Plant of the day is: Rotheca myricoides or blue glory bower

Plant of the day is: Rotheca myricoides or blue glory bower

Clerodendrum ugandense by Magnus Manske

 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

The top and outer styles are 2 lobed or forked if you look closely

Kind of a blue Monday, so this seemed fitting.  I was initially going to write about a Clerodendrum but this plant does almost as well.  It WAS formerly Clerodendrum until fairly recently so...close enough.  For a real treat visit the link to the above image and enjoy this photo full screen, it's magnificent.

Taxonomy, etc.:  Rotheca is another member of that quite large Lamiaceae or mint family.  I didn't set out to write about a couple of mints in a row but hey, things happen.  These particular members of the family represent the more tropical variety.  Until 1998 Rotheca wasn't really a recognized genus until phlogenetic DNA analysis set things straight.  Members of the genus can be shrubs, perennial herbs, and a few lianas and small trees.  The genus comprises about 30 species in the sub-Saharan region of Africa with one tropical species in Asia.  Genus was named by Rafinesque in 1838, that's Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz.  Apparently 4 names makes you cooler.  Certainly a genius, as he wrote about anthropology, biology, geology, and linguistics.  Truly a man of science.  He started collecting herbarium samples at the age of 12, a full 21 years before me and learned Greek and Latin by 14.  What a boss.

The genus was lumped into Clerodendrum (named by Linnaeus in 1753) in 1895 by John Isaac Briquet who I will forever remember as the guy who messed that up.  Phylogenetic work shows that including Rotheca in Clerodendrum makes Clerodendrum polypheletic.  NOBODY wants that, especially those taxonomists.  I'm trying to think of a good analogy here and coming up short, I'll work on it, trust me.

Clerodendrum ugandense by Margrit CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

note the larger DISTAL corolla lobe

Description:  Well what makes it different than Clerodendrum right??  I was curious too.  Unlike Clerodendrum, flower buds of the genus are asymmetrical and the corolla expands abruptly on the lower side only.  The anterior (I like distal much butter) corolla lobe is much larger than the other four corolla lobes.  Anthers are basifixed and the stigma lobes are unequal.  Basifixed?  I had to look it up.  Glad I did, had no idea.  Neat stuff.  See below.  Also, stigma lobes are unequal.  Morphology is the coolest.  If the plant isn't flowering...good luck I suppose.  Anyways, this particular species R. ugandense will flower year round and is a small upright shrub of about 1-2 m in height (nice size for a sun room...).  Flowers blue to light blue.  Leaves are opposite per the family trait, dark green and glossy, and about 10cm long with a short petiole.

A quick note on crossing:  These are really cool flowers that do not self pollinate and evolved a morphological strategy to avoid it.  In the top picture you can see how the style sticks out and bends away from the anthers, this helps avoid getting pollen on the stigma, keeping it clear for other pollen brought in from another plant.  Oh evolution, you rock.  

Culture, etc.:  Prefers fairly warm temps above 15C to be really happy (like 60F :P..).  Reportedly hardy to zone 8 (-6C at the coldest...metric!).  Likes full sun to part shade and to dry out well between waterings.  The species is an east African species and actually first described from Kenya and not Uganda.  This particular one will take much colder conditions than most others.  I should mention (as I found here that it is ROOT hardy to zone 8 (comes back from roots yearly) but only holds its leaves/stems in zones 10-11.  A fairly fast grower but easily managed and can be pruned easily (and THAT is fun I bet).  

In closing: The leaves are kinda stinky when crushed, sometimes callled a butterfly bush because the flowers look kinda like butterflies (whatever people...whatever).  And remember it's not Clerodendrum ugandense or Clerodendrum myricoides 'Ugandense'...but Rotheca myricoides.  Until next year...and then who knows what it'll be.  I imagine taxonomist meetings to be similar to a bunch of evil villains sitting around a table deciding how most to confuse the world with new terminology :).

Plant of the day is: Prinsepia sinensis or cherry prinsepia

Plant of the day is: Prinsepia sinensis or cherry prinsepia

Sometimes the plant and the homework find me.  This is kind of a formal greeting before I get a handshake on it in a few days and hold a few of these seeds.  Let's take a journey to Eastern Asia, Northern China and Manchuria shall we?

Young leaves of Prinsepia sinensis. Oulu University Botanical Gardens, Finland.

credit: Halava Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported 

Sadly another plant with extremely limited pictures available through creative commons.  

Let me google that for you!

Taxonomy etc.  A member of the Rose family, won't spend a lot of time on that as there is plenty of readily available information on the family.  Again, another relatively small genus of only 4 accepted species (according to theplantlist.org).  The species are found in India, China, Bangladesh and Taiwan.  P. sinensis is a standout in the group for its cold hardiness which is reportedly around zone 4 or -32 degrees C.  The genus is named for James Prinsep who left England with almost no money to come to India and become a successful indigo planter.  He then established himself as an East india merchant, basically the Hydra of the age.  Nobody is perfect, but he did a lot of good things.  The botanist John Forbes Royle named the genus after him in 1839 in appreciation of his work.  

Description:  A deciduous shrub up to 2-3m tall by 2 m wide with a roundish form.  It has some spines that are about 6-10mm long and leafless.  Alternate leaves with very short petioles and purplish red, ovoid, and glabrous winter buds.  Leaves are narrow ovate-lanceolate or elliptic.  Dark green on top and lighter green on the bottom.  Base of leaf is cuneate.  The inflorescence is a 3-flowered fascicle.  Not an icicle.  A fascicle.  Basically a bundle of leaves or flowers.  The best example to demonstrate is the needles on pines, those would be leaf fascicles and these are flower fascicles.  Fascinating.  The result is clusters of yellow flowers that trail along the stems, somewhat partially hidden by the foliage but still noticeable and aromatic.  It flowers around Apr to May and seeds ripen in Aug to September (give or take a month or two depending on where you live).  Flowers are pollinated by insects.  Fruits are red drupes that are cherry-like and edible if a little sour.  Can be a good jam/preserves plant. Noted for very high ascorbic acid content (good stuff).

Culture:  Takes full sun and a little shade, but really, prefers a good sunny spot with moist soil.  Reportedly very cold and drought tolerant though, so who knows, hopefully I'll find out.  Reportedly leafs out very early in the season and flowers as well but flowers and leaves handle hard freezes well without damage.  Interestingly one site recommended pruning in late winter, this would be counter productive if it indeed flowers early because it would likely flower on old growth formed the previous year and you'd basically be chopping off all the flower buds.  Carandale farm in Wisconsin did evaluate this plant and then removed it because of invasive concerns.  It IS a fruit that could be ingested by birds and that certainly raises concern for any non-native plant.

Propagation: Soak in water for 24 hours.  A 2 month cold stratification is recommended from seed and it can likely be propagated from cuttings as well.  Sow seed about 1/4" depth as light can inhibit germination.  Kew's database only contains info for P. utilis and an "uncertain" for seed storage.  Unsure if it is orthodox or recalcitrant.  I would lean towards orthodox given it's temperate climate and the family.

Range:  I kinda mentioned, Manchuria is a good place to find but parts of eastern Russia as well I think.

Fun fact:  Seriously, the seeds look cool.  Very ...groovy?  I'll update this with a picture when I get one.

Plant of the day is: Blephilia ciliata or Ohio horsemint

Plant of the day is: Blephilia ciliata or Ohio horsemint

I've seen these out hiking earlier this year at Valley View Glades and I saw a whole slew of bees on some Pycnanthemum a few times this year.  It always makes me think about just how much bees love the members of the mint family.  If you want bees, plant some Blephilia and Pycnanthemum.  They're pretty good looking plants too, and native.  All things in order.

So here is the catch.  Yet again, shockingly, no creative common images available.  One of these days I'm going to have a field day sharing mine.  I've got an email out to the webmaster of the missouriplants.com website in hopes of sharing those images in the future.  

Click here for a look and good description: http://www.missouriplants.com/Blueopp/Blephilia_ciliata_page.html

Missouri Botanical Garden Plantfinder: http://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=j530

And lastly, let me google that for you: https://www.google.com/search?q=blephilia+ciliata&biw=944&bih=951&espv=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAWoVChMIgv2pwMLFxwIVxpMNCh13pguR&dpr=1

Definitely worth a look so check it out!

Taxonomy, etc.: A member of the Limiaceae family of the order Limales.  Basically a bit of a keystone for a very large group of plants.  Because of the families large size and cosmopolitan distribution there is a fair bit of shuffling of species and genera.  It contains upwards of 236 genera and anywhere from 6,900 to upwards of 7,200 species.  Commonly divided into about seven subfamilies.  It's not joking around, it is a large family.  More common Lamiaceae genera are: Salvia, Scutellaria (a future plant for sure), Stachys, Plectranthus, Teucrium, Thymus, Vitex, Nepeta, and the very showy Monarda.  Typically members of the genus have aromatic leaves (many are herbs), have opposite leaves and fairly distinct flowers with petals fushed into an upper lip and a lower lip.  Bilaterally symmetrical (just cuz that's fun to say), with 5 united petals and 5 united sepals.  

Description:  Blephilia is a very small perennial genus with only 3 members, which is probably why I haven't run into it much before.  All species are native to eastern North America and B. hirsuta and B. ciliata are threatened or endangered in some states.  The other species is B. subnuda endemic to northeastern Alabama.  B. ciliata has stems up to 1m tall with thin rhizomes (that can be used for divisions).  It has the characteristic 4-angled or square stems and is fragrant (along with the leaves).  Leaves are of course opposite with a short 1cm petiole.  Leaves are hirsute (hairy) and lanceolate with shallow serration (slightly crenate I suppose).  

Flowers occur in verticillasters...which is a new one for me.  Basically the flowers appear to be arranged in a whorl but are in fact made of clusters of opposite axillary cymes.  It's way easier in pictures...  Verticillasters.  They are white to lavender with some purple spotting on the individual flowers.

Habitat/range: Open woods, glades, bluffs, roadsides.  Tends to really show up on glade edges near the tree line but can be found scattered about in sunnier spots in the woods.  Exists in extreme east Kansas and Oklahoma and up into Iowa then takes off for the east hitting lower parts of Wisconsin and Michigan and onwards to New York.  A bit of distrubution down into Mississippi and Alabama but tapers off in Georgia and South Carolina.  Absent from Florida.  

Culture/prop:  Can take a fair bit of sun really as long as it is in a well drained mix but watered well.  Prefers a little bit of shade in it's diet for at least a few hours a day.  Not super picky about it's soil types but it's probably a good idea to stay away from really fertile loamy soils as I have a hunch they'll get a little floppy in flower.  For propagation, I stratified these seeds for two months at 5C and then placed on a mist bench with some bottom heat.  Germination was very good.  Very good indeed.

Fun random stuffs:  Originally named Monarda ciliata by Carl Linnaeus himself.  Used as a poultice for headaches by the Cherokee.  

Plant of the day is: Buchnera americana or American bluehearts

Plant of the day is: Buchnera americana or American bluehearts

Will I be able to find a few of these tomorrow out on the trail?  Only time and the trail will tell.

American Bluehearts & Friend by Bob Peterson CC BY 2.0

Taxonomy, etc.:  Buchnera is one of those neat genera in the Orobanchaceae family, noted for their parasitic tendencies.  I've actually got some Aureolaria growing right now and it is, I believe, in dire need of a host plant.  It has hung out with no growth, and it's first true leaves for almost 2 months now.  Most of the members of the family use specialized roots called haustoria (haustorium singular) to penetrate the cell wall and draw nutrients from other plants.  Fruits of this family tend to be dehiscent (fancy way of saying the fruit dries up and the seeds come out) with wind dispersed seeds.  This type of dispersal can be particularly pesky when trying to collect seeds, as you either need to bag the developing seed ahead of time to catch the "shattering" seed, or collect just before the fruit begins to open.  Dehiscence is really quite nifty and flagged by the spellchecker, so I spelled it three times, wrong according to the spellchecker every time.  In a rare occurrence for plant of the day, Buchnera is ALSO a genus of Enterobacteriaceae which is an endosymbiont of aphids.  Oh aphids, you suck.  Anyways, about 138 species or so of Buchnera worldwide. B. obliqua is endemic to Arizona.  Go Arizona. Oh and was recently in Scrophulariaceae but mainly moved cuz of the whole parasitic thing.

Buchnera americana by Malcolm Manners (CC BY 2.0)

Description:  Maybe a perennial maybe an annual?  Conflicting reports...  may vary depending on climate, being more annual farther north.  This plant, as mentioned, is a hemiparasite.  It is not fully parasitic, only partially.  Leaves are opposite and stems have this neat purple coloration in the ...angle, crotch thingy?  I need to learn a botanical term for that.  Clearly.  Leaves are sessile (lacking a petiole)...attached to the stem, and also lanceolate with 3 noticeable main veins coming from the base of the blade (every little bit helps in ID ...trust me).  Other Buchnera species with overlapping distribution have 1 vein and rounded leaftips.  The leaves also occur on the lower half of the stem with a bit of a gap or blank spot between the lower leaves the inflorescence.  Flowers are clearly white to pink to purple, and quite showy.  The color actually changes and darkens up quite rapidly when they are picked.  I has a 5 lobed corolla with some pubescens on the lower part of corolla and calyx as well.  Flowers occur from June through September.  The stems only reach a height of about 60cm (2 feet).  

American Bluehearts at Horse Creek Prairie, Dade Co., MO, 140910 by Jerry Oldenettel 

(CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Habitat:  Prairies, glades, and even some wetter areas.  I'll call it kind of an opportunistic plant, it does like plenty of full sun though.  I think the ideal soil is a loamy moist soil with plenty of sun and water, but that is a lot of plants really.  The distribution is annoying to say with words.  Here is a map.  In Missouri it is typically only found in the southern half of the state.  It does make it all the way up into Canada where it is endangered :(.  B. americana is the most widely distributed North American species in the genus, historically found in 24 states.  Now listed as protected or no longer present in as many as 13 states.  Keep it up humans!  Most common in Missouri and Tennessee (don't screw it up!).  

Propagation/parasitism:  May parasitize (also spellchecker flagged...come one spellchecker!!  killin me) white pine, red ash, eastern cottonwood, and white oak but according to Canada can mature without parasitic attachment (whew!).  The seeds require light to germinate and may be banked in the soil for 2.5 to 3 years.  

Ecology:  Also a host plant for the common buckeye which was, I believe, recently featured in the Missouri Conservationist.  The circle of life is pretty neat.  

Common Buckeye, Junonia coenia by Megan McCarty Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported

No plants, no butterflies.  

Plant of the day is: Gillenia stipulata or American ipecac

Plant of the day is: Gillenia stipulata or American ipecac

American Ipecac or Indian's Physic, Gillenia stipulata

by Elizabeth CC BY-NC 2.0 - Creative Commons

Again, very few CC licensed images (what you see here is it).  Let me google that for you, however, so you can see the really neat detail of this plant.  I believe I actually ran across this plant recently and thought maybe it was Filipendula rubra.  The placement of it (well into the woods) was all wrong now I see.  If the USDA website can be believed F. rubra is only found in St. Francois and Reynolds county in Missouri.  Hmmm, that sounds like a fun hunt.  But this is NOT Filipendula, though the leaves do conjure it a bit.

Don't sweat all the details, if you love it, just pay attention and try to remember as much as you can and it'll all lock into place eventually.

Taxonomy:  A memeber of the Rosaceae family, which is quite a large family.  Other members of the Rose family include ...everything.  Pretty much.  Alchemilla, Rubus, Cotoneaster, Malus, Pyrus, Prunus, take your pick.  Taxonomists have had a field day of confusion with this family much of which due to molecular analysis of DNA.  Potentilla and Fragaria are on the cusp of being merged, for example.  Any day now.  They were likely separated back in the day because the receptacle of strawberries (Fragaria) is edible while that of Potentilla's is not.  The distinction is based on 'folk taxonomy' (Walters 1962) more than actually morphology.  

If Fragaria, Potentilla, and Sibbaldia were all thrown together they would comprise all the Rosaceae with a a double calyx, distinct 1-seeded carpels, and styles not transformed into long feathery beaks or awns.  Seems to me a much better classification than "Cain't eat it so I reckon it should be different".

Super nerdy paper on taxonomy of Fragaria and Potentilla?  You got it!

Did I mention Gillenia itself is very small with just two North American species for just two species?  G. trifoliata is the mountain Indian physic and is by far the more popular in terms of horticulture.  

Description:  Let's talk about Gillenia for a bit though shall we?  Gillenia stipulata is a perennial growing to 1.2m.  It has white hermaphroditic flowers (stamens and pistils) that occur May through June.  Flowers have 5 petals that are acuminate and about 20 stamens that occur at the edge of the hypanthium.  Hypanthium?  A cool structure.  Often called the floral cup or in the instance of members in the Rose family the "hip".  Structures of hypanthium play key roles in pollination and fertilization, really cool stuff depending on the species.  Back to Gillenia though, it has 5 distinct pistils and white styles.  Also has 5 sepals.  For a further great description and great images see the missouriplants.com writeup.  Almost didn't mention the stipules.  G. stipulata ...stipules.  The difference between the two species is, essentially, that G. stipulata has persistent stipules and G. trifoliata does not.  Stipules are growths at the base of the leafstalk (petiole).

Habitat/Culture:  Found fairly widely throughout the state in open woods, roadsides, etc.  Often found in mesic soils.  Found mostly throughout the midwest, it draws the line at eastern Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.  Hardiness is in the neighborhood of zone 4-8.  Considered significantly rare in North Carolina and prone to extirpation.

Fun facts!:  So named American ipecac because the plant was used by Native Americans as a laxative and emetic.  It is not today's modern Ipecac, THAT comes from Cephaelis ipecacuanha in South America.  

Facts I find interesting that you probably dont....:  Gillenia was almost axed because it was deemed too similar to another genus Gillena (a synonym for Clethra) and might be confused.  The International Botanical Congress, however, ruled that Gillena was not validly published and so Gillenia wins out.  Otherwise it would have been Porteranthus (synonym) because it was validly published but ultimately superfluous and illegitimate, which sounds like it would hurt Porteranthus's feelings.  Poor Poor Porteranthus.

Public Domain by Britton & Brown 1913.