Rogue River stonecrop is endemic to southwest Oregon, where it is found only along a less than 96km (60mi.) strip of the Rogue River and its tributaries. It is considered a Sensitive Species in Oregon and Critically Imperiled by the USDA. Threats to remaining plants listed by the USDA include: horticultural collecting for rock gardens, trail maintenance, recreational use of its habitat, and flooding. I've seen the result of horticultural overcollecting on other species (e.g., Cistanthe tweedyi), and I would say that there isn't much apparent evidence of plant-collecting at this site. In the instance of the Cistanthe, it was quite apparent that the density of individuals in a given area was higher (sometimes much) where plants were inaccessible. Here, for the few plants that I observed (one didn't have to go far), most were easily accessible both in terms of the distance from the vehicle and within 2.5m (8 ft.) up the face of the cliffs. A few plants even had potential for "drive-thru" photography--you could sit in your vehicle and photograph them out the side window.

Sedum moranii is named in honour of the now recently-deceased Dr. Reid Moran (scroll down linked page for short article), a US-born botanist (1916-2010). He was the Curator of Botany at the San Diego Natural History Museum from 1957 to 1982 and the author of the Flora of North America treatment for the Crassulaceae.

You can read the Flora of North America account for Sedum moranii for more or see additional images via Dr. Gerald Carr: Sedum moranii.

For local readers in the Vancouver, BC and Seattle, WA areas: in Vancouver, the Beaty Biodiversity Museum is hosting a photography exhibition called Interaction beginning March 6th, which will include sixteen photographs of mine. Read more on the Beaty's events page. For those of you in or around Seattle, the Miller Library is hosting a botanical art exhibit from March 2nd to March 29th in conjunction with the conference "Conserving Plant Biodiversity in a Changing World: A View from NW North America". I have two photographs in that exhibit, as well.

Today's entry was written by Douglas Justice, UBC Botanical Garden's Curator of Collections. Douglas writes:

Rhododendron 'Cornubia' is one of the few hybrid rhododendrons cultivated in the UBC Botanical Garden collection. The parentage of this beautiful plant includes three Himalayan species, all of them superb in their own right and all of them cultivated in our collection. The cross is Rhododendron 'Shilsonii' (Rhododendron barbatum × Rhododendron thomsonii) × Rhododendron arboreum 'Blood Red'. 'Cornubia' is not a common plant locally and is notoriously shy to flower, especially when winters are cold. Our specimen, which was a bit of a mystery plant for many years, is located in the David C. Lam Asian Garden where it is growing exceptionally well, and now blooming with some regularity.

The focus in the Asian Garden has always been on species rhododendrons, but for the past twenty or so years, our attention has increasingly shifted to the cultivation of plants of known provenance (i.e., from documented wild-collected seed). Hardly the place for a hybrid rhododendron, but 'Cornubia' had only flowered once or twice since it had been planted in the early 1990s, and until about ten years ago, when it was finally identified, it had an old label that identified it as Rhododendron fulgens, which it clearly was not. One of the problems with a large rhododendron collection (or any collection of plants for that matter) is that identifications need to be verified, labels applied, and records kept up to date. The process has to be repeated periodically, because, as everyone knows, plant names change, specimens are moved and labels are inevitably lost (or stolen). From a curatorial perspective, we know better than to be doctrinaire about the "purity" of our collections. It's a beautiful plant. It's correctly labeled, and growing well. We'll keep it where it is.

Frequent contributor beranekp@Flickr shares today's image, taken in Prague in late April of 2006. Thank you!

This herbaceous perennial (to 30cm / 1 ft. tall) is widely used in cultivation, and accordingly has a list of common names; Wikipedia uses badan, Siberian tea, Mongolian tea, leather bergenia, winter-blooming bergenia, heartleaf bergenia, elephant's ears or elephant-ears, but even that isn't comprehensive. The UC Davis Arboretum, for example, uses pigsqueak.

Paghat has a gardener's perspective on Bergenia crassifolia, while the Plants for a Future Database contains some additional information and photographs: Bergenia crassifolia.

The Flora of China account for Bergenia crassifolia reports it being present in Xinjiang, northern Mongolia, Russia, and North Korea. The latter is puzzling, as it would mean the North Korean populations are disjunct by over 2000km from the rest of the range of the species.

Thank you to Robert W. Smith, a first-time contributor, for sharing today's photograph with us via the Botany Photo of the Day Submissions Forum in this thread. 'Tis appreciated!

Robert called this species tall beggar-ticks, but big devils beggar-tick is also used. Some sources cite it as being native only to eastern North America, while others (e.g., GRIN) suggest it is native to both east and west. It is considered a red-listed (rare) species in British Columbia--a designation which wouldn't apply to an introduced species. That it has been introduced to Europe (where it has sometimes naturalized) is not in doubt, however.

This photograph was taken in an open wooded floodplain, which is consistent with its typical habitat: "Ditches, shores of lakes and streams, swamps, marshes, moist woods, roadsides, railroads, fields, waste areas" (via Flora of North America: Bidens vulgata).

Dr. John Hilty's Illinoiswildflowers.info site contains an excellent factsheet about the species: Bidens vulgata.

I think I'll be able to start sharing some photographs from this year soon, as spring is on the early side locally (for now). This image is from last summer, in early July.

Crown brodiaea or harvest brodiaea is a 10-30(40) cm (4-12(16) in.) tall herbaceous perennial, associated in extreme southwest British Columbia with mesic to dry grassy slopes and rocky bluffs (with a few outliers). Its range extends south through Washington and Oregon into California.

A rare rosy-purple to rosy-flowered variant is recognized as Brodiaea coronaria subsp. rosea, found only in three localities in northwestern California. Photographs of both subspecies are available via Calphotos: Brodiaea coronaria.

Thanks to Damon Tighe@Flickr for submitting his photo of Quercus agrifolia from Oakland, California (via the Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Pool). Damon's photostream on Flickr has quite a few recent botanical images from California.

A photograph of the acorns and foliage for coast live oak or California live oak is available from a previous Botany Photo of the Day entry, Quercus agrifolia. In trying to track down the meaning of "live oak" when it is used in a common name, my conclusion so far is that all live oaks are evergreen and North American, but not all evergreen North American oaks are known as live oaks. Also, the live oaks belong to different taxonomic groupings within Quercus. Five species, in Quercus Section Quercus, or the white oaks, are native to southeast and south-central North America. Four species given the common name live oak are native to southwestern North America. Three of these species are in Quercus Section Lobatae, the red oaks, and one is in Quercus Section Protobalanus, or the intermediate or golden-cup oaks.

Calphotos has many images of this iconic Californian tree species: Quercus agrifolia. Quercus agrifolia can also be found in Baja California.

This image from last autumn (late October) was taken in the E.H. Lohbrunner Alpine Garden here at UBC. Since no cultivar name is specifically assigned for this plant, it suggests that it is either an unidentified cultivated variety or grown as a seedling (and therefore would not be the same as its parent, even if its parent was a named cultivar). The peculiar notation, "[Dissectum Viride Group]", adds some information, indicating that this plant belongs to a Group of dissected-leaf Japanese maples from cultivation.

Missouri Botanical Garden has a gardening factsheet available: Acer palmatum var. dissectum [Dissectum Viride Group].

I used a different piece of software for processing this photograph--a program that merges two (or more) photographs taken at different planes of focus. It looks like I'll have to play with some of the settings, as the photograph appears a bit too saturated.

Well, let's see if the multiple email notifications glitch happens again...

A thank you to wlcutler@Flickr, aka Wendy Cutler, for sharing today's image of Triplaris cumingiana from her recent visit to Florida, where she visited Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. Much thanks, Wendy!

Triplaris cumingiana, known commonly as long-john, is native to Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. As explained by Georgia Tasker on one of the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden blogs (weblog article), it is also known as ant-tree, as the trunks are hollow and can be inhabited by stinging ants when growing in habitat. It seems the ant species associated with this tree, Pseudomyrmex triplaridis, was named after the genus.

Both male and female flowers are shown in Wendy's photograph. The female (pistillate) flowers are the far showier ones, while a couple male (staminate) flowers are present near the top left of the image. A few side-by-side images of the male and female flowers, as well as many additional photographs of this species and a botanical description, are available via the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute: Triplaris cumingiana.

Botany and mathematics resource link: A continuation of the earlier Doodling in Math: Spirals, Fibonacci, and Being a Plant video from last month, here are part 2 and part 3, concluding the series from Vi Hart. And, using what you learned in the those 3 videos, you'll quickly see why this was necessary: an Open Letter to Nickelodeon, re: SpongeBob's Pineapple under the Sea.

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).