Thank you to tonrulkens@Flickr, aka Ton Rulkens, for sharing today's photograph (via the Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Pool. 'Tis appreciated.

Gloriosa superba, or flame-lily, makes its second appearance on Botany Photo of the Day. A previous image of Gloriosa superba from India suggests that there is little flower morphological variability across its range in the tropical areas of Africa and Asia. Today's photograph is from Mozambique (Gloriosa superba via Flora of Mozambique).

Melliodendron xylocarpum was featured in the first Botany Photo of the Day, nearly seven years ago. At the time, Douglas Justice, UBC Botanical Garden Curator of Collections, commented:

"Melliodendron xylocarpum--the name means something like woody fruited honey tree--is, according to the 1998 book "Rare and Precious Plants of China," native to China's southern provinces at between 500 and 1500 metres. Not an elevation to give much confidence in its cold hardiness, but because it has wintered here completely unscathed since planting (1996), I suspect that it had a more extensive historical range. Melliodendron is in Styracaceae (snowbell family) and monotypic (a single species in the genus) and is probably closely related to Rehderodendron and Sinojackia, both of which have similar ribbed, woody fruits...This [2005] is the third or fourth year that Melliodendron has flowered at UBC. Thankfully, we have 7 individuals--all planted in 1996, all, we assume from the same seed lot (the plants came to us from a commercial supplier)--and the one pictured, which is our finest specimen, will be spared the now constant crush of traffic when the others start flowering more prolifically."

Today's photograph is from May of 2011. This is a different plant from the previous entry, and it helps to show some of the flower colour variability between individuals (here, noticeably pinker).

apasar@Flickr is the photographer of today's image (via the Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Pool | original image), taken in India. Many thanks!

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.

A favourite from last year's trip to North Carolina, Vasey's trillium (or sweet trillium or sweet beth) is native to parts of only five states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. Once thought to be a variety of Trillium erectum, the Flora of North America points out a number of differences between the two species: "Although sometimes submerged within Trillium erectum, Trillium vaseyi has a later blooming season, a nodding flower of much larger size, a sweet fragrance, and cove habitat unlike that of Trillium erectum...Trillium vaseyi is clearly a distinct species" (but see below). By contrast, Trillium erectum (sometimes known as stinking benjamin) is described as having "flower odor fetid, of wet dog".

However, Trillium vaseyi is indeed closely related to Trillium erectum, along with a half-dozen or so other species, though a strict species concept does not really work. The work of Christina Stoehrel, in her Master's thesis on A Study of the Systematic Relationships Between Members of the Trillium erectum Complex (PDF via the North Carolina Native Plant Society's page on trilliums) observes that "The populations of Trillium vaseyi that are parapatric (distributed adjacent to, but not overlapping with) or allopatric (isolated in its distribution, not near) with other taxa are more closely related to each other than to the other taxa, but each population has a distinct allozyme haplotype, which eludes to varying ecological selection. The populations of Trillium vaseyi that are sympatric with other taxa (overlapping distributions, populations in same area) are genetically dissimilar from the other Trillium vaseyi populations. Thus the Erectum Complex appears to be a syngameon: a collection of semi-species with varying degrees of reproductive connectivity". Research by KC Millam (referenced by Stoehrel in her thesis) "suggests that two groups began to diverge 600,000-900,000 years ago, the Trillium erectum clade and the Trillium cernuum clade; divisions within those two lineages began 280,000 and 90,000 years ago respectively".

Additional photographs of Trillium vaseyi (and other North Carolinian trilliums) are available via Jeff Pippen: North Carolina Wildflowers - Trillium.

Another member of the broomrape family today, Triphysaria eriantha is known commonly as Johnnytuck or butter and eggs. These annual plants can be found throughout most of California and parts of southwest Oregon. Calphotos has additional images, including photographs of the plants in habitat: Triphysaria eriantha.

It is likely this is the first member of the Orobanchaceae that I ever knowingly encountered--a small patch of scarlet Indian paintbrush grew on the edge of some gravel pits about 10km from my childhood home. This species is perennial, so that patch is possibly still there if someone hasn't torn up the rocky soil with an ATV or the like. I do remember being taken out by my parents specifically to see that patch on one or two occasions.

Castilleja has somewhere in the neighbourhood of 160-200 species, and almost all of these are in western North America. Castilleja coccinea is one of the exceptions, as it is broadly distributed across eastern North America. These plants, with their scarlet-red bracts, were photographed in early May.

Over the next few days, I'll be sharing some photographs from Thursday evening's presentation on Orobanchaceae (the broomrape family). I've been hearing a few comments that even if a long write-up isn't possible, simply sharing an image is okay, so let's try that.

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).

Unfortunately, it is another busy week for me, so only a short entry today. Thank you to mossgreen2011@Flickr aka Michael McNaughton for sharing this photograph from June 2010 (Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Pool | original image). It's appreciated.

The Calypso orchid has previously been featured on BPotD: Calypso bulbosa from May 2, 2005 and Calypso bulbosa from May 23, 2005. Like the species of Leontochir featured in the previous BPotD entry, it is monotypic (the only species in the genus).

Another first-time BPotD contributor today, Huenchecal.@Flickr, who is associated with the exceptional Chilebosque site about the native flora of Chile. Today's photograph was shared via the Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Pool (original image). Thank you!

Garra de león, or lion's claw, is endemic to Chile, where it is restricted to the coastal zone of the Atacama Desert. Photographed here in Llanos de Challe National Park, protection for the species seems necessary; it is considered endangered (PDF), though it doesn't seem to be formally recognized as such yet (it doesn't appear on the IUCN Red List, as an example). One of the reported threats is introduced goats: Leontochir ovallei via the Pacific Bulb Society Wiki.

Leontochir is a monotypic genus (it contains only the one species). Phillippi named it Leontochir in 1873 as a Greek translation of its Chilean common name. Like most other members of its subfamily (the Alstroemerieae), the species is a geophyte (it has fleshy underground storage organs). In the wild, the species flowers in October and November.

Additional photographs of this species are available from Arkive.org: Leontochir ovallei (including some by other occasional BPotD contributors).

Here is another photograph from a favourite area of mine in California, taken on April 5, 2010 (the same day as this photograph). Instead of identifying the plants when photographing these areas, I tend to just spend my limited time behind the camera. Fortunately, others who have the opportunity to spend more time with the plants have added some documentation, so I think it is relatively reasonable to use resources like Nature Alley to assign some names.

The small yellow flower that dominates the image is certainly a Lasthenia, or goldfields, but I would feel very uncertain assigning it to species. The purple inflorescences belong to a Castilleja, probably Castilleja densiflora. Resources for the area suggest that the remaining white and yellow coloured blossom is almost certainly the broadly-distributed Layia platyglossa.

Thank you to first-time BPotD contributor, Bill HIgham@Flickr, who shared today's photograph with us via the Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Pool (original image). I'm always grateful when given the opportunity to feature something from a family not yet seen on Botany Photo of the Day.

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).

Attempt number two at an entry today--the first attempt had to be abandoned when I finally figured out that the plant had been mislabeled and/or misidentified. So, an email has been sent off to let the institution know...

On the topic of confusion, yellow trillium, yellow wakerobin or yellow toadshade has also been a puzzle for taxonomists, so much so that the Flora of North America entry for Trillium luteum states: "Botanists have been confused by Trillium luteum for a long time. Some, such as A. E. Radford et al. (1968), appear to regard it as a form of Trillium cuneatum, while others confuse it with Trillium viride, a more western species. Early botanists confused Trillium luteum with the occasional individual or very local larger population of pallid color forms of other species. Trillium cuneatum rather frequently produces green, yellowish green, or pale lemon yellow forms (but with a cuneate larger and wider petal) that mimic Trillium luteum. These forms, when growing with Trillium luteum, hybridize, leading to so many intergrades that many plants cannot be placed in either species with any confidence. For these reasons, almost no work older than J. D. Freeman's (1975) can be used reliably to plot distribution of Trillium luteum". The map in the Flora of North America shows a relatively restricted distribution in Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky and North Carolina. In the USDA PLANTS database, Trillium luteum is also shown to be present in Michigan and Ontario, where it is an introduced species.

Flowering in April and/or May, Trillium luteum is a species of "deciduous forests, thin open woods, rocky stream banks and flats, clearings and openings, old fields, [and] rich mature forest on calcareous substrate[s]". This perennial grows at elevations from 200m to 400m.

The Missouri Botanical Garden provides a profile on Trillium luteum for gardeners, while the Pacific Bulb Society provides additional images: trilliums.

Another thank you to to Priscilla Burcher (aka PriscillaBurcher@Flickr) for sharing an image with Botany Photo of the Day (original image | submitted via the Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Pool). Much appreciated!

The shrubby Tibouchina heteromalla is endemic to Brazil, where it occurs in isolated or small scattered populations associated with rocky areas. Known commonly as silverleafed princess flower or glory bush, Tibouchina heteromalla is a popular ornamental plant. More on the species, including its pollination biology, can be discovered via Campos, C et al.. 2009. Floral biology and breeding mechanisms of Tibouchina heteromalla Cogn. in rocky outcrops in the South of Minas Gerais (PDF). Brazilian Journal of Ecology. Volume 8(?). The paper also makes note that the species is used in the recovery and reforestation of degraded areas.

Tibouchina is a member of the Melastomataceae, or the melastome family. This family consists of 188 recognized genera and just over 5000 recognized species, making it the eight largest vascular plant family currently. Most of the diversity of the family occurs in tropical and subtropical regions of the world, and most of that in the neotropics. Visit Melastomataceae of the World and click on the images link in order to explore some of the diversity of the family.

Plants and art resource link: time-lapse video of some plants from Buenos Aires and area: La lenta belleza de las plantas (link removed due to the video seemingly making use of copyrighted material from elsewhere), from user poseidon1257@vimeo (discovered via a Facebook friend, Elizabeth B.).

Today's entry was put together by Katherine. She writes:

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".

Leucadendron discolor, commonly known as the Piketberg conebush, is native to only a small part of Western Cape Province in South Africa. In 1998, it was assessed as globally endangered, as fewer than 5000 individual mature shrubs (or small trees) were known to remain, all within an area of 20km². However, this species of rocky sandstone soils is found in cultivation in areas like California and Australia. Today's photograph is from the San Francisco Botanical Garden, while frequent contributor to BPotD, Eric in SF@Flickr, has shared a (better) photograph of a plant from the Santa Cruz Arboretum: Leucadendron discolor.