The epithet pulchella means "pretty", but the meaning of Chrysothemis is a bit of a mystery. Broken down, chryso- means "golden" and -themis means "law" or "justice", but having read the botanical account where Decaisne assigns the name to the genus (Revue Horticole, 1849), there is no apparent explanation of what it is specifically intended to mean. It is possible that it is in reference to one of the many characters in Greek mythology named Chrysothemis (and, if researching it, you may find accounts suggesting that it is definitively named after the daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, but the evidence available to me doesn't seem to support that).

There is similar confusion about the common name. The USDA PLANTS database suggests squarestem, but other sites push sunset bells, black flamingo, or copper leaf. As near as I can tell, all of the latter refer to specific cultivars, so squarestem is the best candidate (the plant from today's photograph is very likely one of those cultivated varieties, though).

Cultivated in many tropical parts of the world, and grown as an indoor plant elsewhere, the species is native to parts of Central America and northern South America.

Orobanche corymbosa or flat-top broomrape, is native to western North America (including British Columbia), where it is frequently a parasite on members of the Asteraceae or sunflower family. In particular, these achlorophyllous plants often grow in association with big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata).

Dryopteris marginalis is endemic to eastern North America, extending southwest from the southern tip of Greenland to Kansas and Oklahoma. According to the Flora of North America for Dryopteris marginalis, it is a species of "Rocky, wooded slopes and ravines, edges of woods, stream banks and roadbanks, and rock walls". It appears to me that this plant is periodically submerged by the stream during periods of high waterflow.

The etymology of the specific epithet is explained by HardyFernLibrary.com (Dryopteris marginalis): "Marginalis means margined, referring to the position of the sori". A photograph illustrating the location of these spore-producing receptacles on the frond is also available on that site, or on the Ferns and Fern Allies of Wisconsin: Dryopteris marginalis.

Cunoniaceae, or the cunonia family, is primarily distributed in the temperate and tropical southern hemisphere. Bauera fits this distribution tidily, as the genus is endemic to southeastern Australia. A small genus of 3 or 4 species (depending on the reference), Bauera consists of short shrubs (<2m) which preferably grow in shady, cool and wet habitats. Checking our records here at UBC Botanical Garden, I notice that we had a plant of Bauera rubioides that was accessioned in 1982, but it was removed in 2002 as "deleted, year dead unknown" as part of an inventory. For us, it might be worth trying again, though we do have representation from other members of the family (i.e., Eucryphia spp.).

Multiple sources suggest that Bauera honours not one, but two individuals: Ferdinand Bauer and Franz Bauer, Austrian brothers famed for their botanical art. However, a few places suggest it only honours Ferdinand Bauer; Ferdinand was the one who did much botanical illustration work during early European exploration of Australia's coast.

Bauera rubioides, commonly known as madder-leaved bauera, wiry bauera, river rose or dog rose (illustration), is the most widely-distributed member of the genus, as it is found in Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales and South Australia. It has been grown in cultivation for centuries (in England since at least 1793, for example).

Thank you Wayne Weber (Wayne Weber@Flickr) for today's photo of Bistorta bistortoides.

Bistorta bistortoides is commonly known as American bistort, western bistort, smokeweed, mountain meadow knotweed or dirty socks (a reference to the "fragrance" of the flowers). Scientifically, it is also known by these synonyms: Polygonum bistortoides and Persicaria bistortoides.

This perennial species ranges in height from 0.1m to 0.75m, although plants will tend to be shorter if they are growing at higher elevations within their range (1300m-3800 m).

Bistorta bistortoides is native to western North America and is distributed from British Columbia, south to California, and eastwards into Alberta and the central United States (Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico). The Jepson eFlora lists Bistorta bistortoides as being present in "wet meadows, streambanks and alpine slopes".

Bistorta bistortoides blooms relatively soon after snowmelt and fruits later in the summer. Although no uses are listed by the USDA, the Flora of North America (linked above) provides some traditional native uses: the "roots of western bistort were used in soups and stews by the Blackfoot, [and] boiled with meat by the Cherokee, and used in a poultice that was applied to sores and boils by the Miwok (D. E. Moerman 1998)". Wikipedia also notes that Bistorta bistortoides is "edible either raw or fire-roasted with a flavor resembling chestnuts. The seeds can be dried and ground into flour and used to make bread. They were also roasted and eaten as a cracked grain".