As I mentioned in a previous entry, Botany Photo of the Day series in 2010 will tie in to the monthly educational themes here at UBC Botanical Garden celebrating the International Year of Biodiversity. For January, our educational theme is "Resolutions for Biodiversity", so we're going to be highlighting stories this week where people have resolved to conserve rare plants.

Lindsay Bourque is responsible for today's write-up. Lindsay writes:

Thank you to Lorena Moore, aka leonfangs@Flickr, for submitting today's photograph (original image | Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Pool) to launch our 2010 series on biodiversity.

The pima pineapple cactus is a small hemispherical cactus (10-18 cm in height). It is native to the Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona and northern Mexico. Coryphantha scheeri var. robustispina is a rather uncommon lower elevation cactus with prominently grooved, thick tubercles. Older tubercles toward the bottom of plants can differentiate to form new plants if the parent plant dies. Silky, pale yellow flowers burst into bloom in July with the onset of the monsoon season in the Sonoran Desert. The flowers are quickly followed by sweet, green fruits, which are an important food source for desert fauna.

Added to the United States Endangered Plant Species List in 1993*, threats to this taxon include loss of habitat due to urban development, off-road vehicle use, road construction, livestock grazing, and agriculture & mining. Nonnative grasses are also altering its habitat, preventing establishment of new individuals. Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge has a prescribed burn management regime to control these nonnative grass species. Illegal collecting is also a problem, despite state protection laws. Approximately only 21 populations of pima pineapple cactus remain*.

In 1998, on behalf of a coalition of 31 environmental groups, the Center for Biological Diversity drafted the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan. Encompassing nearly 6 million acres, this large-scale, regional habitat conservation plan is intended to end uncontrolled development in Pima County by establishing a process to conserve large areas of desert. It manages development and open space in southern Arizona to protect the pima pineapple cactus and 22 other endangered taxa.

*Daniel adds: This story highlights the importance of taxonomists in conservation decisions. The Flora of North America account for this taxon lumps it into Coryphantha robustispina -- a broad, inclusive species that ranges from Arizona to Texas and includes some of northern Mexico. If one follows that interpretation, then one could question the endangered status. However, if one follows the interpretation of the US Fish & Wildlife Service and its contracted taxonomists (PDF), the narrower interpretation as Coryphantha scheeri var. robustispina yields a threatened plant taxon (more about their analysis and reviews here: Coryphantha scheeri var. robustispina).

First of all, I apologize I didn't get to post this entry on Saturday. Late Friday night I discovered I was the victim of a Y2K10 bug on the software I use to process my raw images. Given that it was the weekend, the tech support for the company wasn't available until early Monday AM.

While Eric and other colleagues were enjoying tropical sun, I went in the opposite direction for the holidays, where it was only as cold as -20C (-4F). My father took me to see this tree because of its unusual shape for an elm (seen best in the second photograph). It reminded him of some of the work of the Group of Seven, perhaps (and I'm guessing) Lismer's A September Gale or Varley's Stormy Weather.

Ulmus americana, or the American elm was often used as a street tree in the early to mid-20th century of North America. In addition to being very tolerant of air pollution and extremely hardy, its classic vase-shape is pleasing. "Was often used" because this species had little resistance to the introduction of the fungal Dutch elm disease (DED); an estimate by Alden M. Townsend, a USDA-ARS plant geneticist suggests only 1 in a hundred thousand trees before the introduction of the fungus were DED-tolerant. Upon infection, trees react by attempting to stop the spread of the fungus through blocking its xylem tissue (water-carrying cells) -- effectively, self-starvation. Needless to say, the American elm declined in numbers precipitously, with an estimate of 77 million trees dead by 1980 from the introduction of DED in 1931.

Unlike the American chestnut, though, small- to mid-sized trees of Ulmus americana can still be easily found, in part due to its prolific seed production and ability to tolerate poor soils. Young trees often reach reproductive maturity before succumbing to DED, so the species survives. However, the tall, ancient trees (to 300 years old) of previous centuries are unlikely to be seen again until resistance to DED is established, either naturally or through selective plant-breeding.

A few civic governments have put in place programs to manage (stall?) the spread of Dutch elm disease, mainly by controlling the primary vector of the disease, the elm bark beetle. Two places in North America where elms still form a significant part of the urban landscape are Washington, D.C. and Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman in Six Trees: "There was not in the whole countryside another tree which could compare with him. He was matchless. Never a stranger passed the elm but stopped, and stared, and said or thought something about it. Even dull rustics looked, and had a momentary lapse from vacuity. The tree was compelling. He insisted upon recognition of his beauty and grace. Let one try to pass him unheeding and sunken in contemplation of his own little affairs, and lo! He would force himself out of the landscape, not only upon the eyes, but the very soul..."

More photographs today from Ian Crown of the Puerto Rican fruit farm, Panoramic Fruit. Thank you Ian!

Also, before getting into today's entry, welcome readers from the Winston-Salem Journal!

These photographs weren't all taken in the same place or time, and I believe them to be of two separate species. The first photograph, with the crimson-tipped stamens and yellowish-white strap-like petals is, I think, Pachira aquatica, known commonly as Guiana chestnut or Malabar chestnut. The second and third photographs feature what I've tentatively identified as Pachira glabra. In Margaret Barwick's excellent Tropical and Subtropical Trees: An Encyclopedia, she notes Pachira glabra, or saba nut, to have "light-green, strap-like petals and wiry, white, curving stamens". Hawaiian Tropical Plant Nursery provides brief descriptions of the two species, and also adds: "Much of the material in cultivation as Pachira aquatica is actually Pachira glabra..." Many of the so-called "money trees", it is implied, are therefore Pachira glabra.

Both species are native from Mexico to northern South America. Pachira aquatica grows in coastal estuaries; its seeds are "designed to withstand humidity and are capable of floating in water for months", according to Barwick. Pachira glabra is a species of lowland rainforests and alluvial plains.

Ian Crown wrote the following, but given my notes regarding identification of these two species above, I think parts of this account may be apply to Pachira aquatica, Pachira glabra or both:

"I first encountered Pachira aquatica, the Malabar chestnut, in 1994. I was just starting up an exotic fruit farm in western Puerto Rico and everyone there said I had to meet Milton Perez, the owner of a large garden center in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico. I made a point of doing so and ended up with a very dear friend who sadly passed away in 2006 around this time of year."

"Milton had the plant version of a menagerie; so many specimens of different fruits and ornamental plants and lumber species, it boggled the mind. Along a drainage canal, he had a few trees of something new to me but which produced edible, delicious nuts in a football-shaped pod. Milton handed me a few to try. Once the thin woody shell was peeled off, they were crunchy and reminded me of raw peanuts but were a bit larger and bone white. The seeds readily sprouted, grew rapidly, and produced their own flowers and then new seeds within just 2 years. Welcome to the tropics! Those first seeds produced several generations of trees which are now planted in the yards of my crew and many other places. And we still use the trees to reduce erosion where the slope is steep and these trees keeps us in nuts almost year-round. Not for sale, we just give them to locals just the way Milton did years ago."

"One striking feature of this species is that the trunk remains green for many years* and looks like it would be soft. But it withstands hurricanes up to a Category 3 or 4 with little damage, stabilizes the soil, likes very wet spots, tolerates drier sites and is suited to periods of submersion like many Amazon tree species. To add to this roster, it is probably in your nearby supermarket as an almost indestructible bonsai plant. Very hard to drown if given enough light. It is a pretty good house plant and dry air does little to it."

*I'll add that one of the reasons I think Ian's account likely includes both species is his description of the trunk. On Pachira glabra, Barwick notes: "It is ornamental, distinguished by...its bright green trunk, limbs and fruit".

Thanks once more to Eric La Fountaine for today's photograph and write-up (wish I had traveled to tropical places during my break, but perhaps you'll see a photograph from my holiday trip on Friday or Saturday). Eric writes:

The centipede or tapeworm plant (the second name seems more accurate, but the first is much more appealing) is native to the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. However, it is cultivated as an ornamental in other tropical areas. The plant grows to a metre tall, although the one in this photograph exceeded that height. The green segments shown in this image are known as phylloclades; these are short flattened photosynthetic shoots that function much like leaves. The leaves (one visible on the right) and the flowers are sessile, or borne directly from the stem without a stalk. Small red fruits will follow the flowers.

The Polygonaceae, or buckwheat family, contains 48 genera and approximately 1200 species. Variations in morphology in the family range from trees and shrubs to vines and herbs.

Sorry for the delays, all. It never ceases to amaze me how busy things can get.

Thank you to Drew Avery@Flickr for sharing today's photograph (original image via the Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Pool). Much appreciated!

Known commonly in English as lemon ball, golden ball or yellow tower cactus, Parodia leninghausii is a columnar cactus species native to southernmost Brazil. Taxonomically, it has been placed in several different genera over its history since first publication in 1895, having been placed in Parodia in 1982.

Karl Moritz Schumann, a German botanist, named the species after Wilhelm Lenninghaus, a collector for the German cactus nursery, Haage. I don't often link to commercial sites, but I'm duly impressed by a nursery that's been in business for nearly 2 centuries with an intriguing history, including this snippet: "In the Third Reich the 'non-Aryan' cactus had to live underneath the tables". I wonder how different cacti species were separated into these groups -- place of origin? collector? appearance? Baffling.

Additional photographs of this species are available from Wikimedia (Parodia leninghausii in Huntington Botanical Garden) and via Smith College Botanic Garden: Parodia leninghausii.

Another set of photographs and write-up from UBC Botanical Garden's Eric La Fountaine today, featuring a species previously on BPotD (but in flower): Couroupita guainensis. Eric writes:

The cannonball tree has one of the most appropriate common names of any plant I know. Not often seen outside its native range, northern South America and southern Central America, it is grown as a sacred plant in Hindu temples in India and as an oddity in tropical botanical gardens.

The large, sweetly fragrant flowers (and later the fruit) are borne directly from the trunk and main branches (cauliflory) in large clusters on woody stalks that can be a few metres long. The heavy fruits drop from the tree with great force and may crack open upon landing, revealing a foul smelling pulp with many seeds. Wild peccaries and other animals eat the pulp and disperse the seeds in their waste.

For further reading and a description of the pollination and the unusual flower structure unique to Couroupita guianensis and other members of the Brazil nut family, the Encyclopedia of Earth has an excellent article: Couroupita guianensis.

This cultivated palm was photographed in Huntington Botanical Gardens a couple summers ago.

Native to Kohala Mountain of the Big Island of Hawai'i, less than a thousand individual wild plants of Pritchardia lanigera are thought to exist. The IUCN Red List, accordingly, identifies it as endangered (ignore the error of Kohala being on O'ahu). Numbers of plants for this species are difficult to determine, as it grows on "precipitous" valley slopes. Growing to a height of 6m, (I imagine) it is not easy to spot via an aerial census, as I presume it isn't a part of the forest canopy.

The scientific name for the genus honours William T. Pritchard, 19th century British consul in the Fiji Islands, while the epithet lanigera means "woolly" (demonstrated in the photograph). Commonly, it is known as lo'ulu.

Arkive.org has a few images of Pritchardia lanigera. A description of the species is available from the Smithsonian Institution: Pritchardia lanigera.

And another entry today from UBC Botanical Garden's Eric La Fountaine, responsible for both the photograph and the write-up. Eric writes:

Spontaneous plant combustion? The photograph shows the charred remains of a large colony of puya, either Puya chilensis or Puya berteroniana. Both are Chilean endemics. Local botanists who I toured with said that this sight can be witnessed occasionally in the wild. The curiosity is that only the puya are burned--no sign of fire damage occurs around the colony. When the phenomenon is observed, it appears to only occur in mature colonies. Some theorize that a type of spontaneous combustion involving chemicals in the mature plants, possibly ignited by the intense sun, is involved. Close inspection of the material revealed a delicate charcoal, like something that had smoldered without flame. Unfortunately, I can not find any substantiation or even discussion of this phenomenon.

Puya are known for their unearthly coloured flowers. These two Chilean species, locally known as chagual, are fairly common in central Chile. They are uncommon in cultivation, but can be grown in other areas, Puya berteroniana being the better candidate in temperate areas as it is more cold tolerant. ChileBosque has nice photos of both Puya chilensis and Puya berteroniana.

Thank you to beranekp@Flickr of Teplice (Czech Republic) for sharing today's photograph (original image via the BPotD Flickr Pool). Much appreciated!

Named after Count Sámuel Teleki de Szék, the genus Telekia is found natively from southeastern Europe to southern Russia. Two species comprise the genus, and this tall herbaceous perennial (to 2m), Telekia speciosa is by far the most widespread. The epithet speciosa means "showy", yet despite the moniker, it is not the showiest. That title belongs to its narrow endemic sibling, Telekia speciosissima ("showiest"), found growing only in rocky crevices "of limestone and dolomite boulders in the Lombardy Prealps". Telekia speciosa is not so fussy when it comes to growing environments: it is found along forest margins, where it can tolerate full sun as long as it is growing in moist soil. In Georgia (and perhaps elsewhere?), it forms part of a special vegetation type called "tall herbs" (see: Ornamental Plants in their Natural Habitats).

A number of common names are used for this species, including showy telekia, oxeye daisy (used for many other species as well), heartleaf oxeye, and yellow oxeye.

For additional photographs, please visit Biolib.cz (Telekia speciosa) and Botany.cz (Telekia speciosa). The Kemper Center for Home Gardening also has a detailed account for gardeners interested in this species: Telekia speciosa.

To BPotD business: for those of you who belong to the Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Pool (and anyone else interested): in celebration of the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity, we're coordinating UBC Botanical Garden's educational programming around monthly themes. For BPotD, we are planning to do a week-long series in the respective theme every month. Please see this discussion topic for a list of the themes, as well as suggested tags to help us select images.

Lastly, for local readers, the courses and lectures listing for Jan-Jun 2010 also reflects the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity celebrations -- you're very welcome to join us!

UBC Botanical Garden's Eric La Fountaine contributed both today's photographs and the write-up. Eric writes:

I became quite enamored with the impressive structure and shiny deep green bipinnately compound leaves of this tree on my recent visit to Hawaii. It can be seen in many locations in the island chain. Samanea saman (PDF) (synonym Albizia saman) is a native of central and northern South America, but is grown in many tropical regions and is a very popular tree in the Pacific. Its large umbrella-shaped canopy makes it a wonderful shade tree. It is sometimes planted to provide shade for coffee plantations.

The trees can grow quite large, attaining heights of 30 meters or more with a dense low spreading crown to almost the same dimension. Like some other members of the legume family, the leaves fold at night and on cloudy days, possibly one of the reasons for its common name of rain tree. A good collection of photos showing form can be seen on Plants of Hawaii.

I was happy to find some images that reminded me of fireworks to start the New Year. Big thanks to Jim, aka J.G. in S.F.@Flickr of San Francisco, California for today's photographs (original image 1 | original image 2 | BPotD Flickr Pool). Given that this is also a season of colds, I'm also amused to voice the word Hechtia with an overemphasized Germanic pronunciation (I amuse easily), though I note some places suggest the pronunciation is instead heck' tya. I think the former is more correct, though (perhaps without the overemphasis), as the genus is named after Julius Gottfried Conrad Hecht, a 19th century German counselor to the King of Prussia. When scientific names are based on a person's name, my understanding is that the correct pronunciation reflects the way one would say the person's name.

The epithet texensis reveals part of the distribution of this species. Found in southwest Texas and south into northern Mexico, Texas false agave is one of five species in the genus Hechtia that extend beyond Mexico's borders (the other 45 or so are endemic to Mexico). A close relative, Hechtia glomerata, is the only other species found north of the USA-Mexico border, though it is widespread and its range extends outside of Mexico into Central America.

Hechtia texensis is a terrestrial bromeliad, forming a caudex to aid in its survival within dry, limestone, rocky habitats. For additional photographs, see Hechtia texensis from the Texas Native Plants Database and the USDA PLANTS database: Hechtia texensis (the latter has a good shot of a plant in habitat). For a scientific description, see the Flora of North America account: Hechtia texensis.

Photography resource link: The photography of the UK-born Swedish photographer Struan Gray might intrigue some of you (I particularly like his Tanglings set). Struan also has a weblog, Twiglog, though the last entry was in June.

To conclude the series of Oregon wildflowers, a photograph of a gnome plant. The conifer cone and needles gives a sense of scale, I hope. These small plants are easily overlooked, and perhaps this is why this past August was only the third time I've encountered this species (the first being in July of 2002 in West Vancouver's Cypress Falls Park, the second in July of 2004 on Mt. Elphinstone on the Sunshine Coast of BC). Coincidentally, while doing this wet hike in Willamette National Forest, I was thinking about Hemitomes congestum during the walk in. On my way out, I spotted this plant (and a few others that were just emerging). Perhaps I noticed it from the corner of my eye while passing by it the first time, and that brought it into my thoughts.

A monotypic genus (only one species in the genus), Hemitomes congestum can only be found in western North America, from southwestern British Columbia to California (although Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast by Pojar and MacKinnon reports a disjunct population in west central British Columbia near Terrace).

Like its botanical cousin Monotropa uniflora, Hemitomes congestum is a mycoheterotroph; lacking chlorophyll, It taps into an existing tree-fungal root-association and extracts sugars via the fungus via the tree (please read the Monotropa uniflora entry for a better explanation / additional links). What excites me is that one of the known fungal associates of Hemitomes congestum is Hydnellum peckii, a fungus species I've wanted to see since I first became aware of it in that forum thread. Now that I know a few locations for gnome plant, maybe I can track down a bleeding tooth fungus!

Lastly, Botany Photo of the Day is taking a bit of a holiday. The next entry will certainly be published by January 4, 2010, though there is the possibility of some entries being published during the prior week. In 2010, not only will Botany Photo of the Day be celebrating its 5th anniversary in April, but there will also be a series of thematic photographs each month to celebrate the International Year of Biodiversity. More details to follow in early January.

Continuing with the plants of Oregon series, here is number 4 in a series of 5.

I suppose I might get in trouble with Lewisia experts for displaying an unrepresentative plant of this species. Most plants tend to have one to a few flowers with 2-5 leaves and dot the area where they grow (for examples, see photographs of Lewisia triphylla from the Burke Museum). This particular cluster was either a relative beast or, possibly, a hybrid. To give a sense of scale, this is about as wide across as the palm of my hand -- a very relative beast.

As you might expect, a plant native to Oregon will likely have a distribution spanning some parts of western North America. Do note, though (if you clicked on the link), the scattered distribution, coinciding roughly with high elevations as intimated by the Flora of North America account for the species: Lewisia triphylla (growing at elevations of 1500-3300m).

This population of plants was located in an exposed vernal streambed that had mostly dried out by the time of this photograph in early July, but not enough to avoid mud on the knees of my shorts. Other populations later observed elsewhere also had a high degree of soil moisture, usually from recently receded snow.

Well, it seems like I'm doing a series on the plants of Oregon to end the year, so let's say this is three of five in this series.

Scouler's harebell or pale bellflower is native to western North America from Alaska to California. This uncommon species is generally found on the west side of the Cascade Mountains. The photographs today, taken from two different locales in early August, reflect the preferred habitats. One was taken in moist woods while the other was from an exposed rocky slope -- a bit of an odd combination, if you ask me. Individual plants are small, to 40cm tall, and infrequently cultivated.

As these were the first two times I encountered this species, I would normally have spent more time photographing it, but rain on both days limited the time I was willing to spend on any one thing. For more images, either visit the Burke Museum's page on Campanula scouleri or the Oregon Flora Project's page on Campanula scouleri.

And another brief entry... sagebrush mariposa lily has been featured twice on BPotD so far: Calochortus macrocarpus in June 2005 and Calochortus macrocarpus in October 2006 (from a July photo).

Today's photograph is also from July, but highlights the uncommon albino variant of this species -- a real treasure to find. This was one of a few white or nearly-white individuals in a population with hundreds of plants with light pink to purple flowers.