Today marks the start of a small series of photographs of one of my fifty favourite plants, Fouquieria splendens. Commonly known as ocotillo, Fouquieria splendens is distributed throughout northern Mexico and the southwest US (from California to Texas).

The family Fouquieriaceae is monotypic; Fouquieria is the only genus in the family. Eleven species of Fouquieria are recognized, but Fouquieria splendens is the only one that can be seen in the wild outside of Mexico (distribution map for Fouquieriaceae).

Ocotillo typically flowers from March to May. This coincides with the spring migration of hummingbirds, though hummingbirds are not the only pollinators. Many insects and other birds will also visit the plant; not surprising, as ocotillo will have flowers (and associated nectar) available even during the driest of years.

Photography resource link: 10 Tips for the New Digital SLR Photographer from photographer Thomas Hawk. Thomas takes a lot of photographs, so his advice is well-worth following. You can also browse his 4500+ photographs on Flickr.

I'm loathe to admit it, but I've only now looked at the Flickr Botany Photo of the Day Group Pool of images for the first time since I left for vacation and returned. All I can say is: “Wow! What great photographs!”

Today's photos are contributed via Flickr by Wontolla65 from The Hague, Netherlands. The original photographs, taken in Noordwijkerhout and Voorhout, can be seen here and here. Many thanks for sharing these swaths of colour!

There is big money in flower production. According to An Overview of the BC Floriculture Industry, the worldwide trade in floriculture was 7.9 billion USD in 2001. The Netherlands is the hub of the industry: over half of global exports of flowers either originated domestically from the Netherlands or were imported to the Netherlands, brokered and then resold. Colombia, the second largest exporter, accounted for 7.5% of total exports.

However, competition is increasing around the globe. The industry has recently become established in several African countries and China. The role of the Netherlands in the global marketplace is shifting from a reliance on production toward the brokerage role (taking advantage of the supply networks they've established). For more, see this chapter from “The World Cut Flower Industry: Trends and Prospects”.

Photography resource link: Not just for techies, Camerahacker.com provides some reviews and tips in addition to hacks like building a bicycle camera mount (which I won't do) or making a pinhole lens for SLR cameras (which I'm considering).

California fan palm is native to California, Nevada, Arizona and Baja California. As I was walking the short hike into Palm Canyon within California's Anza-Borrego State Park to see the palm groves, I couldn't help but notice (and wonder about) the dozens of fallen trunks in the streambed on the way up. Wayne Armstrong provides the reason why.

Botany resource link: Images of the flora of the Andes excluding Patagonia from multiple expeditions to the area by researchers from the Jardin Botanique Alpin du Lautaret.

The two parent plants of this hybrid, Arctostaphylos refugioensis and Arctostaphlos purissima, both occur within Santa Barbara County of California. I therefore can't say with any certainty whether this is a naturally-occurring hybrid where the ranges of the parent plants overlap or whether this is a garden hybrid occurring as a result of a purposeful cross or proximate cultivated parent plants. To explain the last bit, a hybrid progeny can sometimes occur when two species are grown near each other in cultivation, but will likely never occur in the wild because of the geographic distance between the natural distribution ranges of the parent species.

Photography resource link: Image Deconstruction, an essay by Michael Reichmann of The Luminous Landscape about interpreting the contents of a photograph and finding the stories within.

In February 3rd's BPotD entry on Erica plukenetii, I asked as an aside if anyone wanted to suggest which genus of plants in British Columbia had the most species. My one hint was a speculation that the same genus likely has the most species diversity in much of Canada and northern US.

Although Eurasian in distribution (but growing successfully in the Alpine Garden), the genus of this plant is the answer to that question: Carex, or the true sedges. This particular species is commonly known as mountain sedge (a literal translation of the Latin epithet montana) or soft-leaved sedge. Not knowing the common name at the time of the photograph, I didn't take the opportunity to test the texture of the leaves; in general, leaves of plants in the genus Carex contain silica bodies and are most decidedly not soft. Considering that silica is a component in glass production, you will likely find it believable that handling the leaves of some sedges can cut your hands in a manner akin to papercuts.

Botany resource link: Interested in tracking down books about particular groups of plants? Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew has merged its bibliographic databases creating a one-stop search tool: Kew Bibliographic Databases.

If you live in the Vancouver area, this upcoming weekend is likely the last "good" weekend to see the magnolias in bloom at UBC. Many trees will still be in flower, but I think the peak blooming period is nearly over.

This cultivar is one generation removed from seed of Magnolia sprengeri collected by Ernest Wilson in Hubei, China in 1901. Of the seed collected and distributed to Caerhays Castle in Cornwall, one individual plant produced flowers and seeds; this plant goes by the name of either Magnolia sprengeri var. diva or M. sprengeri 'Diva', depending on your reference. Magnolia sprengeri 'Copeland Court' is one of many seedlings of Magnolia sprengeri 'Diva' that have become named cultivars. Douglas Justice has described this plant as "a small to medium-sized tree with a symmetrical, spreading habit and ample, uniformly deep, clear-pink flowers".

Botany / photography resource link: I included it in yesterday's post, but it deserves to be highlighted. Calflora.net, by Michael Charters, is titled humbly as the "Home Page of California Plant Names: Latin and Greek Meanings and Derivations and Southern California Wildflowers", but it is oh-so-much more. Nearly 2000 photographs of southern California wildflowers are supplemented by web pages on topics such as southern California wild places, immensely valuable field trip logs (which I'm going to start doing when I go on field trips this year) and a glossary of botanical terms.

Great Basin langloisia or lilac sunbonnets is an annual plant native to California, Nevada, Oregon and Idaho. The epithet setosissima means “very bristly-hairy”, which doesn't really require an explanation for why it's pertinent for this species. See Calflora.net for more on this plant and definitions of the other Latin terms.

The Polemoniaceae, or phlox family, contains 18 genera. This family is very closely related to the Fouquieriaceae, a monotypic family (only one genus). Keep Langloisia in mind when you see a member of the Fouquieriaceae featured on BPotD sometime in the next week.

Photography resource link: Alex Waterhouse-Hayward is a good friend of UBC Botanical Garden (he's previously contributed to BPotD). Alex has recently started his own weblog, and it's a daily visual treat. Although there's an emphasis on the sort of people you'd find in the newspapers, Alex features plants and plantspeople on occasion, always with an interesting story. Entries from March include: Rhododendron racemosum, local plantswoman Francisca Darts, and a kind tribute (deservedly so) to the late Frank Dorsey, a UBC Friend of the Garden for sixteen years.

You probably expected a photograph from my recent travels today. Alas, no – all in good time. Instead, I thought I'd share a photograph taken late Friday in UBC's Asian Garden, where the early evening sun illuminated the cascade of still-growing leaves. I don't often take images with human constructs in them (i.e., the bench), but it seems appropriate today as I return from vacation. Perhaps I was sitting in the bench and now I'm back to work? Or perhaps the empty bench is inviting you to stay and enjoy? Or...? Let's leave it open to interpretation.

In the local urban landscape, I sometimes think katsura trees are overused. That sentiment changes once I smell the burnt sugar scent from the decaying leaves in late autumn – then there can't be enough of them. The garden's interpretative sign for Cercidiphyllum goes into more detail about the genus. You can also see photographs of this particular katsura tree taken from a different perspective in both late spring and winter in this thread on the garden's forums.

Science resource link: Science Buzz from the Science Museum of Minnesota (and its weblog commenters!) won the 2006 Best Overall Museum Web Site at the Museums and the Web conference I attended in the middle of my vacation. Kudos to them and their commitment to science education!

Last of the abbreviated entries due to this vacation! – Daniel

Many thanks to Andreas from Bogotá, Colombia (aka Quimbaya@Flickr) for today's photograph (BPotD Flickr Group Pool | original image). This orchid was cultivated by Colombian orchid grower Sócrates Forero.

Species in the genus Anguloa are collectively known as the “tulip orchids” – an image search for Anguloa reveals why.

Photography resource link: Compositional Exercise by Paul W. Faust for Nature Photographers Online – suggests a method to practice for improving the composition of your photographs.

I'm on vacation, so only a short written accompaniment today. – Daniel

Similar to the “species tulip” from two days ago, this flower belongs to a “species camellia”, i.e., it is what would be encountered in the wild. In cultivation, however, over 2000 variants or selections of Camellia japonica exist (source: Wikipedia) – an image search gives a hint to the different ornamental forms.

Today's entry marks the one-year anniversary of Botany Photo of the Day. I'll add a small retrospective when I return from vacation next week. Again, only an abbreviated entry today. – Daniel.

The story of the tulip and the economic bubble of the 1630s in The Netherlands is well-known, but worth revisiting from time to time. Barbara Schulman of the University of Minnesota has written a concise summary of “Tulipmania”, while the Wikipedia entry for Tulipmania adds a few dissenting opinions regarding the conventional history. On a different tack, Frontline's “dotcon” documentary web site has a compilation of various economic bubbles, including Tulipmania.

Today's photograph is of a tulip that would have been exempt from Tulipmania. Not only was it not discovered until nearly three centuries after the event, but it is also a “species tulip”, i.e., it is recognized as a natural species and (accordingly) has no history of human-induced hybridization. The tulips of Tulipmania were seemingly all hybrid tulips, many generations removed from their natural cousins.

I'm on vacation, so only a short written accompaniment today. – Daniel

Thanks to Eric in San Francisco (Eric in SF@Flickr) for today's contribution. Since it was submitted via the BPotD Flickr Group Pool, you can see the original image (and all the comments!) here: Neomoorea wallisii.

If you'd like to see the drawing of this orchid from the 1892 edition of Curtis's Botanical Magazine, the National Botanic Gardens of Ireland, Glasnevin has scanned the image.

I'm on vacation, so only a short written accompaniment today. – Daniel

Many thanks to Dale from California (aka Dfunk@Flickr) for today's photograph. To see it larger, check out the original image submitted via the Botany Photo of the Day Flickr Group Pool.

Formerly thought to only be native to Oregon and California, (relatively) recent discoveries on the San Juan Islands and Gulf Islands have extended the range into Washington and British Columbia. The author of the Flora of North America account for California buttercup hypothesizes that the populations in Washington and BC are the result of introduction into the islands, and therefore not part of the native distribution of the species.

I'm on vacation, so only a short written accompaniment today. – Daniel

Asarum caudatum, or wild ginger, is distributed in western North America, from northern California to British Columbia and east to Montana. Read more on its ethnobotany via the Washington State Department of Transportation (!).

I'm on vacation, so only a short written accompaniment today. – Daniel

The Urban Forest Ecosystems Institute's SelecTree Guide from California Polytechnic State University has a detailed entry on Magnolia stellata 'Waterlily' with more photographs. The plant in the photograph was recently moved to UBC Botanical Garden's front entrance garden.