With today's posting, we welcome summer student, Stephen Coughlin, whose duties include Botany Photo of the Day. This entry was written by Stephen and the photo was taken by Eric La Fountaine.

Euphorbiaceae (the spurge family), which consists of around 300 genera and 7500 species, is native to both the temperate and tropical climate zones. Euphorbia griffithii is a metre-high herbaceous perennial that hails from the eastern Himalayas to the mountains of Myanmar (Burma) and western China. It ignites into bloom in early summer. The cultivar 'Fireglow', which is more deeply coloured than the species, welcomes visitors at the entrance to UBC Botanical Garden with a series of chromatic juxtapositions simultaneously subtle and strong: on its floral bracts, rich reds mix with searing yellows and oranges as if on the palette of an Old Master, while the dark burgundy of the stem and the green of the waxy leaves lend further contrast and contribute to the intensity of the blazing blooms above. This intensity culminates in the fall, when the floral apparatus turns brick red.

The vividness of the bloom, which to some suggests a measure of resilience and assertion, is indeed matched by the vigour with which 'Fireglow' confronts its surroundings. The species is robust enough to withstand both hostile pollutants and the vast spectrum of weather conditions associated with Zones 4 through 9; E. griffithii tends toward the invasive, however, at least in garden situations. Paraphrasing renowned gardener and garden writer Christopher Lloyd, the species is aggressive, and its sustained struggles when matched with a similarly dominant species leave the gardener only to referee. In addition to these somewhat bellicose tendencies, 'Fireglow' has another menacing trick up its sleeve. While the plant's capacity to repel the onslaughts of deer and other animals is undoubtedly a benefit in the garden, gardeners beware, for the milky sap that fills the stems of this beautiful spurge is toxic.

For those wishing to explore the plants of the Himalayas, Laboritoire d'Ecologie Alpine has a searchable database, Flora Himalayan Database, which provides links to other Himalayan flora resources (Original French).

Today's Botany Photo of the Day comes from the UBC BPotD Flickr pool. J.G. in San Francisco contributes the photo and the included write-up. Thank you, J.G. Original photo here. J.G. writes:

"Calliandra eriophylla, commonly known as fairy duster, is a low spreading shrub which is native to deserts and arid grasslands in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas and Mexico.

"The flowers, which appear between late winter and late spring, have dense clusters of pale to deep pink stamens and are about 5 cm wide. The shrub is usually between 20 and 50 cm high and has bipinnate leaves.

"Alternative common names for this species include Mock Mesquite and Mesquitella."

This photograph was taken at the offices of the Chagual Botanic Garden (English translation) in Santiago, Chile, last October. The garden is in development and is not yet open to the public, but I had the good fortune to tour the garden site with the director, Antonia Echenique. The design for the new garden, which will feature native plants and those from other Mediterranean climate zones, has been carefully planned and the garden will be one of the best places to see Chilean plants.

This entry was co-written by Douglas Justice, Randal Mindell and myself.

Drimys winteri is an evergreen tree or shrub native to temperate rainforests of Argentina and Chile. According to Plants for a Future, The aromatic pungent bark is powdered and used as a pepper substitute in Brazil, Chile and Argentina, and is rich in vitamin C. According to Clements Robert Markham in his book The Sea Fathers (Cassell & co., 1884), Winter, who was captain of the Elizabeth (one of five ships in Francis Drake's fleet) saved his crew from the ravages of scurvy (vitamin C deficiency) on the voyage home by means of a decoction of the bark.

The genus name is from the Greek: drimys = acrid, pungent (from the taste of the bark). Captain Winter evidently steeped the bark in honey to remove some of its acridity. Drimys winteri was named by Johann Reinhold Forster and his son Johann Georg Forster. Johann the elder was the naturalist in Cook's second voyage in 1773.

Drimys is of considerable interest to botanists due to the lack of vessels in their water-conducting tissues. Members of Winteraceae have long been thought to be an early-diverging branch of the angiosperm tree of life. Fossil evidence for the antiquity of the family comes in the form of Lower Cretaceous (~125 million years ago) pollen tetrads. By the Late Cretaceous, there is abundant evidence for the family in the form of vesselless wood, leaves and pollen in places as far flung as California and James Ross Island (off the Antarctic Peninsula).

Heading out of the garden after an afternoon of taking photos, I was drawn to the intoxicating fragrance of Philadelphus delavayi, which was in full bloom. As I neared the shrub to drink in the aroma, I noticed this lovely butterfly busily feeding on the nectar from the flowers.

Ingrid Hoff, Horticulture Manager at UBC Botanical Garden and our resident insect specialist, identified it as Papilio rutulus, the western tiger swallowtail. She writes about the visitor, "This is one of the most common butterflies along the west coast, often found anywhere there is moisture. Large numbers of males can often be found "puddling" together in muddy areas or near streams. The species is found from British Columbia to Baja California east through the Rocky Mountains, but rarely beyond them. The western tiger swallowtail can have up to three broods per season.

Philadelphus delavayi has been feature on BPotD previously. Daniel Mosquin wrote this entry, which is still very much worth reading and the text accompanies a beautiful close up view of the buds and flowers.

The interpretive sign for this plant describes it very well:

"Named for the French missionary Père Jean Marie Delavay (1838-1895), who characterized much of the flora of Yunnan, Philadelphus delavayi is a variable species that is considered one of the most beautiful of all mock oranges.

Like other Philadelphus species, Delavay mock orange is an arching shrub that displays its pure white, saucer-shaped, fragrant flowers on short, lax racemes. The appeal of Philadelphus delavayi does not lie so much in its open flowers—which are admittedly large and beautiful—but in the sumptuous plum-purple calyces that back the flowers. The startling contrast of the purple calyx and white corolla is best seen before the flowers are completely open."

Curator of Collections, Douglas Justice contributes today's photos and write-up.

UBC Botanical Garden is renowned for its collection of woody climbers (lianas) primarily because we encourage many of them to climb into the mature conifers in the David C. Lam Asian Garden. The genus Clematis is well represented in all parts of the garden, with wild Asian species representing approximately half of the collection. See this link for a list of clematis accessions in the garden.

Clematis montana var. wilsonii commemorates E.H. (Chinese) Wilson (1876-1930), who introduced vast numbers of plants to cultivation, primarily from China and Japan. This variety from southwestern China is less well known than the more commonly cultivated selections of Clematis montana var. rubens (which are generally larger and pink). Most references describe var. wilsonii as late-flowering (mid to late June) and strongly fragrant, smelling of hot chocolate. The aroma to me is considerably more complex, especially when smelled at close range. A number of my colleagues have been debating the particular components of the aroma—what else do staff at a botanical garden do at lunch?—and we've come up with quite a list, including chocolate (of course), but also peppermint, cinnamon, cardamom, carob bean, narcissus (the large trumpet types), oaked Chardonnay, and Advocaat liqueur—the more elusive and volatile components being expressed more strongly with older flowers. Our plants came to us from Guernsey Clematis, the famous nursery founded by plantsman Raymond Evison.

There is considerable disagreement amongst experts regarding the legitimacy and characteristics of the various C. montana varieties; however there is no disagreement on the value of these beautiful climbers to horticulture. The species is generally hardy to Zone 6 or colder, floriferous, and needs no pruning or special treatment. Our plants have taken about 15 years to reach within a few metres of the tops of 25 m tall Thuja plicata (western red cedar). The clematis mode of climbing is well suited to thujas, whose branchlets are the optimal diameter for the twining petioles (and petiolules). Because the leaves and branches of thujas are long-lived, they're commonly retained near the ground for many years, and this makes starting a clematis up the tree relatively easy. It is important, however, to site the clematis (or any other climber) outside of the drip-line of a western red cedar, as thujas produce very heavy shade and are notoriously greedy when it comes to available water.

I find that grasses can be very difficult to photograph. The breeze stopped for just a moment allowing me to snap this photo. I took the shot facing the early evening sun that shone through the flower spikes, causing them to glow in the image.

Tom Wheeler provides the description. He writes:

Koeleria macrantha, familiarly called June grass, is named after the German botanist Georg Koeler (1765-1807). About 15 species of plants bear his surname. Macrantha refers to this grass's comparatively large flowers. The species is circumpolar and widely distributed, inhabiting dry rocky or grassy slopes and forest openings in the steppe (prairies) to sub-alpine areas.

We grow this perennial bunch (tufted) grass in our Garry Oak Meadow Garden, first planted in May 2007. June grass grows 60 to 75cm (to the apex of the inflorescence) and does not aggressively self-sow. It is well regarded by our staff and visitors as a tidy grass with cylindrical, whitish green, spike-like panicles that arch when ripe. The seed provenance of our garden plantings is a Garry oak ecosystem on southeastern Vancouver Island. The first sowing in pots at our nursery yielded an emergence rate of 46%—moderately successful for a grass.

Chungii V, a member of the UBC Botanical Garden Forums contributes today's photo and plant write-up. Chungii V writes about one of the beautiful native species of his home country, Australia. Thanks for shariing, Chungii V.

Hey All, See how this one goes and over the coming months I thought I might throw a few of our Natives from "Downunder" at you.

I decided to start with the Callistemon sp. because they are a pretty good example of a native flower. The name Callistemon when broken down means 'kallistos' - beautiful, and 'stemon' - stamen. Many of our flowers are very simple in design—a high arrangement of stamens with very insignificant petals. The inflorescence is made up of many small flowers carried closely together. I believe that this ensures continuity as they produce a large amount of seed giving some chance that at least one will germinate.

Callistemon are probably one of the more versatile plants, being able to grow in dry areas as well as they do in wet. They have adapted to different environments and grow to varying heights from dwarf shrubs no more than 1 m (3 ft.) high to small trees around 5 - 7 m in height. There are over 30 species of Callistemon recorded—occurring naturally in shrubby bushlands and also in wetter floodplains and along riverbeds mainly on the east coast of Australia. There are a couple of ‘PBR’ varieties, which means they have been copyrighted by the person who produced them. There is a nice colour range. Though most commonly red, they can also be found in shades of burgundy, white, green and pink. They attract much wildlife and are often used by councils in S.E. Queensland as street trees.

Picture is of Callistemon viminalis ‘Rose Opal’. I like this one as it opens a rosy red and fades to a nice pink. The individual flowers will last a good week or so.

References: Callistemon (Bottlebrushes) and Callistemon viminalis from the Australian National Botanic Gardens website.

Today's photo and article come from Tom Wheeler. Tom is a horticulturist working on the Garry Oak Meadow and Woodland project at UBCBG.

Mentzelia was named by Linnaeus in honour of Christian Mentzel (1622-1701), a German physician, botanist and lexicographer. The epithet laevicaulis (laevi = smooth + caulis = stalk) refers to the comparatively smooth stems of this species in comparison to other Mentzelia species.

To see Mentzelia laevicaulis, or blazing star, on gravelly cuts and slopes in BC's southern dry interior region is to revel an exquisitely different representative of the region's flora. This biennial or short-lived perennial is native to much of western North America from near sea level in the north to 2440 m (8000 ft.) in the southern parts of its range.

The fragrant, lemon yellow flowers can be up to 16 cm across, opening at mid-morning and remaining open past dusk and throughout the night. Carpenter bees and hawk moths are the blazing star's vespertine (evening) and nocturnal pollinators, and daytime opening enables other pollinators, including European honeybees, to visit, as well. When its flowers are open, their presence dominates the plant, but the short, barbed, hairy upper stems and branches give this species its other common name, stick-leaf, for its leaves and stems easily stick to clothing.

Mentzelia includes annuals, perennials, sub-shrubs and shrubs. The centre of diversity is southwestern North America, but the range of the genus extends to Argentina and Chile. California is home to more than half of the 50 species. While the family Loasaceae is well known for nasty plants with stinging hairs (e.g., Cevallia, the stinging serpent and Petalonyx, the sandpaper plant), the blazing stars are generally easily handled.

Douglas Justice brings us another photo and write-up from his recent trip to China. He writes:

I have a habit of photographing plants in flower in Botanical Gardens and promising myself that I'll look for the label the next time I go by the plant. Well, I walked by this plant at the South China Botanical Garden in Guangzhou, at least five times. I did do a very quick, cursory look for a label, which I couldn't locate, but I was in a hurry each time I passed it. I suppose I could have asked one of the staff or botanists (the place is rife with scientists), but I didn't. The plant might be Senna bicapsularis (L.) Roxb. (winter senna), but this identification is tentative. The shrub in the photograph is about 2 m tall and wide, the individual flowers some 3 or 4 cm across. I did not see any legumes (fruit).

Senna is a genus of about 250 subtropical and tropical shrubs, sub-shrubs, lianas and herbs. Few are cold hardy enough to cultivate in temperate conditions, but Michael Dirr mentions in his Trees and Shrubs for Warm Climates (Timber Press) that S. bicapsularis overwinters (but dies to the ground in the cold) in his Georgia garden. Locally, Senna didymobotrya (popcorn plant) was a popular summer container plant for a few years. It is an attractive African species that requires frost-free conditions. It smells of buttered popcorn (really).

Douglas Justice writes today's entry.

The December 10, 2005 Botany Photo of the Day entry shows a bleached fruit of the rare Rehderodendron macrocarpum. The same tree is pictured in today's entry, this time as it's beginning to open its flowers. Eric's photograph was taken just after a rain shower, which explains the iridescent quality of the blooms. When fully open, the petals splay out to expose prominent anthers (these can be seen poking out of the rounded, barely open buds—more photos). The individual flowers are a huskier version of those of Styrax japonicus (Japanese snowbell), and like the snowbell, borne in ample clusters all along the undersides of the spreading branches. A tree in full flower is a wonderful sight and not soon forgotten. The Garden now has at least one other species in the collection, tentatively identified as Rehderodendron indochinense H. L. Li, and both species fill the air with their rich, lemony aroma when flowering.

Other than the lack of available seed, there seems little reason for the virtual exclusion of Rehderodendron from commercial horticulture. Unfortunately we have only the one tree of this species, and without cross pollination (i.e., a source of different pollen), viable seed is seldom produced. Like other plants in Styracaceae, siting in humus-rich, well-drained soil is essential for good growth and longevity. We know this species to be hardy to Zone 8.

Today's images come to us from Suzan D. Suzan posted the photos for identification on the UBC Botanical Garden forums in 2004. She cleverly called these "woses." Original post.

Although the structure in the photo looks very much like a green rose, roses do not grow on willows. And while Suzan never found the insect, we believe this to be a gall caused by Rhabdophaga rosaria, the European rosette willow gall midge. Galls are abnormal growths found on plants that can be caused by parasites such as insects, mites, fungi or bacteria. Insects, particularly wasps and midges, are the most common cause of galls on plants. Plants form the galls in response to ovipositing or feeding by the insect, or from infection by another agent. The gall is an attempt to surround and isolate the invader. In the case of insects, the gall actually forms a protective chamber, where the larvae can develop safely away from predators.

Many types of galls exist. Many are shaped like balls or blisters. They are still unusual things to find in the garden, like this one from the UBCBG forums. In North America they are most commonly found on Fagaceae (oaks), but are also often found on Salicaceae (willows), Rosaceae (roses) and Asteraceae (asters). In general, they cause little damage to the plants and most are not considered to be significant pests.

Further reading on plant galls:

• Insect Galls, University of Florida Extension
• Gall-Making Insects - John A. Byers
• To Be Or Not To Be A Gall, Wayne's Word http://waynesword.palomar.edu/pljuly99.htm

I photographed this lovely specimen at the font entrance here at UBC Botanical Garden in early May. This is one of my favourite plants in the garden. I have always been fond of fragrant plants, so daphnes are high on my list. ‘Cheriton’ is a proven performer. The evergreen shrub is reported to grow 30-45 cm tall and 60-90 cm wide. Our plant has spread to at least that size if not larger. The fragrance is strong and sweet.

Daphne is a genus of around 70 species, found primarily in Asia and Europe with a few species native to northern Africa. Daphnes are shrubs (or rarely small trees). They can be evergreen or deciduous. The berries are often very toxic and caution is advised when placing in the landscape, although the bitter taste should help keep the unwary from consuming the fruit.

Daphnes are often considered difficult to grow, but many, like the cultivar in this article are actually fairly trouble free. In fact, in the lower mainland of British Columbia and parts of northwestern USA, the European Daphne laureola has proven to be an invasive species. For further reading on the threat check out the fact sheets from the Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team and Evergreen. (Note links are to PDF files, might open slowly.)

Douglas Justice writes today's article.

Thanks to Marcela2 for today's image via the BPotD Flickr Group Pool (original image). Marcela2 writes (translated from the original Dutch ):

"The plant is frost resistant and as a result, in early spring an important source of vitamin C and minerals such as calcium, magnesium, and iron. In North America the plant was appreciated by both native Indians and the gold miners in California. For these people it was an important scurvy preventative in early spring, when they otherwise lacked a good source of vitamin C."

The genus is named in honour of John Clayton (1686-1773), who, according to William T. Stearn (Stearn's Dictionary of Plant Names for Gardeners, 1972 ) "came to Virginia from England in 1705. He corresponded with the botanical great of the day—Linnaeus, Gronovius, Kalm, and John Bartram —as well as with Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. Collinson, the English Quaker botanist, described him as the greatest botanist in America."

The epithet, perfoliata, undoubtedly refers to the leaves that subtend the inflorescences of this species. The base of a perfoliate leaf completely encircles the stem, as can be seen in the drawing here. However, keen observers will notice that the encircling leaves of miner's lettuce as pictured above do not resemble those in the drawing. Indeed, the inflorescence leaves of this species are not perfoliate at all, but actually paired leaves that encircle the stem because they are fused at their bases. Such leaves are termed connate.

Douglas Justice continues to share photos from his recent trip to China. He writes:

My recent trip to China seems like a bit of a dream now. A group of us toured southern Yunnan Province, primarily to observe magnolias in the wild; however, the attendant vegetation, both native and non-native, the agriculture and the landscape in general, were to me equally fascinating. I was particularly taken with the diversity of the many Rubus (bramble) species I saw. Delightful as they all were, we (at the Botanical Garden) long ago learned our lesson regarding exotic rubi. Many are extraordinarily opportunistic and potentially invasive. For example, we've been fighting the spread of Rubus simplex since its introduction here in 1982. It was innocently collected on a botanical expedition to Hubei and distributed to a number of gardens, but here, it is a potential menace and we've been careful to remove it whenever we see it.

This species, known as huang sou mei (golden lock berry) according to a Chinese speaker on staff here at UBC, is an attractive spreading shrub with distinctive leaves, and amber fruits reminiscent of Rubus spectabilis (salmon berry). The shrub photograph was taken (in a break between torrential downpours) by a roadside in the Fadou Nature Reserve in Xichou County (Wenshan Prefecture), and the basket of fruits some 250 km to the north in the market near the Stone Forest (south of Kunming). I am only sorry I did not taste them.

Today's photo and article come to us from Douglas Justice, Curator of Collections, UBCBG.

This sprawling evergreen shrub or climber is native to southern China. I've photographed a similar species (or perhaps the same one, but with orange flowers) in Washington DC, where it was cultivated as a summer bedding plant. Here, it is a background native plant in the Magnolia Collection at the South China Botanical Garden, in Guangzhou, China. You can also find it in the Medicinal Plants Area, Pu Gang Reserve, which is also part of this fantastic garden. According to the Dictionary of Chinese Traditional Medicine (1986), the plant has been used as a diuretic, antichloristic and antipyretic agent. It has also been employed against laryngopharyngitis, acute gastroenteritis and dysentery, and as a contraceptive.

The expanded, flag-like sepals are reminiscent of those borne on a number of familiar ornamentals, including hydrangeas, but more particularly, Schizophragma hydrangeoides. Such flag-like flower parts—at least the white ones—are adapted to increasing visibility for and hence, visitation by, moths, such as the magnificent Atlas moth, which is native to the same part of the world. The moths effect pollination and find a nectar "reward" at the base of the tubular flowers.