Featured a few times previously on Botany Photo of the Day (including here and here), I thought I'd share another take on this (to me) iconic tree. Ponderosa pine or yellow pine is native to western North America, stretching from British Columbia south to central Mexico. The band of green leaves in the foreground is from Arctostaphylos patula, or greenleaf manzanita.
I'll make a stab at doing the "Botany and Spirits" series this week, as it looks like most days this week will afford me enough time for lengthier posts.
Photographed only a few metres away from the squirrel midden featured on BPotD last month, this common juniper plant is only one individual of the most broadly-distributed conifer species in the world (according to conifers.org: Juniperus communis). Native to most of North America north of Mexico as well as much of Eurasia, it also reaches into Algeria, Morocco, Nepal and Pakistan. I would guess there are exceedingly few vascular plant species one could find both within 100km of the Arctic Ocean and on the south side of the Mediterranean Sea.
The blue fruits of juniper are in fact seed cones, so therefore developmentally similar to cones such as the ones found on Cupressus, for example. However, the scales that form the cone are merged and fleshy in juniper, producing what are called juniper berries (technically speaking, not true berries).
The name for juniper in French is genièvre and in Dutch jenever, and through a bit of abbreviation, this leads to gin--the distilled beverage for today's entry in the series. The predominant flavouring for gin is juniper, though one local distillery uses at least 13 other botanical flavourings. Several different distillation and flavouring methods are used for the production of gin, with variation occurring in number of distillations, when flavourings are added, and types of stills used.
Wikipedia explores the colourful history of gin, including the Gin Craze of the early 18th century in Great Britain. Purportedly, of the 15,000 drinking establishments in London at the time, over half were gin shops. It also makes mention of some poetry regarding the social ills of excess imbibing: "The principal sin, Of Gin, Is, among others, Ruining mothers" (one of the British names for gin is "mother's ruin").
I think I'll forego the plants and mammals series I had planned, and instead share an occasional entry on the topic. Today's photographs were taken near the same site as this photograph. I had returned to that area in early October to perhaps make similar photographs of the to-me intriguing palette of colours, but the leaves had not yet changed enough. While returning to the vehicle, I also decided to check an antler I noted the previous year in the nearby forest, and that's when I stumbled upon this American red squirrel midden I had missed seeing before.
Despite frequenting a forest inhabited by American red squirrels when growing up, I don't recall ever having encountered a squirrel midden before--if I had, certainly not one of this size. Constructed almost entirely of the cones and cone pieces of white spruce, this midden measured approximately 4m x 3m (13ft x 10ft), with a depth at the centre certainly exceeding 30cm (1ft.). It actually took me a minute or so to figure out the origin of this huge pile of cones (despite the obvious burrows), and I even recall looking up to see if the trees here were particularly laden with cones. Eventually, however, I was chided by the midden's proprietor and the obvious was revealed to me.
As squirrels go, this one was relatively uninterested in scolding me for being nearby. Instead, it continued to gather more food for the winter. I had one opportunity to photograph the squirrel beside the midden, but it was too quick for me; the next chance to photograph the squirrel occurred a half-hour later, shared above with it showing off its cone-gathering skills.
Picea glauca, or white spruce, is native to northern North America, one of a only a few tree species native to every province and territory in Canada. Its range extends southwards into the northern USA (and is also found in Alaska). Other common names include Canadian spruce, skunk spruce, and cat spruce, the latter two names referring to the unpleasant odour often associated with the plants.
Rodent middens, when they include a diversity of plant species, are helpful for palaeoecologists to understand the changes in plant communities over time. A recent article: Diaz, FP. et al., 2011. Rodent middens reveal episodic, long-distance plant colonizations across the hyperarid Atacama Desert over the last 34,000 years. Journal of Biogeography. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2011.02617.x .
And, using that as a segue from Jasper to the Atacama Desert, I also thought I'd share a link forwarded to me this weekend: (Nov. 15 edit: apparently the next link only works if you have a Google Account, but you can find the story online if you search for the article title) Desert in bloom: colors explode in Chile's Atacama (additional photographs of the Atacama by Gerhard Hüdepohl).
The intense low sun of a late autumn afternoon in combination with a breeze off the Salish Sea helped to produce this image a couple days ago in the David C. Lam Asian Garden.
While taking the photograph, I was only reacting to the sights and experiences of bright leaves and moving branches. In the back of my mind, I would have had some familiarity with similar techniques or approaches used by other photographers under the same conditions. However, thinking about the photograph a bit more, it could also complement a number of stories about the David C. Lam Asian Garden:
Second-last in the prehistoric plant series written by Alexis:
Damon Tighe (Damon Tighe@Flickr) shares this photo from Lake Merritt, Oakland, California via the Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Pool. Thank you, Damon!
Also known as bunya pine, Araucaria bidwillii is part of a genus that dates back to the Jurassic period. In the Mesozoic era, species of Araucariaceae could be found in both hemispheres, "dominating the low latitudinal belt of summer-dry climates and living in mixed conifer communities in the middle latitudes" (Thomas and Spicer's The Evolution and Palaeobiology of Land Plants (1987)). Today, the range of the family is smaller, mostly restricted to the southern hemisphere. As one example, Araucaria bidwillii only occurs naturally in Queensland, Australia. In the fossil record, Araucaria bidwillii is present mainly in the form of seed cones (PDF).
In the wild, this species grows in rainforests on basaltic soils where it is often found with Araucaria cunninghamii.
A distinctive (and potentially dangerous, should you be under the tree) feature of Araucaria bidwillii is its female cones, which can be 30cm in length and weigh 10kg! For Aboriginals of Queensland, bunya seeds were a highly valued food source. The wood of this species is strong and straight-grained, and so is a desirable source of timber.
The Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks are on my mind as I prepare for a near-annual trip to the region for autumn colours. While this photo won't win any awards for visual drama, do note the golden colours of the deciduous trees and shrubs at the base of the avalanche chutes (particularly evident in the larger version of the photograph). Looking akin to a flow of golden lava at this time of year, these are plant communities of frequent ecological disturbance from the physical effects of avalanches.
Avalanche ecology is a relatively new field of study (if the dates on cited papers are a good indication). Seemingly, the suppression of avalanches is somewhat like the suppression of fire in changing ecosystem dynamics (see the results of a study in the Swiss Alps: Kulakowski, D. et al. 2005. Changes in forest structure and in the relative importance of climatic stress as a result of suppression of avalanche disturbances (PDF). Forest Ecology and Management. 223:66-74). Fortunately for the biodiversity of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks, I don't believe avalanches are suppressed (or, if at all, in only a few areas). For a broad overview of the importance of avalanches, see this video on the benefits of avalanches from the USFS National Avalanche Center, or, to learn about the importance for grizzly bears specifically, read grizzly bear use of avalanche chutes in the Columbia Mountains.
It's been one of those kind of weeks at work, so apologies for too few entries. On the other hand, a nod of appreciation to boobook48@Flickr (aka Lorraine Phelan) for sharing this photograph of a serene scene from Loch Maree, Scotland. Thank you!
Wikipedia provides a well-rounded look at the historical and biological importance of Loch Maree, so that's worth a read.
Broadly distributed through much of Eurasia, the Scots pines of Loch Maree represent, I suppose, the northwestern present extent of the species, though there are a few populations further west in Portugal and Spain, and it is found further north throughout Scandinavia, Finland and Russia. It also previously occurred naturally in Ireland, but was extirpated there. The Loch Maree population is special; to directly quote The Gymnosperm Database entry for Pinus sylvestris: "Trees from the extreme west of the range, in NW Scotland (Loch Maree area, Wester Ross)...show resin chemistry and adaptations to oceanic climates not found in the rest of the species' range. These trees are thought to have survived the ice ages on nunataks off NW Ireland and/or W Scotland, or are possibly derived from Spanish populations (Forrest 1980, 1982; Kinloch et al. 1986); as yet there has been no research as to whether this small endangered population deserves taxonomic recognition."
Updated @ 3:20pm on Thursday, September 8, 2011: Added a second photo to the entry by Douglas Justice of UBC Botanical Garden.
It's been a while since I've shared a scanned image from the John Davidson collection of lantern slides (all of these can be viewed on the gallery of the site dedicated to UBC Botanical Garden's first director, "Botany" John Davidson). Although this isn't one of the slides that he decided to hand-tint, I found it intriguing because I was able to locate a modern counterpart along with the story of how things changed.
A present-day view of this vista can be seen (added) with Douglas Justice's accompanying photograph or on Benjamin Simpson's Hodomania blog, in his entry on Kew Gardens (scroll to the bottom of the page, or here's a direct link to the image). A side-by-side comparison of the images shows the vista having been transformed from a relatively narrow lane with imposing Atlantic and deodar cedars to a wider lane with the addition of other trees and shrubs in a far more informal planting style. These latter plantings are also evident from the satellite photographs of Kew via the Google Maps link below the photograph.
The changing cultivated landscape helps to date John Davidson's photograph, placing it before 1923-1924. However, it is still unknown as to whether this was taken on a return visit to the UK for him, or prior to his immigration to Canada in 1911. Kew's web site helps to determine the date, because they include a brief history of the Cedar Vista:
"Cedar Vista... was planted in 1871...Constant pruning of the trees over the years led to their becoming mutilated, so in 1923-24 director Sir Arthur William Hill felled many and widened the vista by some 12 metres. Today, irregularly spaced trees give Cedar Vista the character of an 'informal avenue'."
Fortunately, a nearby forest fire didn't threaten UBC Botanical Garden last night and today. Had we had winds from the typical northwest direction overnight, the situation might have been different (more discussion on the fire).
Today's photograph is instead from Jasper National Park, in a forested area of lodgepole pines that had burned only a couple years ago. I assume this landscape will eventually look similar to this photograph of a lodgepole pine stand 10 years post-burn in Yellowstone National Park.
The USDA's Fire Effects Information System database has an extensive set of information on the fire-adapted Pinus contorta var. latifolia.
Alexis is working on a lengthy series to finish off her summer term as a work-study student for BPotD, so an additional recent photograph from me today.
Another day, another thing learned. I was under the impression that there was only one taxon of subalpine fir in much of western North America, Abies lasiocarpa var. lasiocarpa (a second variety, Abies lasiocarpa var. arizonica is found at high elevations in the southwest USA; see The Silvics of North America entry for how I understood the definition of Abies lasiocarpa). Digging a little deeper, I learned that the Flora of North America recognizes Abies lasiocarpa as a species distributed from Alaska through to California and a different taxon, Abies bifolia, as a species associated with the Rocky Mountains. Where the two taxa meet, introgression occurs (i.e., gene flow between the species, leading to populations or individuals with intermediate properties). Abies lasiocarpa var. arizonica is not formally recognized in the Flora of North America, though the author makes mention that it is likely instead a variety of Abies bifolia and that further study is needed.
The Gymnosperm Database treats the diversity of this group differently, recognizing three varieties of Abies lasiocarpa instead: Abies lasiocarpa var. lasiocarpa, Abies lasiocarpa var. arizonica and Abies lasiocarpa var. bifolia. Depending on the taxonomic approach, the plant in today's photograph would either be considered Abies lasiocarpa var. lasiocarpa (if other varieties are recognized, such as in The Silvics of North America or The Gymnosperm Database) or Abies lasiocarpa (if Abies lasiocarpa has no varieties, such as in the Flora of North America). Learning this today has prompted a re-examination of the Abies lasiocarpa in the UBC Botanical Garden collections, as we'll now have to decide which approach to use and then update the name on the plants from wild-collected seed from the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia.
A recent study has shown that small mammals prefer the seeds of other subalpine conifers over those of subalpine fir. This has generated a hypothesis that subalpine fir may have a competitive advantage over its coniferous cohorts, as its seeds are less likely to be eaten by rodents and it may therefore have higher establishment of seedlings (see: Lobo, N. et al. 2009. Conifer seed preferences of small mammals. Can. J. Zoo. 87(9):773-780. doi:10.1139/Z09-070).
A trip to the Shorepine Bog Trail in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve did not yield the hoped-for sighting of the introduced Darlingtonia californica (seen as recently as last year, and introduced over ten years ago). I'll excuse it on being too early in the season, given the hesitating spring. I am a bit curious as to why Parks Canada staff allow the plants to persist, given that they are non-native in many definitions of that term, but perhaps they are doing some long-term monitoring.
It was, however, an opportunity to enjoy the natural "bonsai" of the shore pines in the area. The boggy area is much smaller in extent than Burns Bog, so it is far more difficult to isolate individual plants from the background--I opted for a texture photograph of the landscape instead.
Pinus contorta has 3 or 4 varieties depending on the taxonomic reference. Variety contorta, the shore pine, is described in the Silvics of North America: "The thick-barked trees are relatively small, short-lived, and inherently branchy. Now mostly confined to marginal sites (muskegs, dunes, serpentine soils, rocky sites), this race pioneered forest succession in the Pacific Coast region at the end of the lce Age. Needles are short, rather narrow, and have more stomata per unit area than the leaves of inland races. Flowering is abundant, and female strobili tend to mature earlier than the male. The cones are reflexed and persistent. Cones usually open not long after they mature, but serotiny is increasingly common toward the interior. Seeds are small to medium-sized, and germination is slower than that of the interior races. Early height growth nearly always is faster than that of inland populations at the same latitude. Local variations include a chemically distinctive northern muskeg ecotype extending south to western Washington."
Pinus contorta var. contorta is one of the Great Plant Picks for local gardeners.
Today's entry was written by Claire:
This serene photograph of an enchanted forest on the Olympic Peninsula was submitted via the BPotD Submissions Forum by ferngirl42 of Seattle, WA.
If you are familiar with Pacific coastal forests in the continental northwest US, you'll know rainfall is one of the major factors in forest density and composition. The annual rainfall in some areas exceeds 350cm (~ 12ft.), permitting blanketing forests consisting mainly of western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), western red cedar (Thuja plicata) and Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis). The vegetation cover is so dense, hardly any sunlight pierces through the canopy. Close to the shoreline, though, the forest stalls, and light penetrates to the forest floor.
Near the shoreline, the Sitka spruce are not only exposed to the light, but also to the constant salt-laced maritime breeze (and sometimes ravaging winds). The burls (or burrs) are wood deformations caused by a stress to the growing tips of the plant. Some hypothesize that the salt-laced wind is responsible for burl formation in these Sitka spruces, others suggest viral or fungal damage. In general, the largest burls are found further south on coast redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens), but the first and second largest burls known are on display in British Columbia, at Port McNeill, with the largest weighing in at 30,481kg (69,200lb).
In the thread posting, ferngirl42 also makes mention of searching in this area for Polypodium scouleri, a fern commonly known as leathery polypody. Scouler's polypody (named for John Scouler), or leather-leaf fern, can be found across the western coast of North America. It is sometimes epiphytic, and ferngirl42 notes that she has found it growing on the burls of these huge conifers.
Today's entry was supposed to be posted yesterday, but we're still trying to determine the optimal settings for the new server, so it ended up crashing again last night. It shouldn't be too much longer before things are back to being stable, though.
I briefly spoke to the Vancouver Rhododendron Society last night about some of my trips to the Siskiyous, so while working through the images for that presentation, I pulled this one for BPotD today.
My inclination is to call this Jeffrey pine, but other common names are also in use, including bull pine and sapwood pine. This is primarily a California species, but it can also be found in the Siskiyous area of southwest Oregon and northern Baja California. As noted in the link, "Jeffrey pine often dominates and is almost entirely restricted to soils derived from ultramafic rocks- peridotites and their alteration products, serpentinites", and this is indeed the case in the Siskiyous, where the presence of Jeffrey pine indicates serpentine soils. In non-serpentine soils nearby, the similar Pinus ponderosa grows instead.
Commercially, the two species of pine are treated as indistinct, but there are biological differences. Some of these are summarized in the Wikipedia article on Pinus jeffreyi, such as Pinus jeffreyi having overall larger cones with inward-pointing barbs and needles that are glaucous (having a whitish to bluish waxy or powdery coating, such that the colour appears muted). Naturally-occurring hybrids between the two species are rare, in part because of the different times of pollen production and reception: in areas where the two species overlap, Pinus ponderosa releases/receives pollen 4-6 (-8?) weeks prior to Pinus jeffreyi. Wood chemistry is also different with respect to presence / absence of certain monoterpenes; n-heptane, n-nonane, and n-undecane are present in Pinus jeffreyi and seemingly absent in ponderosa pine (see: Anderson, AB, et al.. 1969. Monoterpenes, fatty and resin acids of Pinus ponderosa and Pinus jeffreyi. Phytochemistry. 8(5): 873-875.).
Conifers.org, as always, has excellent additional reading about conifer species: Pinus jeffreyi, and Calphotos has additional images: Pinus jeffreyi.
A note for local readers: I'll be speaking on Plants of Southern Interior British Columbia on Monday @ noon -- one of my favourite visual presentations.
Botany / gardening resource link: Florida's Native Wildflowers from the Florida Wildflower Foundation was recently launched, containing a weblog, a bloom map, a section on growing Florida wildflowers and much more. Definitely worth a peek and the bloom map is something to keep in mind if you plan to travel around the state.
Though I'm responsible for the photograph of these old-growth western red-cedars, the image wouldn't have been possible without the efforts of the many people involved in preserving this area. Large individuals of Thuja plicata are (or were) common along the coastal rainforests of western North America, but the exceptional trees in today's image occur in a special environment: the inland wet-temperate rainforest of British Columbia.
Knowing that my route to Jasper National Park from Prince George would pass this particular site, my hosts in Prince George assertively suggested I visit the Ancient Forest Trail. I was not disappointed! This area is part of the only temperate rainforest in the world found at a distance of 400-600km (250-375 miles) from the nearest ocean -- and the only rainforest in the world with a majority of its precipitation from snow (perhaps it is a snowforest?). Despite hot, dry summers and long winters, the western red-cedars of this region have been able to attain significant size due to a high subsurface water table and protection from fire. The groundwater constantly flows throughout the dry summer by the melting snow pack from nearby high mountain slopes.
High humidity from near-surface water and an enclosed canopy contribute to extensive lichen diversity. In the Incomappleux River Valley (about 400km to the southeast), another section of the inland wet-temperate rainforest yielded nine species of lichen new to science, three not previously known in North America and an additional three not previously known from British Columbia. Lichenologist Toby Spribille proclaimed: "This is by far the longest list of lichen diversity ever published in western North America for an area of comparable size...Such levels of lichen diversity and rates of discovery of new species are basically unparalleled in northern conifer forests -- even in coastal temperate rainforest" (quoted from The Incomappleux Discoveries (PDF) in Menziesia, the Native Plant Society of BC's newsletter, October 2007, Volume 12(3)).
Unfortunately, these highly biodiverse and scientifically-intriguing forests remain under threat: as an example from one region, of the 9482 ha (23 430 acres) identified very-old wet forests of the Upper Fraser River landscape (including the area featured by today's image), only 356 ha (880 acres) are protected within provincial parks.
For additional photographs from this trail, see Ancient Forest Trail Pics.
Continuing with the "Plant Biodiversity of China" series, here is a species we grow in UBC Botanical Garden. The first photograph is from 2002 or 2003, while the second was taken in January 2005 (I've added it for those of us currently experiencing summer conditions). The write-up for today's entry is again courtesy of one of the students from Dr. David Brownstein's "Research in Environmental Geography" course, Eva Lillquist. A thank you to Eva for the work. Eva writes:
Metasequoia glyptostroboides (common name dawn redwood) is an ancient tree species that once existed in abundance worldwide. Due to glaciation, almost all Metasequoia were killed, with the exception of a few populations in a restricted area of central China. First discovered in the early 1940s, scientists Dr. Wanchun Cheng and Dr. Hsenhsu Hu later uncovered plants growing in several sites in the Sichuan, Hubei and Hunan regions of central China. Prior to the discovery of living trees, Metasequoia was thought to be extinct, as it had only ever been encountered in fossilized form. As it was once nominated to be China's national tree, Metasequoia glyptostroboides holds significance to the national identity of China.
In 1980, the Chinese Government deemed the Metasequoia glyptostroboides to be critically endangered in the wild (although the species has been cultivated in roughly 50 countries). Estimates suggest there are currently only 5,400 trees still living in central China.
Efforts for conservation have been concentrated within Hubei, where the largest number of dawn redwoods reside. Conservation efforts, however, face challenges: due to population growth and an increased need for land development, habitat loss is a significant threat (particularly from rice cultivation). Another hurdle for conservation is the considerable debate about why Metasequoia glyptostroboides is endangered. While conservationists argue that the species has reached near extinction due to human disturbance, others, particularly those employed in the logging and wood harvesting industries, argue that numbers of trees are declining due to natural causes, creating a rationale that does not support the future conservation of the species.
Currently, the Chinese government has made significant efforts to address immediate conservation problems through policy work and the creation of protected wilderness areas. However, due to conflicting views about the use of land, and the use of Metasequoia wood for construction, the government must now focus on gathering greater support from different parties, including non-governmental organizations, stakeholders, and the public to generate awareness about threats to the species, the tree's significance to science, biodiversity, and national identity, and how these issues link with local industrial practices.
