Again, I can't find any suitably-licensed photographs, so today's BPotD features more illustrations from the public domain work, Köhler's Medizinal Pflanzen (via Wikimedia Commons, image 1 | image 2). For photographs of Strychnos nux-vomica, please visit the Wikimedia Commons page: Strychnos nux-vomica.

Continuing with the "biodiversity and sports" series:

Most modern performance-enhancing drugs used in sports are either derived from animals or manufactured synthetically. However, some of the first performance-enhancing drugs were derived from plants, including an alkaloid present in large quantities in the two species featured today. Both Strychnos nux-vomica and Strychnos ignatii contain high quantities of strychnine (or, "rat poison").

Strychnos nux-vomica, or the strychnine tree, and Strychnos ignatii, or Ignatius-bean, are both native to tropical Asia, though the latter species also extends into warm temperate China. Individual trees of Strychnos nux-vomica grow to 25m (to 82ft.); Strychnos ignatii, on the other hand, is a liana, or woody vine. It climbs surrounding trees, reaching a maximum height of around 20m (65 ft.). Both species, though, were (are?) used in the production of traditional medicines.

Strychnine was first isolated as a chemical compound from the fruit of Strychnos ignatii in the early 19th century, though it wasn't until the mid-20th century that its chemical structure was determined. Strychnos nux-vomica is the most common source of this alkaloid. It is a stimulant; in lethal doses, it kills through muscular convulsions leading to either asphyxiation or exhaustion. Smaller doses of this muscle stimulant, however, can enhance athletic ability, and it is one of the first performance-enhancing drugs used in the modern Olympic games. In the 1904 Olympics, US marathon runner Thomas J. Hicks was injected with ~1mg of strychnine in solution--twice--and given brandy in order to complete the race and receive a gold medal. Read more:

• Strychnine at the Olympics via Wikipedia
• Cheats Sometimes Prosper via The Guardian
• One Man's Poison via The Boston Globe

I neglected to write down the name of this rose cultivar from the All-America Rose Selection display at Shore Acres State Park, so I suppose it will have to remain anonymous.

The idea behind today's entry for the "biodiversity and sports" series is thanks to Ron Long, who suggested sporting events and team names. I followed up with this and researched it for my presentation earlier this week, so here's what I discovered.

For major sporting events, there seem to be two types occasionally named after plants: thoroughbred horse races and US college football bowl games. Today's photograph is in reference to the latter, the Rose Bowl of Pasadena, California. My observation with college football bowl games (when named after plants) is that they tend to be a plant of significance to the local area. I'm not certain of Pasadena's connection to roses (though they certainly grow well there, and there is an excellent rosary in nearby Huntington Botanical Gardens), but other bowl games are more obvious: the Orange Bowl in Miami Gardens, Florida; the Cotton Bowl in Arlington (as of 2010), Texas; and the Poinsettia Bowl of San Diego, California (San Diego is the "home of the poinsettia").

Thoroughbred horse races seem also to be named after plants significant to the region, though I think a few might be named after the locale. A few that I found were the Blue Grass Stakes of Lexington, Kentucky; the Apple Blossom Handicap of Hot Springs, Arkansas; the American Oaks Invitational Stakes of Inglewood, California; and the Acorn Stakes of Elmont, New York. I think my list is far from exhaustive, though.

As for team names, one stands out in professional sports. Love them or hate them, the Toronto Maple Leafs represent one of the few professional franchises to be named after plants (and I looked at hockey, football, soccer, baseball, rugby, cricket...). So I suppose I should grudgingly give them a little respect for that tidbit (though it is an obvious use of a national symbol).

I was able to locate six other franchises / college teams with plant-related names. The first three are: the Portland Timbers (though their logo is an axe superimposed on a tree...), the University of Arkansas at Monticello Cotton Blossoms (the female athletic team; the male team is the Boll Weevils), and the Western Hockey League's Brandon Wheat Kings (similar to the Timbers, more to do with harvesting plants than celebrating the plant itself.

One of my favourites to discover was the Chaminade University Silverswords, named after a group of Hawaiian endemic species exemplifying "evolution in action" (adaptive radiation). Unfortunately, while the athletics department uses the plant in its logo, the official university seal uses only the more mundane metallic weapon.

Another team name that intrigued me was Mito HollyHock, a football club (soccer) in the Japan Professional Football League, Division 2. Of particular interest is that the plant species depicted on the team's logo (which incorporates the family crest of the Tokugawa clan) is definitely not a hollyhock (Althaea sp.). Instead, it is an Asarum, or ginger. To read more about this quirk, visit Tsukublog: The Mito Hollyhock Soccer Team Incorrectly Named!.

Lastly, the Scottsdale Community College Fighting Artichokes, named after a plant because students were upset with the college administration and decided to show their displeasure by voting for Artichokes as the team name (the other choices were the Rutabagas and the Scoundrels). Read the whole story here: Why the Artichoke?.

I invite anyone who can think of additional team names or sporting event names named after plants to add them via the comments -- might be intriguing to make a semi-definitive list.

Continuing the "biodiversity and sports" series today, Lindsay is again the author. Today's photographs are both via forestryimages.org, the first by Richard Webb (image | Creative Commons License) and the second by Keith Kanoti (image | CC License). Thank you!

Before starting today's entry, next month's International Year of Biodiversity theme at UBC Botanical Garden is "Biodiversity and the North". For BPotD, we're going to be looking for images of plant species that live in arctic or subarctic conditions. I know there are some potential photographs in the Flickr pool, but if you are a photographer on Flickr and know some of your own images that would be appropriate, please tag them with "iybmar", so we can quickly locate them. I have some photographs to share, but they will be from southern Alaska and Yukon. It'd be good to have some from Scandinavian countries or elsewhere (Siberia, anyone?).

Lindsay writes:

Snowshoes are thought to be one of the earliest and most important innovations in transportation technology, with evidence of a kind of primitive "ski shoe" being used in Asia around 6000 BCE. Composed of slabs of wood lashed onto the bottoms of feet, this early technology is also believed to have diverged with human dispersement. Peoples that settled in present-day Scandinavian countries developed the early design into the Nordic ski. Those peoples that moved eastward into North America created snowshoes resembling those seen today (link has photographs). It is believed that the crossing of the Bering Strait was made possible by the invention of the ski shoe.

Due to the manufacturing process and use, wood used in the fabrication of wooden snowshoes must be both tough and pliable. The wood of choice for First Nations in eastern North America was Fraxinus americana (or white ash), though birch, larch and willows are among the types of trees also sometimes used. Also commonly known as American ash, this large deciduous tree is found in mesophytic hardwood forests from Nova Scotia west to Minnesota and south to northern Florida. Unfortunately, the wood of white ash is susceptible to rot, so First Nations had to use the resin of several spruce species (red, white and black) mixed with animal fat to seal the wooden frame.

There are several traditional styles of snowshoes whose origin depended on locale and activity. Begining in the 1830s, the first recreational snowshoe clubs were established. In the 1970s, snowshoes began to make extensive use of synthetic materials and lightweight metals to replace natural materials (e.g., those developed by the Sherpa Snowshoe Company). This has led to a resurgence in the popularity of snowshoe recreation in the past couple decades, with events such as the Yeti Snowshoe Series.

Lindsay Bourque continues with the BPotD series on Biodiversity and Sports. The photograph today is by Dave Powell of the USDA Forest Service via forestryimages.org (in context on the site), while the public domain illustration is by Carl Lindman in "Bilder ur Nordens Flora". Sorry, I couldn't find a suitably-licensed version of a turfgrass image definitively identified as Poa pratensis, so you'll have to follow the links.

Lindsay writes:

Variously known as turf, pitch, field or green, turf grasses literally provide the staging for many of the world's most popular sports. What might fall from ubiquitous knowledge, however, is the co-evolution of sports turf and livestock. Hardy European species that were used for grazing livestock provided smooth surfaces ideal for playing surfaces. Indeed, the grounds of St. Andrews Links, Scotland, arguably one of the first golf courses in the world, was land originally granted by King David I in 1123 as public commons and was used for grazing. One theory has it that golf began with shepherds knocking stones into a rabbit hole while their sheep grazed. In fact, the origin of the term "lawn" refers to areas that were maintained in this way and are still retained in place names throughout the United Kingdom.

When European settlers arrived in North America, they brought not only their livestock but also seeds for grazing pastures. One of those species, Poa pratensis, commonly known as Kentucky bluegrass, is the parent species of some of the most commonly used cool season turf grasses today. This perennial groundcover is native to much of Europe, northern Asia and the mountains of Algeria and Morocco. It forms a dense sod when grown in pure stands--making it ideal for sport. Some First Nations groups in North America called it "white man's tracks" because almost everywhere European settlers went with their livestock and plows, they found Kentucky bluegrass. Today, there are hundreds of cultivars (PDF) of Kentucky bluegrass that cover playing fields for baseball, football, soccer, volleyball, softball, tennis, badminton, polo, lawn bowing greens, and croquet.

The high level of maintenance for turf areas has drawn a lot of criticism in recent years, for both the high volume of water used for irrigation as well as pesticide use. From a biodiversity standpoint, monocultures tend to be more vulnerable to disease. Seed mixtures are becoming more popular to help control the spread of pests. Overseeding bluegrass turf with another common turf grass, Lolium perenne, commonly known as perennial ryegrass, provides good suppression of fusarium blight. This fungal disease which causes severe root rot, resulting in patchy turf. Also native to Europe, Asia and northern Africa and widely cultivated and naturalized around the world, Lolium perenne, has been used exclusively since 1995 on the courts of Wimbledon, upon recommendation of the Sports Turf Research Institute.

Thanks again to Lindsay for writing today's entry for the "biodiversity and sports" series. As an aside to local readers, I'm lecturing on the topic on Monday: Sports and Biodiversity.

The image of the Salix alba var. caerulea plantation was taken by Flickr user mole-volio (original | Creative Commons License). The second photograph, of Salix alba, was photographed by Andrew Dunn, and shared via Wikimedia Commons | CC License.

Lindsay writes:

Commonly known as the blue willow or cricket-bat willow, the fast-growing Salix alba var. caerulea is widely cultivated in the southeastern English counties of Essex and Suffolk, where it thrives in low-lying areas. Though many consider it a variety of Salix alba, others assert that this taxon is actually a hybrid between Salix alba (white willow) and Salix fragilis (crack willow). Except for its glabrous blue leaves, Salix alba var. caerulea is very similar to Salix alba in appearance and reproduction.

As the common name of this tree implies, it is a specialty timber product used in the production of cricket bats (the 6th Law of Cricket dictates that the blade of the bats must be made of wood). The tough, shock-resistant, and lightweight wood of Salix alba var. caerulea is widely considered ideal for this piece of sports equipment, with the first known reference to its use coming in 1624. Female individuals of this willow are considered best-suited to bat-making.

In the 1930s the popularity of the sport was threatened by Brenneria salicis, a bacteria causing watermark disease. This pathogen infected nearly 25 000 cricket-bat willows, and threatened eradication. Cricket bats made from infected wood would break and splinter during use, causing a frenzy in the cricket world and articles such as "Willow Disease Threatens Cricket, Sport of the English!" (The Science News Letter, 1935). Eventually, though, the cricket-bat willow was brought back from the brink. The bacteria causing the disease still creates extensive damage in pocket populations, but environmental factors are now thought to precipitate outbreaks (and can therefore be managed).

Also of interest to the topic of biodiversity and sports, extracts from willow bark have long been known to be effective pain-relievers (and fever-reducers). In 1826, the bark of the white willow, Salix alba was used during the chemical isolation and naming of the active ingredient in these extracts, salicin. Later chemical study led to the discovery of salicylic acid, and, eventually, acetylsalicylic acid aka Aspirin (or aspirin, depending on the trademark law of your country). There appears to be an opportunity for owners of Salix alba var. caerulea plantations to produce both the cricket-bats needed for a rousing game of cricket and the pain-reducing pills needed after!

Lindsay Bourque, UBC BPotD work-study student, wrote today's entry to kick off the "biodiversity and sports" series. The first image is from the Wikimedia Commons, seeds of Hevea brasiliensis by Luis Fernández García (Creative Commons license), while the second image is by Flickr user goosmurf (latex harvesting from Hevea brasiliensisl | CC license). The illustration of Castilla elastica is from the 1897 work Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen (and in the public domain), while the fruit photograph of Castilla elastica var. costaricana is copyright of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and licensed for scientific use.

Lindsay writes:

A series on biodiversity and sports would not be complete without including rubber. Two important sources of rubber are Hevea brasiliensis, the Pará rubber tree, and Castilla elastica, the Panama rubber tree.

Hevea brasiliensis is a member of the spurge family, and the species has helped provide sports with hockey pucks, bicycle tires, table tennis paddles, tennis balls, and golf balls (Daniel adds: and keeping athletes healthy and safe). Originally found only in northern parts of South America, Hevea brasiliensis is now in cultivation throughout most of Asia where it is an important economic crop for commercial markets. In the wild, Hevea brasiliensis can reach a towering 45 metres, but in cultivation, plants are kept shorter to maximize latex production. The latex vessels, found outside the central vascular system, only extend through the first 24 metres of the trunk.

While the use of the latex was greatly diversified and expanded with the discovery of vulcanization ("cured rubber"), there is evidence that naturally-occurring rubber has been in use for over 3000 years. The ancient Olmec civilization of present-day Mexico's tropical lowlands used the latex of a different species (Olmec translates as "rubber people" in Nahuatl, the language of the Aztec). Castilla elastica, a member of the mulberry family, mixed with the juice of Ipomoea alba, was used to create rubber as early as 1600 BCE. Using this process, the Olmec also quite possibly produced the first rubber balls and developed the earliest form of the Mesoamerican ballgame. Although the specific rules of this ancient sport remain obscure, based on archeological evidence it would have been similar to racquetball or volleyball, where the aim is to not let the ball hit the ground---players would strike the ball with their hips to keep it in play. Not an easy feat considering the balls weighed up to 4 kilograms! There is evidence that the game served an important ritual aspect for the Olmec; depictions of human sacrifice can be found carved into the ballcourt, marking major games. Balls have been found in El Manatí, an Olmec sacrificial bog. A variation of the game, called ulama, is still played today.

Many thanks to first-time BPotD contributor Josef Stuefer aka josef.stuefer@Flickr for today's photograph (original via the Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Pool).

Trifolium alpinum, or (unsurprisingly), alpine clover is a perennial native to the acidic-soil grasslands and rocky slopes of the Alps, Pyrenees and northern Apennines in southwestern Europe. Up to a dozen flowers in globose inflorescences are borne on leafless stems, approximately 5-20cm high (2-8in.). The flowers are sweet-smelling, but I've not had the pleasure so can't attempt to describe it. Of alpine Trifolium species in Europe, it has the largest flowers (according to the Alpine Garden Society's Encyclopaedia of Alpines).

Alpine clover has been assessed by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization for its suitability in ecological restoration of alpine habitats. Details appear in Site-Specific Grasses and Herbs: Seed production and use for restoration of mountain environments. On Trifolium alpinum: "Because of its suitability for sites with a low pH as well as its deep taproot, alpine clover is an important component (and nitrogen supplier) of grassland mixtures that are appropriate to the habitat. Nutrient-rich forage with high digestibility."

For additional photographs, see Wikimedia Commons (this photograph appears there too): Trifolium alpinum or Botany.cz: Trifolium alpinum.

Thank you to Brian aka aeranthes@Flickr for sharing the photograph today (original image via BPotD Flickr Pool). The illustration is by John Nugent Fitch, and is now a public domain work after having been originally published in the 1882-1897 publication, The Orchid Album (link to additional illustrations).

Angraecum sesquipedale has a bevy of common names, including Star of Bethlehem orchid, comet orchid and Darwin's orchid. The latter name is a reference, of course, to Charles Darwin, who wrote the following in 1862 in On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing.:

"I fear that the reader will be wearied, but I must say a few words on the Angræcum sesquipedale, of which the large six-rayed flowers, like stars formed of snow-white wax, have excited the admiration of travellers in Madagascar. A whip-like green nectary of astonishing length hangs down beneath the labellum. In several flowers sent me by Mr. Bateman I found the nectaries eleven and a half inches long, with only the lower inch and a half filled with very sweet nectar. What can be the use, it may be asked, of a nectary of such disproportional length? We shall, I think, see that the fertilisation of the plant depends on this length and on nectar being contained only within the lower and attenuated extremity. It is, however, surprising that any insect should be able to reach the nectar: our English sphinxes have probosces as long as their bodies: but in Madagascar there must be moths with probosces capable of extension to a length of between ten and eleven inches!"

"The rostellum is broad and foliaceous, and arches rectangularly over the stigma and over the orifice of the nectary: it is deeply cleft, with the cleft enlarged or widened at the end. Hence the rostellum pretty closely resembles that of Calanthe after the disc has been removed. The under surfaces of both margins of the cleft near its end are bordered by narrow strips of viscid membrane, easily removed; so that there are two distinct viscid discs. To the middle of each disc a short membranous pedicel is attached; and each pedicel carries at its other end a pollen-mass. Beneath the rostellum a narrow, ledge-like, viscid stigma is seated."

"I could not for some time understand how the pollinia of this Orchid were removed, or how it could be fertilised. I passed bristles and needles down the open entrance into the nectary and through the cleft in the rostellum with no result. It then occurred to me that, from the length of the nectary, the flower must be visited by large moths, with a proboscis thick at the base; and that to drain the last drop of nectar even the largest moth would have to force its proboscis as far down as possible. To effect this, whether or not the moth first inserted its proboscis by the open entrance into the nectary (as is most probable, from the shape of the flower) or through the cleft in the rostellum, it would ultimately force its proboscis into this cleft, for this is the straightest course, and by slight pressure the whole foliaceous rostellum can be depressed: the distance from the outside of the flower to the extremity of the nectary can be thus shortened by about a quarter of an inch. Hence I took a cylinder, one-tenth of an inch in diameter, and pushed it down through the cleft in the rostellum: the margins readily separated, and were pushed downwards together with the whole rostellum. When I slowly withdrew the cylinder the rostellum rose from its elasticity, and the margins of the cleft upturned and clasped the cylinder. Thus the viscid strips of membrane on the under sides of the cleft rostellum came into contact with the cylinder, and firmly adhered to it; and the pollen-masses were withdrawn. By this means alone I succeeded in each case in withdrawing the pollinia; and it cannot, I think, be doubted that a large moth must thus act; namely, by driving its proboscis up to the very base, through the cleft of the rostellum, so as to reach the extremity of the nectary; and then withdrawing its proboscis with the pollinia attached to it."

"I did not succeed in imitating the fertilisation of the flower so well as I did in withdrawing the pollinia, but I effected it twice. As the margins of the cleft rostellum must be upturned before the discs adhere to the cylinder, they become, during its withdrawal, affixed some little way from its actual base. The two discs did not always adhere at exactly corresponding points. Now, when a moth inserts its proboscis, with the pollinia affixed to it near the base, into the mouth of the nectary, the pollen-masses will probably be first inserted beneath the rostellum; and during the final exertion, when the moth pushes its proboscis through the cleft of the rostellum, the pollen-masses will almost necessarily be placed on the narrow, ledge-like stigma projecting beneath the rostellum. By acting thus with the pollinia attached to the cylinder the pollen-masses were twice torn off and left glued to the stigmatic surface."

"If the Angræcum in its native forests secretes more nectar than did the vigorous plants sent me by Mr. Bateman, so that the nectary becomes filled, small moths might obtain their share, but they would not benefit the plant. The pollinia would not be withdrawn until some huge moth, with a wonderfully long proboscis, tried to drain the last drop. If such great moths were to become extinct in Madagascar, assuredly the Angræcum would become extinct. On the other hand, as the nectar, at least in the lower part of the nectary, is stored safe from depredation by other insects, the extinction of the Angræcum would probably be a serious loss to these moths. We can thus partially understand how the astonishing length of the nectary may have been acquired by successive modifications. As certain moths of Madagascar became larger through natural selection in relation to their general conditions of life, either in the larval or mature state, or as the proboscis alone was lengthened to obtain honey from the Angræcum and other deep tubular flowers, those individual plants of the Angræcum which had the longest nectaries (and the nectary varies much in length in some Orchids), and which, consequently, compelled the moths to insert their probosces up to the very base, would be fertilised. These plants would yield most seed, and the seedlings would generally inherit longer nectaries; and so it would be in successive generations of the plant and moth. Thus it would appear that there has been a race in gaining length between the nectary of the Angræcum and the proboscis of certain moths; but the Angræcum has triumphed, for it flourishes and abounds in the forests of Madagascar, and still troubles each moth to insert its proboscis as far as possible in order to drain the last drop of nectar."

Darwin's 1862 prediction of a coevolved moth with a proboscis of 35cm was ridiculed by some as being impossible. Others suggested the long nectaries were proof of supernatural creation (read: Darwin's Madagascan Hawk Moth Prediction (PDF)). Wallace and Darwin responded by detailing how evolutionary processes could develop both a long-nectaried orchid species and a co-evolved moth. Though Darwin did not live to see it, in 1903 a moth was discovered in Madagascar with the characteristics as predicted by Darwin.

For more reading / photographs:

• Angraecum sesquipedale via the University of Connecticut's Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Greenhouses
• Angraecum sesquipedale via Encyclopaedia angraecorum
• Angraecum sesquipedale via Wikipedia
• Darwin the Botanist and Origins of Life Research podcast (and text) via Scientific American

Happy Birthday, Charles.

Thank you again to beranekp@Flickr for contributing one of his photographs to BPotD (original image | Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Pool). Perhaps like me, you'll also find this photograph provoking some needed cheer.

Scorzonera is a genus of about 175 species, distributed throughout the Mediterranean region and into central Asia. One member of the genus is cultivated for food production, Scorzonera hispanica, or Spanish salsify / black salsify (though not a true salsify).

Twenty-eight species are native to Europe, including the species featured in today's photograph, Scorzonera austriaca. Austrian vipergrass (though, again, it is not a grass), is distributed across Europe, from France east to Asian countries bordering Europe. This perennial species reaches 40cm in height, and grows in well-draining sites (dry pastures, stony places, etc.). Flowering heads are borne individually on unbranched stems.

For additional photographs, see Scorzonera austriaca on botany.cz or via Calphotos (including a photo of a plant in fruit): Scorzonera austriaca.

Thank you to my colleague, Eric La Fountaine, for providing both today's photograph and write-up. Eric writes:

Pandanus tectorius is a very common sight on the Hawaiian islands. It is found in tropical Asia, Australia and on many Pacific Islands. It is generally thought to be indigenous to Hawaii, but additional varieties may have been brought by Polynesian explorers. It is sometimes given the amusing moniker, tourist pineapple, and I must admit I heard the words, "oh look--pineapples", from tourists looking at the plant. The background of the photo shows the dramatic topography of the Nā Pali Coast. By my estimation, the verdant peaks in this view rise around 250 metres (800 ft).

The shrubs or small trees are variable, generally growing 4-14 metres (13-46 ft) tall with similar dimensions of canopy spread. Pandanus tectorius is dioecious, i.e., male and female flowers appear on separate plants. The single trunk of the plant reaches a height of around 4 metres before branching. It is supported by a dense skirt of prop roots at its base. Long strap-like leaves are spirally arranged. As the plant grows in height, lower leaves fall off. Due to the spiral arrangement of the leaves, the now-bare trunk is left with a twisted appearance, leading to another common name, screwpine.

Pandanus tectorius is one of the most important plant resources to Pacific Island peoples. The species is used extensively for weaving, food and medicine, craft making, ornament, dye and other purposes. Both the seeds and fruit are eaten. Many varieties of the plant have been selected to best serve these cultural needs. Some provide better tasting fruit, others are more suitable for weaving.

Two pages of photos showing many aspects of the tree can be seen on Plants of Hawaii. To learn more, excellent articles describe the species at the Culture Sheet and at Pacific Island Agroforestry (PDF 1.82MB).

The Gentianaceae series is concluded with two photographs taken by local plant guru Alan Tracey (thank you!). They are photographs of the same species of gentian, but from locations over 12 000km (7000miles) apart. The image with many flowers was taken in La Parva, Chile, while the solitary flower was photographed somewhere along the Dempster Highway in the Northwest Territories of Canada.

Gentiana prostrata, or pygmy gentian, is a low-growing 3-7cm (to 3in.) tall annual. Its preferred habitat is wet meadows of high altitudes or tundra. Conflicting accounts of its range abound; the Flora of China account does not mention South America, nor does The Jepson Manual. Though both of these cite Eurasia and western North America, the absence of South America is curious. The species, after all, was collected by Darwin near the Straits of Magellan during the Voyage of The Beagle. Perhaps it is because the species was thought to have been dispersed to South America by albatross (might be a subscription-only link)?

Gentiana prostrata was scientifically described by the Bohemian-born botanist, Tadeáš Haenke. To read more about Haenke, an excellent compilation of articles about his life are presented in the Botanical Electronic News, Issues 287 and 288.

The second last entry in the series on Gentianaceae takes us to the Páramo of southern Ecuador, a high-altitude grassland ecosystem dominated by bunch-grasses. Another big thank you to Eric in SF@Flickr for sharing his photographs (original image | Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Pool).

The question was asked by Mary Hamilton in the comment section to Gentiana calycosa as to whether one of the "closed gentians" (that can be seen in New Jersey) would be featured. Mary was probably thinking of Gentiana andrewsii (see more photos), but there are other "closed" gentians and gentian relatives, including Gentianella quinquefolia and today's species, Gentianella hirculus.

Gentianella means "dwarf gentian" -- today's species reaches only 10cm (4in.) tall. The centre of diversity for the genus is South America, though the two hundred plus species are distributed throughout most temperate regions of the world. Gentianella hirculus is considered endangered by the IUCN Red List, with only 12 populations of plants remaining in the wild. Threats include grazing and, paradoxically, visitors to the park where most (all?) plants reside.

"Closed" gentians are either known or assumed to be pollinated by long-tongued bees (example). Take that, Gene Simmons.

My last photographs for the series on the Gentianaceae today, though the series will continue until Friday.

These images were taken in mid-July 2009 northeast of the Lick Creek Campground in northeast Oregon, part of the USA's Hells Canyon National Recreation Area. I believe this particular plant was spotted by my traveling companion, and I was quite delighted to see it in person, as I had only known it from books previously.

A close relative of Frasera speciosa, white-stemmed (= albicaulis) frasera occupies a different habitat. Where Frasera speciosa is a species typically found in moist alpine or subalpine meadows, the much shorter (to 75cm / 30in) Frasera albicaulis tends to be a species of dry, open sites (including sagebrush-steppe). In this case, it was growing roadside in an open area heavily dotted with pieces of gravel with a low-growing species of Allium (the purple spots in the background of the second photograph).

While I was intrigued most by the unusual colours of its flowers, others have been more interested in its roots. A 1968 paper by Stout et al. in Tetrahedron explains the investigation of the roots for the presence of xanthones: Xanthones of the Gentianaceae--II *1: Frasera albicaulis Dougl. ex Griesb.. While many xanthones (i.e., molecules using xanthone as a central core molecule) were and are produced synthetically, fifteen different kinds were found in the roots of Frasera albicaulis -- ten of which had previously not been known to occur in nature. Xanthone proper is used in the production of insecticides, while some of the synthetic xanthones are involved in the manufacture of UV-resistant films.

Frasera albicaulis is native to western North America. For more photographs and a description of the species, see the Burke Museum's page: Frasera albicaulis.

Within the Gentianaceae, taxa within the genus Gentianopsis are collectively known as the fringed gentians. Depending on the classification scheme used, there are somewhere between 16 and 25 species of Gentianopsis, broadly distributed in north temperate regions. Gentianopsis detonsa is known commonly as the windmill fringed gentian (a phenomenon better seen here: fringed gentian at Yellowstone National Park).

This little annual or biennial, growing from 5cm to 60cm (to 2ft.) high, is recognized by J.M. Gillett as being a subspecies of Gentianopsis detonsa, i.e., Gentiana detonsa (Rottb.) Ma subsp. yukonensis (J.M. Gillett) J.M. Gillett (as noted in William J. Cody's encyclopedia Flora of the Yukon Territory. If one accepts this subspecies as being valid (and few other references do), then this is a taxon that is "endemic to the valley of the Yukon River and its tributaries in central Alaska and southwestern Yukon Territory", where it grows in "forest meadows and subalpine heathland". It's also noted that it grows in disturbed situations. Accordingly, this particular plant was photographed along the highway northwest of Haines Junction, in a small roadside meadow ringed by trees that had (at some point in the past) been disturbed by bush roads.

On the other hand, if one doesn't recognize this as a subspecies only found in Yukon and Alaska, then it is folded into a species with a much wider distribution: at the least, much of northern North America--and sometimes more, including south through the Rockies into Utah, New Mexico and Nevada. In addition to North America, the species is also found in Iceland, Norway and Russia.

I am partial to fringed gentians as they are one of the first plants I could recognize that weren't "always there" (and by that I mean they weren't a tree or shrub). It was a special trip to go with my mother once every year or two (sometimes we missed them) to see the small patch of fringed gentians that grew in the ditch a few kilometres from my home.

Continuing with the series on the gentian family, Gentiana calycosa is a true gentian, commonly known as mountain bog gentian, mountain gentian, explorer's gentian or Rainier pleated gentian. This photograph was taken in early August on the flanks of Mt. Adams, Washington, in the same area as these images of Gentiana calycosa.

The common name Rainier pleated gentian hints at a western North American distribution, and that is indeed the case, with a range from British Columbia to California and east to western Wyoming (as an aside, I know some of you get impatient with photographs from western North America, but it's what I have on hand--there'll be at least one photograph from elsewhere in the world later in the series). Other common names, as you might surmise, rightly suggest it is a species of subalpine and alpine environments along streams, wet meadows and bogs.

The epithet calycosa means "full calyx", and I'm afraid I don't know why that is noteworthy in comparison to other gentians.

Cultivation of Gentiana calycosa is possible, but according to the Encyclopedia of Northwest Native Plants for Gardens and Landscapes, it is "a perennial for the determined, patient gardener". This is due to its preference for moist, yet well-drained soils--in other words, trying to replicate a mountain environment with a cool stream or seep.