter at Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden contains an excellent article on hummingbirds: Why Do Our Hummingbirds Hum?. It features far more than I could knowledgeably write about hummingbirds as pollinators, the co-evolution of hummingbirds and flower morphology, and hummingbird behaviour, so I highly recommend it.

As for the Crocosmia 'Lucifer' in the photographs, it was previously featured on BPotD here: Crocosmia 'Lucifer', so do reread that entry for some information. I'll only add that it has a classic hummingbird-pollinated flower: red and tubular.

Note: this entry was rewritten on Sept. 23, 2008 due to a misidentification. Thanks to David (see comments below) for the correct ID.

Broad-flowered or hollyleaf gilia is an annual plant. A California endemic, it is found in the southern portion of the state in the southwestern Mojave Desert and adjacent foothills. These photographs were taken while I was developing the worst sunburn of my life in late March. This was thanks in part to the cool winds that gust through the Antelope Valley from the nearby mountains in spring, which deceived me into believing I wasn't being slowly roasted by the sun.

The closely-related species (and the name of my original, incorrect identification) Gilia tricolor is a popular annual ornamental, if search engine results are any indication. For a comparison between the correct identification and my original misidentification, Calphotos provides an extensive set of photographs of both Gilia latiflora subsp. davyi and Gilia tricolor.

As for the insect in today's photograph, I believe it is Hyles lineata (source: Butterflies and Moths of North America Database), or the white-lined sphinx. Wikipedia has some photographs of the larvae (caterpillars), as does this site. While many moths are nocturnal, it is noted that the white-lined sphinx will often be active during the day (and this one was plenty active!). I think I've linked to it before, but if you haven't seen the US Forest Service's site on Celebrating Wildflowers, it is worth investigating. They even have a section on moth pollination.

Let's start a little series on plants and pollinators, and see where that takes us. I can't guarantee I'll be able to identify all of the pollinators, but maybe some kind folks will identify and comment.

In this case, I believe this Sitka valerian is being visited by a hoverfly, a fairly common pollinator of plants. While population declines in pollinator groups such as bees and vertebrates get some press, the conservation status and potential effect of a decline in dipterans (flies and mosquitoes) is poorly understood (see: Kearns, C.A. 2001. North American dipteran pollinators: assessing their value and conservation status. Conservation Ecology 5(1): 5). Unfortunately, that likely isn't going to change soon, if this quote from the discussion section of that paper remains true:

"An attempt to document the conservation status of fly pollinators in North America reveals the need for further basic research into fly pollination systems, and into the natural fluctuations in dipteran abundance. The main impediment to implementing any of the large-scale studies recommended is that intensive collecting efforts produce large numbers of species that require identification. Fly species identifications are often difficult, and the number of fly taxonomists is limited."

Sitka valerian is native to western North America, where it is typically a plant of mid- to high-elevations in moist meadows and open subalpine forest. In some areas of the Thynne Mountain, where this photograph was taken, it was the dominant herbaceous species. Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia notes that First Nations groups often used the plant as a medicine or disinfectant.

Many thanks to CherriesWalks of the UBC Botanical Garden Forums for sharing today's photograph. If I recall correctly, it's the first photograph from Switzerland. The original was posted in this thread on the garden's photos & art forums. Much appreciated!

Leontopodium, broken down, means "lion's paw", but I don't think this is ever used as the common name. Instead, the German name for the plant is used -- edel, meaning "noble" and weiß, meaning "white" -- hence, edelweiss.

As is well-known, this is a species of alpine areas in south central and southeastern Europe. Overharvesting for use as a dried flower, plus its symbolic value, has led to it becoming a protected plant in many countries in the area.

Wikimedia Commons has an excellent set of additional images of Leontopodium alpinum, including an 1885 illustration.

When visiting California a couple months ago, one of the highlights of the garden tours was the chance to visit the Desert Garden Conservatory at Huntington Botanical Garden (it had been closed during my previous visit to the garden). It contains an outstanding collection of plants, including this desert rose.

Adenium obesum is a member of the widely-distributed dogbane family, or Apocynaceae. It is native to eastern and southern tropical Africa, as well as the Arabian peninsula.

You'll note the thickened stem, a trait which grants desert rose membership into an informal grouping of plants called pachycauls (literally, "thick stemmed"). It can also be called a caudiciform, due to the particularly swollen stem at the base (the caudex). Water storage is generally the strategy behind this mode of growth.

See more photographs of desert rose on Bihrmann's Caudiciforms site: Adenium obesum.

Today (Monday) is / was a holiday in British Columbia, so I was out photographing. I went up to Thynne Mountain. It had the most prolific wildflower bloom I've ever seen in a non-protected area in British Columbia. I was guessing I might see some uncommon plants near the peak, but the small flat meadows are also an area used by quads, so no such luck. Still, the upper reaches of the mountain were coloured blue, purple, yellow and white with lupines, penstemons, arnicas, and valerians. Noticeably absent were the reds of paintbrushes, which I've seen on other peaks in the Cascades range. I spent a bit of time trying to do colour medleys, but since I was photographing in the harsh light of the early afternoon, it was challenging (and not always successful).

I've featured Anemone occidentalis in a previous BPotD entry (and here as well), so trek on over to those entries for additional links.

There are approximately 35 species of spruce in the world. Picea mariana, or black spruce, is one of seven that are native to North America (north of Mexico). In comparison, China has sixteen native species.

Black spruce is distributed throughout Canada, Alaska and some northeastern US states, where it is typically a plant of wet organic soils (e.g., swamps and bogs) (distribution map).

Links to investigate: the Silvics of North America factsheet on Picea mariana, the always-excellent conifers.org page on the species, and Picea mariana in the Flora of North America.

I also note that the Plants for a Future database page on Picea mariana cites a reference stating that "The sawdust, the resin from the trunk and even the needles can cause dermatitis in some people." I don't think I ever received dermatitis from trees while walking through bogs in Manitoba, but I do recall a slight burning feeling on my forearms from the many light scratches I received from the sharp dead lower branches.