Plant of the day is: Doryanthes excelsa or gymea lily

Plant of the day is: Doryanthes excelsa or gymea lily

I should really write about an Amorphophallus or a Rafflesia given my current bleak mood towards the burning of Borneo.  Doryanthes is an interesting species for its relationship with fire, so maybe there is some similarity here.  Here is a nice video showing the plant in its full form and size.  

Doryanthes - A composite of two Greek words: doratos = spear and anthos = flower

excelsa - Latin derived from excelsus meaning high or lofty

Doryanthes excelsa (Gymea Lilly), Birrarung Marr, Melbourne, Victoria Australia 

(CC BY-SA 2.0) Photo Credit: Rexness

Taxonomy, etc.:  Actually the type genus for the family Doryanthaceae.  Pretty neat.  A great way to learn a new family while we're at it.  We don't have a whole lot of looking to do into the family as it contains just one genus!  What!?  Yep.  Not only that, but there are only two species (both of which I recently got seed for).  First described in 1802 by the Portuguese priest, statesman, philosopher, and botanist (seriously dude...) José Francisco Corrêa da Serra a close friend of the famous Joseph Banks (Endeavour voyage with James Cook...some crazy cool history there).  This family used to be included in the Agavaceae family.  

Rainbow Lorikeet enjoying the fruits of the Gymea Lily

(CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) Photo Credit: Merrillie Redden

Really gives an idea for how big that inflorescence is right?

Description,etc:  Kind of a hodgepodge of information in this section tonight as it's getting late.  It forms a large rosette with many sword-shaped, strap-like leaves up to 2.5 m long!  Oh alright, it's 8 feet.  Crazy right?  When grown from seed they can take upwards of 8 years or more to flower.  They are a VERY large plant with thick underground rhizome that is gradually pulled deeper into the soil by contracting roots during dry weather.  Forms a scape when flowering that can reach upwards of 4-6 m.  That. is. bonkers.  The head of flowers itself is around 30 cm or 10 in in diameter, pretty impressive in it's own right and clearly large enough for a good sized bird to get down on.  The head is surrounding by brownish bracts that can make it difficult to see the flowers from below.  The seeds are dispersed in oval woody capsules (watch video for a nice view of them).  In the late summer they split open (dehisce) and release seed.

Range:  Both species of Doryanthes are endemic to Australia.  This one in particular is found along the central coast of New South Wales.  Here is a nice page with further information and a map.

Culture/Propagation:  Absolutely MUST have very well drained soil, lots of sand helps but there are certainly other amendments.  You'll want it well drained deeply (rock garden, etc.) as it's a beast of a plant and has quite the rhizome/root system.  It is NOT very frost tolerant and typically not winter hardy anywhere near here (Saint Louis).  Considering the deep rooted nature of the plant, I am curious to see how it handles container growth.  I'd venture it still manages quite well considering the plants wide usage in Horticulture.  It is definitely a mainstay of many an Australian garden, and rightly so.  Worth noting that despite the requirement for well drained soil it DOES require quite a bit of water.  You can see one in it's native environment in a sandstone woodland below.  Relatively fresh seed should germinate readily within 2 months (fingers crossed!).  

Fun facts:  It seems that this species can be prompted into early flowering by either setting fire to a portion of the rosette or by placing a heavy rock in the center of it.  I'm intrigued by this rock idea and will have to do more research.  Unsure if this actually works.

Enjoy!

Sandstone woodland 110227-0440 (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Photo Credit: Tony Rodd

I love this photo for the comparison in size to the Doryanthes to the nearby trees.  Click the image for a closer look and the marvels of Australia near the southern outskirts of Sydney.  I see ferns.

Plant of the day is: Callicoma serratifolia or black wattle

Plant of the day is: Callicoma serratifolia or black wattle

    I've been away from work for a few days and I'm getting a little antsy to check germination on several Australian species.  I like the flowers on this one, they really remind me of Croton flowers but they are morphologically quite a bit different (different families).  It's called the black wattle because of the flowers resemblance to Acacia actually, which it also isn't.  Whatever you want to call it, it was an important part of early Australian settlement.

New thing:  When not overly difficult to find, going to include the definition of the Latin names.  It helps me and others to remember a plant.

Callicoma: Greek- kalos = beauty and kome = hair.  In reference to fluffy flower heads

serratifolia: Latin - serratus = saw-toothed and folius = leaf.  In reference to serrated margins as seen below

Callicoma serratifolia leaf underside (CC BY 2.0)

Photo Credit: John Tann

A great image of the leaf underside, note the strong serration on the leaf margins.  Really earning the serratifolia designation.

Taxonomy, etc.:  If you've never heard of the Callicoma genus, it's probably because it is monotypic.  Callicoma serratifolia is the only species in the genus.  It was first published in 1809 by Henry Charles Andrews.  He was not only a botanical artist but an engraver, colorist, and publisher.  He published The Botanist's Repository which was the first serious contender to Kew's famous Curtis's Botanical Magazine.  If you're wondering what I'd like for Christmas.  First edition copies of any of these would suffice :).  As a random fun fact, he married the daughter of John Kennedy, who helped him with descriptions of his illustrations.  If you'll recall back a few weeks ago to the Lee and Kennedy write up.  It's all connected folks.  

Callicoma is a member of the Cunoniaceae family, a relatively small family of about 26 genera and 350 species of woody plants.  Many of them are laurifolia species.  I had no idea that a laurel forest was a thing.  They are subtropical forests with high humidity and relatively stable mild temperatures, usually with broad leaf evergreen species.  Learn something new every day.  Species are usually opposite or whorled and evergreen, often with conspicuous stipules.  Flowers have four or five (rarely 3 to 10) sepals and petals.  Also these are Antarctic flora so...southern hemisphere.  Most of the them are found around Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea, and New Caledonia.

Callicoma serratifolia (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Photo Credit: David Midgley

Extreme close up!  Whoaaaaaaa

Description:  A busy shrub or small tree.  Wiki lists it as reaching 20 m in height but from the looks of things and other more credible sights, it looks to usually from 6-12 m depending on site conditions.   Leaves are simple, opposite, have stipules (remember that trait!).  Upper surface of leaves is a nice glossy green while the underside have a very light colored pubescence (visible in photo above).  Flower heads are about 10 to 20 mm in diameter and have a pretty pronounced 10 to 30mm long peduncle (that long green thing attaching to the flower in the photo above).  Small (2 mm) sepals that are yellowish.  For some great images and description check out the floragreatlakes.info site.  Worth noting that young stems often have villous stems with reddish bark.  Can live over 50 years.

     

Habitat/range:  It is typically found in moist gullies close to creeks (think of it as an Australian Cephalanthus).   It is found along the coastal areas of New South Wales from the Braidwood district to south-east Queensland.  Or you can see it on a map here.  Often a regrowth plant.  Is fairly secure but Australia is certainly battling a lot of invasive species and land development like we all are.  If you're traveling and want to see a few, hit up Wallingat National Park.  Can be grown in a wide range of environments as long as it is fairly shady and soil stays fairly moist.  

Callicoma serratifolia shrub (CC BY 2.0)

Photo Credit: John Tann

Ethnobotany:  Was the main species used in 'wattle and daub' huts by the first European settlers to Port Jackson.  Hence the name 'Black wattle'.  

Propagation:  We'll see how seed does.  Can be struck from cuttings taken in March/April (in Australia).  Semi-ripe material with an IBA treatment.  

Plant of the day is: Niemeyera whitei or rusty plum

Plant of the day is: Niemeyera whitei or rusty plum

VULNERABLE

I keep trying to spell this with the e before the i.  I don't know why.  I'll just have to try.  Received a couple (2) of these seeds the other day and said out loud something like "What are these!?!?".  Amazing looking seeds, very large.  Best part...one was already starting to germinate!  They look almost like a moon of some distant world.  Maybe my imagination is getting the best of me.  They also have a pretty cool scar on them that looks a bit like an eye.  The rusty plum's a watchin ya!

Check out additional picks at the google image factory.

Niemeyera whitei seeds

Photo Credit: Justin Lee (CC BY-SA 3.0 US)

Taxonomy, etc.:  Sapotaceae.  A Mexican word for a plant of the family that was Latinised by Linnaeus as Sapota.  Fun fact.  Kind of a different one for me, probably because the distribution is pantropical (basically between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropic of Capricorn).  Not a huge family, only about 65 genera and 800 species of evergreen trees and shrubs.  The good news is that many of them have edible fruit, including our Niemeyera here.  Niemeyera is a very small genus with just 4 accepted members that are all endemic to Australia in the states of Queensland and New South Wales.  I'm learning a fair bit of Australian geography and I like it.  I like it a lot.  Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller may have had a very long and pretentious name but he used Niemeyera to reference another plant (an orchid actually).  Look, long story short, it was rejected for that plant but still kept around.  Exhilarating.  I wish it were easier to find at least a morphological description for the genus.  Missouri Botanical Garden does an excellent job with several genera...but come on folks.  Lets get this out on the webs.

Niemeyera whitei seed - The scar or hilum showing where it was connected to the ovary wall.  Think of it like a seed belly button.

Photo Credit: Justin Lee (CC BY-SA 3.0 US)

Description:  Good description here.  It is a small to medium sized tree up to 20 m tall and a stem of about 50 cm.  The trunk is not your standard trunk, it's "irregular and fluted".  Sadly not really any decent photos show up for that :(.  I lied..I found one.  Bark is a greyish color with a corky quality.  Has bumps and pits.  Poor thing.  Branches are thick and covered with hair and, when broken, produce a milky sap.  Leaves are alternate, oblong-elliptic to oblanceolate, with a pale lower surface.  Venation is pretty distinctive on this.  Leaves/stem are a pretty good ID feature for this.  Primary veins come off midribs at ROUGHLY 80 deg. with about 15 20 pairs of raised and curved secondary veins.  Bottoms of leaves are pubescent.  Many descriptions list these flowers as green/brown.  They look pretty durned white to me.  It LOOKS like the flowers form right on the stems of young growth  for such a large seed they are surprisingly quite small at about 20mm.  Fruit is a monstrous berry 2 to 7cm in diameter initially red then fading to a dark purple/black.  Inside is the large spherical seed that is 2 to 3cm in diameter.  

Looks like flowers...actually new leaves.  Colorful.  

Public Domain (yiss!)

Range/Habitat:  The Atlas of Living Australia says it better than I can with a sweet heat map to boot.  Found in gully, warm temperate or littoral rain forests and adjacent understory of moist eucalypt forest.  Found on poorer soils in areas below 600 m (from sea level).   

Propagation:  Not sure about cuttings and it's getting late.  Seed is best sown fresh but does keep for at least a few months.  You'll obviously want to remove the fruit/flesh from the seed and clean.  I put my two in their own gallon containers, covered with a fine layer of grit (to keep the funk down), and now I wait.  Somewhat impatiently.

Brought to you by:  Lane 8's Winter Mix tape and Firestone Walker's Easy Jack.

Plant of the day is: Backhousia citriodora or lemon myrtle

Plant of the day is: Backhousia citriodora or lemon myrtle

It smells great.  Kind of a citrus like smell but just slightly different.  I had written a really nice flowery and sentimental passage about smell and plants and then due to blogger's ineptitude at handling drag and drop images...lost it all.  I love plant smells.  It's a thing.  There.

Backhousia citriodora (Lemon myrtle)

Photo Credit; Tatters ❀ (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Note the "poofiness"  That's a word right?

Taxonomy, etc.:  A member of the Myrtaceae family, it does qualify for the myrtle designation.  Fun fact about the family.  There is phloem on BOTH sides of the xylem.  Crazy right?  But seriously, it IS pretty cool.  Let me google a wonderful graphic for you depicting a normal woody species vascular cambium, phloem, and xylem.    Members have a base number of five petals but in some species they are absent or very small.  It's a fairly large family of over 5650 species and has included previous plant of the day candidate Syzygium samarangense, which was very tasty.  Also includes Melaleuca (which I also planted today).  The family tends to have very showy stamens, and this species is no exception.  That ...soft, poofy, fluffiness?  Stamens.  Think of a "Mimosa" tree here in STL.  Mimosa in quotes because it's not and it will forever irk me.  Albizia julibrissin.  Anyways, the genus was named in 1853 after the English botanist James Backhouse.  Not Jason Stackhouse.

Flowering Lemon myrtle tree

Photo Credit; Tatters ❀ (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Description:  A small to medium size tree.  Usually only reaches about 8m tall with a low-branching habit.  Wiki mentions that it can reach up to 20m but I think that is extremely rare.  Sometimes the branches will actually touch the ground and take root.  These can actually be dug up and started as new trees.  Leaves are opposite, evergreen, and have a nice green oval/lance shape and have a very strong lemon scent to them.  Very slightly toothed margins (quite small).  Young foliage is reddish and you shoots tend to be hairy or pubescent.  Flowers occur on long-stalked clusters.  Flowers have 5 petals and 5 persistent calyx lobes.  Page here has some photos of fruit so you get an idea (if you want). 

Range/Native Habitat:  Naturally occurs in the Queensland coastal forests from Brisbane to Mackay.  Those places are in Australia.  East coast Australia to be exact.  

Culture:  Is not tolerant of frost/freezing so ya better keep it warm.  It likes plenty of sun, can handle some pretty humid temps, and also handles a wide variety of soils.  Well drained soils are better but apparently it can handle some pretty poor soils.  It's younger juvenile stage is more shrubby and as it matures it tends toward a single trunk.  I'll mention something on this in propagation in a sec.  

Propagation:  So, as is a very popular practice with older, dried seeds, I soaked these in water overnight.  I picked apart the little seed capsules and used a syringe to suck the small seeds out of the water and surface sowed them.  Not sure if I could have just planted a capsule and had some good germination but I wanted to try to spread out my chances of several seedlings.  They are fairly easy to root from cuttings.  You can bypass the juvenile stage of the plant by taking cuttings from mature growth...cool right?  The catch, typically, is the more juvenile growth tends to be easier to root.  In this case, however, it is definitely possible to root older growth.  I'm sure applications of IBA help with rooting.  

Etc.:  I'm not going to get too into this, but it is a widely cultivated and utilized plant for a spice and it's delicious compounds.  As I've been researching several Australian species I've discovered this thing known as bushfood.  This plant in particular was used by Aboriginal Australians long before the Western world discovered it.  It is the highest natural source of citral which about 1-2% of people are allergic to.  Those poor, poor people.  It is supposed to have a "cleaner and sweeter" aroma than even lemongrass.  Go Backhousia Litsea, you just got schooled.

Enjoy.

Plant PERSON of the day is: Barbara Everard

Barbara Everard

Last April I had the great privilege of meeting her son and staying at his home.  Airbnb and the universe somehow aligned the universe in a great way.  Her son, Martin, had a wonderful garden that had me very impressed as soon as we arrived.  I had no idea, at the time, who his mother was.  Just before we left he did bring out a lot of her original prints and let me look them over.  They were absolutely beautiful.  Botany and art have always had a strong relationship, and many botanical artists help, to this day, in correct classification and historical documentation of plant discoveries.

Her work is still under copyright so I cannot show you the images directly from this site.  Please click on the following link to see a wonderful gallery of her work.  I actually saw a few of these prints in person.  Notice the wonderful detail of morphology, highlighting the structure and life cycles of plants.  A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a botanical illustration can show a more detailed picture of plant structure and development than a photograph (check the venus flytrap one..it's fantastic).

Barbara Everard Gallery

Barbara Mary Steyning Everard:  (27 July 1910 - 17 June 1990) A botanical illustrator who's work included everything from greeting cards to botanical publications and gardening magazines.  In 1936 she actually worked at a fake antique business in Soho, London.  She made fake Chinese wallpapers.  Forgery at its finest.  She was initially paid very little but soon rose to a senior position and was commissioned to work at Fortnum and Masons for murals and decorated teatables for the Dominion Theatre (wonder if some of her work is still there...hmmm).  While working on the job she took night classes at the Ealing School of Art while she further honed her amazing talent.  Her son told me that the white spaces in her works are just the paper background.  Seeing some of them up close, it confounded me how I would even begin to attempt something of that level of detail and think of some elements as a negative.

During the Great Depression she actually worked as a lady's companion (I had no idea such a thing existed...it's fascinating and you should check it out).  She married her husband Raymond Wallace Everard in secret and lived apart from him for a time because he was stationed to work in Singapore and his employers did not know of his marriage.  With the outbreak of war in Europe they decided to have a child, Martin.  In February of 1942 Singapore fell to the Japanese and Raymond was taken prisoner while Barbara and Martin escaped on the last boat to evade the Japanese.  Raymond spent three years as a prisoner but was eventually freed and even came back to Malaya to help develop rubber plantations for Dunlop.  Barbara and Martin joined him in 1946 and she began to paint large watercolour still lifes and display them in Singapore, Malacca, and Juala Lumpur.

She and Raymond returned to England in 1952 where she embarked on a 30 year journey of botanical illustration.  She drew many amazing works of orchids, wild flowers of Britain, and many paintings of endangered species, including the Rafflesia (the worlds largest single flower) on Mt Kinabalu.  Some 250 plates and sketches can be found in the Library and Archive at Royal Botanic Garden Kew.  Sadly I was unable to get a look at these at my brief visit to Kew.  Perhaps another trip.  If you would like to see the Rafflesia illustration.  Another gallery can be found here as well as merchandise.  She also has an autobiography titled Call Them the Happy Years

The Barbara Everard Gallery

Some of work can be found in:
Wild Flowers of the World by Brian D Morley (I saw many originals from this)
Trees and Bushes of Europe by Oleg Polunin
Flowers of Europe by Oleg Polunin
Flowers of the Mediterranean by Oleg Polunin

I'm humbled and touched that the randomness of the world but me in touch with someone so amazing and afforded me the opportunity to visit with her son (a very gracious host) and view the art and talent that her hands and heart created.

An remarkable woman with a remarkable story.

Thanks Barbara.

Plant PERSON of the day is: Kate Sessions

This will be the second to last in the series of plant persons.  Women have historically oft been left out of botanical history but many of them have made some amazing and significant contributions to botany, horticulture, and botanical illustrations (which are a very important part of botanical lore).  Today we'll cover the more horticultural side of things and the next time around, we'll cover an amazing botanical artist.  As chance would have it, our Air BnB host in London last year was the son of the next woman I'll write about.  I was struggling one morning from a bit too much of the ole English pubs but her son was nice enough to bring out a slew of her original works.  It actually perked me up quite a bit for the hour tube ride to the airport.

Anyways, on to Kate Sessions.

A young Kate Sessions

"Botanically speaking, I would call Miss Sessions a perennial, evergreen, and everblooming"
-George Marston, at a 1935 garden dedication in her honor

Kate Sessions:  I figured I'd also bring things back to the United States with this one as well.  Born Katherine Olivia Sessions, she was born on Nob Hill in San Francisco on November 8, 1857.  After graduating she spent a few months touring Hawaii and then did a brief stint in business college and enrolled at University of Berkeley in 1877.  Her essay for graduation was entitled "The Natural Sciences as a Field for Women's Labor".  Clearly an early pioneer and adopter of urging women into science.  Good stuff.  Keep in mind women couldn't even vote at this time.  Crazy right?  She did a bit of teaching after this and eventually wound up in Sand Diego where her horticultural spirit truly took hold.  In 1885 she purchased a nursery, was soon owner of a flower shop, and nurseries in Coronado, Pacific Beach, and Mission Hills.  I'm definitely hunting down Mission Hills Nursery which she founded in 1910.  It's still in operation!  Can't wait to visit!

Ever hear of Balboa Park?  Well, she is largely responsible for a lot of the amazing trees growing there.  In 1892 she leased 30 acres of the land for growing land and agreed to plant 100 trees a year in the park which was pretty empty at the time.  In 1902 she was a big part of the formation of the park Improvement Committee with George Marson and Mary B. Coulston.  You can now visit and see cypress, pine, oak, pepper trees and eucalyptus trees that she brought in from all over the world and grew from seed.  Reading about her really gives me some focus and inspiration for my job to be sure.

She also co-founded the San Diego Floral Association which is the oldest garden club in Southern California.  She taught classes and wrote articles for California Garden the associations publication.  By 1915 she was the supervisor of agriculture and landscaper for the cities schools and taught botany to schoolchildren.

Kate died on March 24th 1940, having lived a full life of service and contribution.  She never had any children and once wrote her longtime friend (and also amazing botanist) Alice Eastwood:

"Our friendship developed through flowers...our children, which I am growing and you are naming."

How beautiful is that?  The feels.

Older Kate: I see a look of gentle resolve with a slight bemusement.  

Plants:  O.k. where to start, jeez.  She introduced a LOT of material and went on collection trips across southern California as well as Europe.  It had to have been a golden age for horticulture at the time, especially given San Diego's mild climate.  She introduced many California natives (perhaps Calochortus...but I'll have to look).  One of the most famous plants she is credited with introducing is Jacaranda mimosifolia or blue jacaranda, a native of South America.  If you've never seen this tree...prepare for a treat.  It's a show stopper.

Jacaranda mimosifolia - Public Domain

Despite the nod to Mimosa like leaves (mimosifolia), it is a member of the Bignoniaceae family and not Fabaceae.  Invasive in some parts of the world, it is listed as vulnerable in it's native habitat.  How bout those flower though!  Absolutely stunning.

Honors:  Well deserved, to be sure.  In 1935 she was named the "Mother of Balboa Park" and you can find a statue of her in the park today.  Apparently it is the only full sculpture of a non-fictional woman in San Diego.  In 1939 she became the first woman to receive the prestigious Frank N Meyer medal of the American Genetic Association.  In 2006 she was inducted into the San Diego County Women's Hall of Fame under the title of Trailblazer.  A 2013 a children's picture book was released.  It is called The Tree Lady: The True Story of How One Tree-Loving Woman Changed a City Forever, and it tells the story of her life.  Great for the kids.  Please pass down some good legacy.

Plant PERSON of the day is: Ibn al-Baitar

Or full name: Ibn al-Bayṭār al-Mālaqī, Ḍiyāʾ Al-Dīn Abū Muḥammad ʿAbdllāh Ibn Aḥmad
Definitely an impressive name.

Niki and I are travelling to Spain next Spring and I'm not sure if we'll be able to make the stop to Malaga.  If not, I'm hoping I can find some traces of him in Seville where he studied.

Ibn al-Baytar sculpture, Benalmádena, Málaga, Spain

Photo Credit: Keke999 GFDL

Definitely an impressive name.

Lived from 1197 to 1248.  He is considered one of the major scientists of Muslim Spain.  Born in Malaga Spain, he studied botany in Seville from Al-Nabati who was an early developer of the scientific method and valued empirical, experimental techniques for assessing medicinal plants and techniques.  The practice rubbed off on Ibn al-Baitar.  I'll mention that his father was a veterinarian (al-Baitar is Arabic for veterinarian).  He himself was a physician and a botanist, which is a HUGE recurring theme among botanists, as many physicians saw the benefits of plants to medicine and dove into a better understanding of the natural world.

In 1219 he left Spain and traveled the northern coast of Africa as far as Anatolia.  His journeys took him to Bugia, Constantinople, Tunis, Tripoli, Barqa and Adalia.  After 1224 he entered the service of Malik al-Kamil, an Ayyubid Sultan (get ya history on), as chief herbalist.  Shortly after, in 1227 al-Kamil extended his territory into Damascus and Ibn al-Baitar accompanied him there where he collected plants from Syria, Palestine, and a good portion of Iraq.

Ibn al-Baitar

All in all he studied medicinal plants and literature from Greece, Spain, North Africa, Turkey, and the aforementioned Syria, Palestine, and Iraq.  Very impressive for the time.  Bear in mind this was the 13th century.  According to Sarton, the author of the Introduction to the History of Science, Ibn al-Baitar was the greatest herbalist of the Middle ages.  No one excelled or equaled him til the 17th century.  That's just opinion of course, but certainly mighty praise.  In his two books, which I'll mention shortly, he gives names in Arabic, Greek, Latin, and Spanish, helping facilitate the spread of knowledge to Europeans and other readers.  My kinda guy.  It's not what you know, it's what you share.

 Fleur de chicorée (Cichorium intybus) Photo Credit: Père Igor

Creative Commons SA 3.0 Unported

Why highlight the introduced and naturalized common chicory?  Because, although it was widely known, Ibn al-Baitar was the first physician to compound it and use for the treatment of cancer and tumors.  Fun fact.

So his two works, which became standard materia medica for centuries in Europe, are Kitab al-Jami fi al-Adwiya al- Mufrada or The Book of Medicinal and Nutritional Terms and Kitab al-Mlughni fi al-Adwiya al-Mufrada or Comprehensive Book of Drug and Nutrition.  In these books he describes over 1,400 plants (200 to 300 of which were new to medicine).  He is noted for careful observation, detailed note taking, and even a bit of ethnobotany to explore the uses of plants by locals in the areas he visited.  

Truly he was a light of science and reason in an age when darkness was soon to spread throughout Europe.  He served out the last of his life in Damascus amidst an atmosphere of peace and learning and died in 1248.

I give you a man who came from Spain and lived and died in Syria amidst a time in which the opposite is extremely difficult.

Enjoy.

Plant PERSON of the day is: Thomas Nuttall

An extension of last weeks activities as I just didn't have much time to spend researching throughout the week.  Here is an exceptional botanist and zoologist whose name you can't help but notice around many a taxonomic or horticultural corner.  He was also one heck of an avid birder.

Thomas Nuttal (January 5, 1786 - September 10, 1859)

While he was born in Long Preston England and spent his early years an apprentice printer, around the age of 18 he struck off for America.  He would spend some 33 years of his 73 working in America as a botanist, explorer, and professor.  America at that time was still a vast frontier to the west, and he was a tough and dedicated traveler.  Upon arrival in America, the very next day he came across Benjamin Smith Barton (easily another candidate for a fascinating person) who was in need of a new protege.  Nutall had brought in a cat-brier, or Smilax (which I can tell you...are quite unpleasant to remove from a place you don't want one to be) for identification.  After a quick tutelage in botany, he was doing field botany work for Barton, collecting plants in the salt marshes of Delaware and Chesapeake Bay.

Smilax rotundifolia (those thorns hurt).

Fascinating isn't it?  Those weird moments and plants in life that pull us in a direction?  I was once (jokingly?) threatened that my job depended on being able to ID a plant.  As life would have it I had just researched it a few days before.  Mine was Ipomea hederacea.  Whew.  Close call.

After a successful trip in the summer of 1810 to the Great Lakes region Nuttall ignored Barton's instructions to return to Philadelphia and instead took a trip down the Missouri river to ...St. Louis!  After another brief stint at a local newspaper, he met fellow botanist John Bradbury (Liverpool botanical gardens) and the two began to collect specimens and catalog many plants.  The area had been visited by Lewis and Clark in 1804 but their entire 1805 spring collection was destroyed by floodwater.  Meaning that Nuttall's documentation and samples are some of the first introductions of many North American species.  Cool.  

Later he would travel further up the Missouri River where he would discover the Calochortus nuttallii or sego-lily.  Unfortunately the threat of war between England and America loomed and he had to return to London with his vast collections.  If I'm Barton, I'm definitely wondering if I'm ever going to see all these specimens.  

Calochortus nuttallii at  Craters of the Moon National Monument, Butte Co., ID, USA.

Photo Credit: Bill Bouton Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic

Back in London, he publishes a small pamphlet with Fraser's Nursery and validly publishes new species like Eriogonum flavum, Oenothera cespitosa, Penstemon grandifloram, Yucca glauca, and one of my favorites, Oenothera macrocarpa.  If you ever see a 'Nutt.' at the end of any of these species, now you know why.  Basically because a guy ignored his boss and struck off on his own.

He did come back after the conclusion of the War of 1812 and headed to the Southeast, later writing about the Eriogonum genus (Greek - erios and gonos meaning wooly knees).  He surmised it would be a large genus when the west was fully explored, despite only knowing 4 species.  It's around 245 now (good guess!).  He also proposed the genus Collinsia.  You might know Collinsia verna, the Spring blue eyed Mary.  

Blue-Eyed Mary Collinsia verna Figwort family

Photo Credit: zen Sutherland (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

After that round of trips he shortly published, in 1818, his Genera of North American Plants in Philadelphia.  Back out on the Mississippi and then the Red River, he made it down to Fort Smith and spent time in Arkansaw and Oklahoma before turning south to New Orleans and sailing back to Philadelphia.  He then wrote Journal of Travels into the Arkansas Territory during the year 1819.  If you ever want to see what feuding botanists do, check out the interaction between Pursh and Nuttall.  I side with Nuttall.  

In 1825 he became the curator of the botanical gardens at Harvard University during which he published his Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and of Canada.  In 1834 he resigned his post and again went out west through Kansas, Wyoming, and Utah and eventually sailing across the Pacific Ocean to the Hawaiian Islands.  All of this he did in a year and then came back and botanized in the Pacific Northwest in 1835.  He did a stint at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, contributed to the Flora of North America and North American Sylva which was the first book to include all the trees of North America before moving back to England to inherit property from his uncle.  He lived in St. Helens, Lancashire until 1859 and is buried at Christ Church in the nearby village of Eccleston.

What a life and a legacy.  This was all before cars and roads and planes people.  He saw a HUGE chunk of North America and has dozens of marine species, plants, and birds named after.  He was truly an amazing and driven human being.  I'll see his name over and over again throughout my life, and every time I do, I'll try to imagine how this country must have looked back then.  I'm sure it was stunning and beautiful and helped make the long treks, hot hikes, and bugs much more bearable. 

Certainly makes me feel like I should be doing more with my life.  Cheers mate.  Life well done.

Plant PERSONS of the day are: James Lee and Lewis Kennedy

Plant PERSONS of the day are: James Lee and Lewis Kennedy

   James Lee

Alright, so this is a new task for me, and sadly, I can't find a good image of Lewis Kennedy.  This was the 18th century so times were a little different.  First a little basic information about each and then a bit about how they came together and their influence on horticulture.

James Lee:  Lee was a Scottish gardener who lived from 1715 to 1795.  He actually apprenticed with Philip Miller (story for another time) at the famous Chelsea Physic Garden (which sadly I missed when last I was in London).  He was personal gardener to the Duke of Argyll and imported many exotic species for him.  He was a correspondent of Linnaeus, and was an early adopter and promoter of the binomial system.  In 1760 he published An Introduction to Botany.  Early editions of this book are still available if you go shopping for rare books.  Mighty tempting to pick up a copy.  

    I came across a rather interesting tale about James Lee, a bit of a local legend if you will.  Apparently someone told him of an amazing plant in Wapping that he simply had to see.  Upon seeing the plant, he pleaded for it from a woman who was reluctant to hand it over, as it had been brought from the West Indies by her husband, who had left again on a voyage.  He emptied his pockets of about eight guineas and promised to bring her the first offspring of his propagation efforts.  Long story short, the new plant was a smashing success as he kept a pair of blooming plants in a window and droves of people came to pay a guinea to have it.  Sadly he never made good on his promise to the sailor's wife, but made over 300

guineas that season.  The plant you wonder?  The very beautiful Fuchsia!

Fuchsia magellanica - flower by JJ Harrison CC BY-SA 3.0

One of the most famous introductions made into the horticultural world, still popular.  Thanks to Kennedy and Lewis.

Lewis Kennedy:  Lewis Kennedy was a gardener to Lord Bolton at Chiswick and was the initial proprietor of "The Vineyard" at Hammersmith.  Lived from 1721 to 1782.  About 1745 he entered into partnership with Lee.  Here, since I can't find a picture of him, see him through the work of his grandson  Lewis Kennedy (gets confusing eh?).  Here is a great page about the Kennedys.  Basically it goes Lewis Kennedy, John Kennedy, Lewis Kennedy.  

Listed as "the best example of formal terraced gardens in Scotland"

So now we get into the fascinating tale of Empress Josephine, the first wife of Napoleon.  In the early years of the 19th century, when James Lee Jr. and John Kennedy were in charge of the nursery, Empress Josephine employed them in many capacities at the gardens of Malmaison.  Lewis's son John Kennedy and his son Lewis Kennedy actually had a special permit to travel between England and France at the time (of war) to consult and advise her on her collection.  They reportedly sent her many roses, she was bad at paying her bills, and helped sponsor James Niven at the Cape of Good Hope (another era of continued botanical collections and introductions from the very new and untapped regions of South Africa).  Pelargonias, heaths, ixias, oh my.  The nursery was the first in the world to test hardiness on some of these plants.  

"The Vineyard" at Hammersmith:  Actually did start out as a vineyard.  Around the middle of the 18th century they were producing a good quantity of Burgundy wine.  A thatched house was build with wine cellars beneath it and they turned it into one of the most successful horticultural nurserys ever seen.  "For many years, this nursery was deservedly considered the first in the world" - John Claudius Loudon.  Course he was Scottish too, probably just biased :).  The nursery was also very popular with the Russian Grand Duchess Catherine Pavlovna who made a special visit when Czar Alexander 1 visited England.  Did I mention they introduced the Dahlia in 1818 to the public?  The other hugely significant contribution was the introduction of the China Rose in 1787.  This greatly broadened the scents of roses when they were hybridized with other roses like the damasks.  It was kept in operation until 1885 when the site was developed for Olympia Hall.  Next time you are in Hammersmith, wander into Olympia Hall and imagine the changes these two men brought to the world.  I'm still influenced by them today.

Decorative Dahlia 'Santa Claus', Miller 1983 (USA)

by Marktee1 Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported

Plant of the day is: Scrophularia rupestris or figwort

Plant of the day is: Scrophularia rupestris or figwort

Tonight's plant got me thinking about the other Scrophularia I grew this year.  Scrophularia nodosa.  I sowed seed from two different sources, one in Berlin, the other in Romania.  The Berlin seed came up marvelously and the Romanian seed did not germinate.  They WERE in slightly different environments, with the Berlin seed in a warmer environment with mist and the Romanian seed in a cooler growth chamber.  Was it the slight differences in moisture or humidity, the temperature, or just seed viability.  These are the questions that make me want more seed.

CC images aren't readily available but there are few excellent ones from Russian sources in their native habitats that are well work checking out.  See links below.

http://www.plantarium.ru/page/image/id/205845.html
http://www.plantarium.ru/page/image/id/135673.html
http://www.plantarium.ru/page/image/id/95838.html

 Missouri Botanical Garden

Herbarium sample collected 1839.  Love this stuff.  Click for far more detail

Foreword.:  Having recently grown a close relative I was happy to see one of our Russian companions, Luba, holding up a lovely bouquet of these.  Apparently she was responsible for some of the wild collected Index Seminum plants offered up to people like me.  Despite the barriers of language, we still spoke the common tongue of the Latin binomial, which conveys more feeling and emotion than you might think.  

Taxonomy, etc.:  A member of the Scrophulariaceae, or figwort, family.  That makes this genus the type genus for the family.  Good stuff.  A goodly sized genus with about 200 species.  The family itself has been changed quite a bit with the onset of phylogenetic evidence, with several genera moved to Lamiacae, Plantaginaceae, and one of my favorites Orobanchaceae (becasue it's fun to say and ...parasitic plants).  Flowers almost always are notably bilaterally zygomorphic, which is an extremely flowery way of saying they only mirror each other when split from the middle on the vertical axis.  Kinda like your face, mostly, cept for the ear thing, and that weird mole.  Anyways, the family is found in the Northern Hemisphere with most species in Asia and a few in Europe and North America.

Description:  Well, I apparently hit the jackpot with this page.  I was having a difficult time tracking down a good botanical description and thought, what the heck, I'll check the full on Russian pages.  Chrome/Google does a pretty decent job with Russian translation, just right click in the page and translate.  Boom.  Good stuff here.  Leaves are opposite, everything but the flowers are covered in profuse glandular white/brown hairs.  Serrate and lanceolate leaves Flowers are a neat read that is difficult for my limited color vocabulary to describe.  They're neat though.  Individual flowers are very small but still manage to be noticeable and beckon you in for a closer look.  

Range:  Steppes, rocky slopes in lower mountainous regions.  The images from the site previously mentioned Russian site are taken mainly in areas near the Black Sea.  Where we collected them, near the Volgograd river, is just north of and smack dab between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.  Sometime I hope to go back and explore the areas near the Caspian and Black Seas and I'll certainly make it a point to stop in Volgograd and the area and visit some great friends.  Anyways, it is found throughout a good part of that area.  I'm sure there are some Russian sources more accurate on its exact range.  It seemed a robust plant.  It was in the very dry season so all I have to show is the plant in seed.  Enjoy.

Photo Credit: Derek Lyle

CC BY SA 3.0

Fun facts:   The Scrophularia genus has SERIOUS medicinal usage.  It is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for treating arthritis.  It has a powerful painkilling ability equal to that of cortisone and twice as effective as indomethacin, a popular NSAID used to treat arthritis.  Extracts of the plant have been shown to reduce edema and inhibit inflammation.  A lot of plants are used for dubious affect, but THIS plant is the real deal.  Very cool.  It's like the Icy Hot of the plant world, without the Shaq endorsement.  

Plant of the day is: Tulipa biebersteiniana

 Today's plant would be a shame for you to not actually see in flower.  No creative commons images available so click here to let me google those images for you.  Worth the click.  Do it!  Do it now!  You'll notice a few great shots just full of fields of it, similar to the environment I encountered it in.  I couldn't see the flower, but it left another of nature's great beauties, a dehisced seed pod.  Here is a nice video showing the process on an Adenium.  The photos you see here were taken at Scherbakovsky Nature Park in Russia.

Photo Credit: Derek Lyle

CC BY 3.0

Taxonomy, etc.:  Tulipa is a member of the Liliaceae family and found throughout Eurasia and North Africa.  75 species are currently accepted with my hybrids and cultivars than you could begin to shake a stick at.  It looks like the most recent classifications of the genus involve for subgenera: Clusianae, Orithyia, Tulipa, and Eriostemones.  Our friend Tulipa biebersteiniana here is a member of the Eriostemones subgenus.  Horticulturists have several other classifications for a total of 15 different groups based on flower morphology.  This is where the true prowess of horticultural selection comes into play.  Tulips cross-pollinate readily, making them a great candidate for what I consider...painting with nature.  I encourage a look at the Wiki page for a great explanation of horticultural divisions and some great examples.  There is a wealth of knowledge about the genus and I can't even really begin to scratch the surface for something like this.

Description/range: Monocot, reaching a height of 20 to 40 centimetres.  Leaves a mid-green, lanceolate with entire margins and alternate.  Produces yellow flowers from April to May and produce loculicidal capsules.  I've mentioned different methods of dehiscence before.  In the photos below you can see an example of loculicidal dehiscense with the pod splitting from the top (rather than the bottom which is septicidal).  Stems are glabrous.  Tepals are yellow with a green blotch near the base (at least for the actual petals, can't the lower sepals).  Found in central regions of Russia, Crimea, western Siberia, Balkan Pininsula and Anatolia.  Thrives in steppes, semideserts and other dry places (but can still handle cold).  For a bit more detail in description/distrubution check the eFloras info.

Photo Credit: Derek Lyle

CC BY 3.0

Cultivation:  I should think this plant would do well here IF given an extremely well drained soil.  They are, of course, geophytes that spend part of their life cycle completely underground protected from the elements.  The drier the summer the better, but any given year, who knows around the Midwest.  Freely produces daughter bulbs so if you get a few happy years you might be able to do some divisions and set up a few climate spots as insurance.  

Propagation:  From seed or bulb divisions.  Unlike lily bulbs, tulips don't have scales so they can't be chipped.  Many growers from seed mention sowing outdoors in the fall in a coldframe.  Seed has a physiological dormancy and I suspect a morphophysiological dormancy (needs a period of warming to fully develop the embryo).  If you want a quick look into the madness of seed dormancy click here.  It's madness.  So if you DO get your seed to germinate, wait till it begins to wither in the later spring/summer heat and then cut off just about all water and let it dry out.  You can keep growing in a pot for a few years like this OR plant out when it is young in the fall.  Either way, be prepared to wait 5 to 10 years for a flower.  Yeah, kinda rough.

Photo Credit: Derek Lyle

CC BY 3.0

Etc.:  Described by Josef and Julius Shultes in 1829.  Appearing in Carl Linnaeus's Systema Vegetabilium.  I was recently reminded of the Biodiversity Heritage Library, an online database of many an old or interesting book that has been scanned.  It is a great resource and a great look back through time.  Some books have absolutely stunning prints worth exploring.

Plant of the day is: Spiraea crenata or scalloped spirea

Plant of the day is: Spiraea crenata or scalloped spirea

You'll notice right off the bat something that vexes me with this genus.  Common name is spirea while the genus is named Spiraea.  You're killin me smalls.  This tough little shrub makes its appearance on account of meeting it in it's native habitat but under cultivation.  You'll see a photo from my recent Russia trip.  It was told to me as Spiraea litwinowii but that is, with a fair degree of confidence it seems, a synonym for Spiraea crenata.

Spiraea crenata by Liuthalas Creative Commons 3.0 Unported

Taxonomy etc.:  I know you can guess the family from the flower right?  If you guessed Rosaceae you were spot on.  If not...you tried and that's the important thing.  It's a pretty good sized one with around 95 genera and a bit shy of 3,000 species.  Spiraea itself is a decent sized family with somewhere between 80 and 100 species, I'll let the taxonomists sort that one out.  Something fun to note is that the genus used to include Filipendula and Aruncus, with Filipendula being very closely related.  There are smatterings of Spiraea across the Northern Hemisphere but the greatest diversity occurs in eastern Asia, where we've obtained many of our horticultural value specimens.  Worth noting that we do have a Missouri endangered Spiraea (its safe in other states).  Spiraea alba is only noted in a handfull of counties in Missouri, mostly north in areas surrounding Sullivan county.  

Description:  Hardy deciduous shrub to 1.5m with slender arching branches.  Inflorescense is umbel-like with many white flowers.  Leaves are lanceolate to obovate, and entire.  They can occasionally have fine toothed or scalloped leaves.  Just to be sure I looked up scalloped in terms of leaf margins.  Crenate.  Just say crenate margin.  Oye!  So many words for things.  Having a hard time with a good botanical description for the species BUT, here is the original published species from Species Plantarum by Carl von Linnaeus himself.  S. crenata is listed as #5 and specifically notes "corymbis" which is in reference to the corymb like structure of the inflorescence which you can see from these photos.  Yes, that IS a scan from the original document.  Very inspiring.  After a bit more of a stint in Russia, the plants are going to start going with some older explorer botanists to tell their stories as well as the plants.  Looking forward to it.

Spiraea crenata by Liuthalas Creative Commons 3.0 Unported

Culture:  Pretty cold hardy, down to zone 4.  Can actually handle quite a bit of drought and full sun.  Naturally found on environments as harsh as some of the steppes of Russia.  Prefers stony, calcareous soils in its native habitat but is adaptable to wide range of soils.  Missouri Botanical Garden website lists as flowering April to May but I certainly saw it flowering in September in Volgograd Russia.  Certainly worth noting that it flowers on old wood so prune immediately after flowering BEFORE new buds have the chance to form.

Taken in Volgograd, Russia

Photo Credit: Justin Lee Creative Commons 3.0 Unported