Plant of the day is: Bartsia alpina or velvetbells

Plant of the day is: Bartsia alpina or velvetbells

The name and the flower sounds so pretty, but don't be fooled, this is a vampiric flower!

Taxonomy:  

• Another neat family to stumble upon and explore.  Bartsia is a member of the Orobanchaceae family or the broomrape family which has been historically included in the Scrophulariaceae or figwort family.  It contains about 89 genera and some 1,600-ish accepted species.  There is generally a tubular calyx (all the sepals of a flower) formed by 2-5 united sepals.  5 united petals form the corolla (or all the petals of a flower).  See, stuff to learn here :).  Upper lip is 2 lobed while the lower lip is 3 lobed.  4 stamens, 2 short and 2 long, the botanical term for that is:  didynamous.  Of course there is a special word for that, oh botanical language, I'll forever be learning you.  

• Members of the family http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orobanchaceae are either holoparasitic or hemiparasitic (fully or partly parasitic).  The holoparasites generally lack chlorophyll.  These plants have specially adapted roots called haustoria (the plural of haustorium) that penetrate the hosts cell tissue and steal nutrients.  Pretty cool eh?  

Hirsute:  Did I mention hairy?

Description:  

• For a fantastic botanical description, check it out here, I don't have the scrupulous bug tonight.  This puts it better than I would :).  http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-2745.2003.00809.x/full  For a quick description though, it is a short perennial plant with a woody rhizome.  Flowers are purple and zygomorphic (only bilaterally symmetrical down one plane...like a face, depending on the face I suppose). 

• Can be found in several parts of the world really, mountainous regions of Europe and northern climates (kind of boreal/subarctic?).  It has hopped the pond and makes appearances in Greenland, Iceland and Canada (Hudson Bay).  Apparently the mean annual max isotherm is anywhere from 20-28C.  Probably tricky to grow it in Missouri.  A big fan of limestone soils though, which we've got!

Culture:

• The trick to growing a plant like this is having its preferred host growing with it at roughly the same time.  Here in Missouri we have Castilleja or indian paintbrush that stuns with some beautiful bracts in some of our mesic prairies.  I've heard it on good account that it is quite fond of Schizachyrium scoparium or little bluestem (little bluestem is a little easier...whew).  Anyways, I digress.  This particular plant likes several species that can also be found in the same botanical description above.  A few Carex, Persicaria, and Empetrum stand out but there are around 15 different standout species in a variety to families.  Ideally you want a developed host plant available at germination/growth but not something so aggressive as to out compete the seedling or create adverse conditions for watering practices/disease promotion.  

Not exceptionally tall.  It's cold out there.

That's it for my seriousness for now :).  I hope we've all learned something.