Plant of the day is: Swietenia macrophylla or big-leaf mahogany

Plant of the day is: Swietenia macrophylla or big-leaf mahogany

The term mahogany is used to describe several different species of shrubs and trees.  Back in July of last year I wrote about Dalbergia abrahamii or rosewood, an endangered plant from Madagascar that has been over exploited for its absolutely beautiful wood.  It gets me thinking about our use of wood.  I actually am a firm believer of wood being used over plastic/particle board, it just needs to be done responsibly.  Leo Drey just died a couple of days ago, so it is fresh on my mind.  After a recent experience jabbering about how loud a birch snare drum was, it feels right to learn more about the wood used in the much quieter snare to the left.

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Taxonomy, etc.:  A member of the Meliaceae family, which I know very little about it would seem.  A look through the included genera leaves me scratching my head and thinking I need to study harder.  It is the Mahogany family which usually have allternate, pinnate leaves without stipules.  Usually evergreen, the family is made of about 550 species.  The Sweietenia genus itself is small with only about 6 accepted species.  The other species used for mahagony wood are S. mahagoni and S. humilis.

Description:  Can reach heights of up to 60 meters that can shoot through the rainforest canopy.  It can live upwards of 350 years.  The bark has a sweet odor.  Small white flowers give way to a truly wonky looking fruit (see below) and some impressive looking seeds as well (I want some.).  Forms up to 71 winged seeds per fruit.  Seeds previously thought to be recalcitrant (don't dry and store long term) are actually orthodox and can be stored cool and fairly dry for extended periods.  I would bet they don't withstand freezing well.  Here is a great .pdf for you nerds.  Swietenia macrophylla King.  The leaves (seen above) can reach a pretty impressive 50 cm (20in).  Macrophylla of course means "big-leaf" in the Latin.

Use:  A highly prized and sought after wood for furniture and musical instruments.  For some nice charts of how wood affects the sound of drums, check out this neat LINK.  I'm all about that bass too, but considering the ecological cost, probably best to use something else.  S. macrophylla is the most important member of the genus following the commercial extinction of the latter two species as a result of over-exploitation.  Sadly, I'm pretty sure this species will one day be mostly eradicated as well, as illegal lumbering in South America is extremely lucrative.  Worth nothing that there is a booming plantation market for this species in India, Fiji, Singapore, etc.  Asian plantation grown S. macrophylla is not subject to CITES restrictions and is your everyday main source of the wood.  It does have CITES protection, but there is a well organized black market.

If you want to get REAL depressed about being a human.  Go to the wiki page and look at the before and after map of it's range.  It's shrinking absurdly rapidly.  Here is the wiki.  I can't help but feel ashamed of my species when I see our will carried out in such a way.  Some estimate that it will also be commercially extinct within five years.  Five.

Range:  The Wiki page has a map, basically the northern/central swatch of South America and smaller every day.

Check the pictures below to cheer up a little :).

CC BY-SA 3.0 by Vinayaraj

Dominio público by Fev

Plant of the day is: Corynopuntia clavata

Plant of the day is: Corynopuntia clavata

Spent a good part of the day going over the name of the genus in my head trying to memorize it.  I think I've settled on thinking of a child named Cory trying to punt something.

Cory!  No Puntia!

Taxonomy, etc.:  A fairly small genus of about 15 species established by Knuth in 1935.  You can also find synonym references to this as Grusonia clavata.  Corynopuntia are known as the club chollas and are members of the Cactaceae family.  Based on their distribution, they almost half to be (more on that shortly).  It's not difficult to see why they get the name club from, as the pads are more cylindrical than say our native Opuntia humifusa.  Opuntiods are distinguished from cacti by four characteristics.

1.  Stems grow in distinctly jointed segments (hard to see through the spines of these pictures, but they sure do).  The joints form at the onset of the dry season.  Like shutting down shop for the season. Neat eh?

2.  They have glochids on their areoles.  Yeah, think of very tiny barbed spines that come off easily.  These, more than anything are a source of pain and annoyance for the uninitiated into Opuntiods.  The tiny hairs can be VERY painful, the long noticeable spines are easy to avoid but the glochids can really get ya.  Wear gloves and don't touch your face.  I broke this rule, as I used the small spines as a way of not touching the actual stem of the plant.  You can do this with a young segment and a nimble touch but still always wash your hands afterwards.  

3.  Rudimentary leaves are present on new joints.  I did not know this, and will have to keep a close eye.

4.  The seeds have a covering called an aril while other cacti have shiny black seeds.  Think of an aril as a kind of fleshy covering around a seed.  Taxus or yews are an easy seed with a noticeable red aril.  Desertmuseum.org fantastic writeup

ID:  Some ID above for you, but worth knowing that it is clump forming with fairly small stems only 7cm or so with fairly large yellow flowers.  Full description thanks to eol.org here.

Habitat/Range: The genus is present in Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico.  They pretty much have to be in the Americas because of the family.  Euphorbiaceae of similar looks are found in Africa and represent a wonderful the wonder of evolution.  Two families of very different parentage evolving similar form and structure based on environment.  Evolution.  Heck of a thing.

THIS particular Corynopuntia, C. clavata is actually endemic to New Mexico.  I suggest a Spring trip.  It is IUCN listed as 'least concern' because it occurs over a large area and is fairly abundant without any human treats.  The no human threats reason is likely due to the Opuntiods propensity for surviving in very arid climates, they are often found where other cacti cannot subsist.  

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Note the Lithurgopsis apicalis bee :).

Culture:  Must be kept quite dry.  IUCN site lists it as being tolerant of temperatures as low as -23C and withstanding snow cover for weeks.  I'm curious if it could be grown here in Missouri.  In the ground might prove tricky, but perhaps in a trough/pot in a location protected from wind.  Should work easily as a houseplant if you've got a lot of light.  South facing windows/supplemental lighting would be a must.

Propagation:  The neat thing about a lot of cacti is that you can just sever a part and let it heal or callus over and it will form roots readily.  With Opuntiods, that segmented growth habit makes things even easier, just snap off a segment.  The VERY IMPORTANT thing to remember is to let the cutting dry and callus before planting.  Don't just stick it right into a moist peaty mix or you'll get rot.  The cutting has plenty of moisture in it to dry out for several weeks.  After waiting a couple of weeks stick the cutting in a well drained, and I mean VERY well drained mix.  Large chunks of perlite, charcoal, and even lava rock with small amounts of soil/compost/peat components.  Water about once a week to establish and that is about it.  I noticed my cutting has begun to swell after a few weeks, which seems a good indicator that it is forming roots and taking up water.  

From seed, make sure the aril is removed, and then treat like any other cactus seed.  A fairly easy method can be found HERE that shares a very similar protocol to fern spore propagation (just with different media).  

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Flower is almost as big as plant.  Love that.

Plant of the day is: Ancistrocladus robertsoniorum

Plant of the day is: Ancistrocladus robertsoniorum

Full disclosure, all images are actually of Ancistrocladus heyneanus because there aren't any photos with creative commons licensing that exist.  Give it up to Vinayaraj for for noticing this interesting genus and sharing some pictures with the rest of us in the world.

Taxonomy/etc.:  This plant is without a common name as I imagine it might take quite the hunt to find out what it would be and in what language.  I came across this plant today as I had the privilege of helping someone out with some RNA research into the Caryophyllales order.  Plant associates don't stop just at the family level, there are also orders that group together closely related families.  I do always like the representation of evolution as branches on trees.  

This is a very unique plant and is the sole genus of it's family.  A monogeneric family as it is called.  One of it's closest relatives is actually a carnivorous species in another family, which is fairly unusual in the plant world.  Much of the classification of this species and study of it's parentage is thanks to extensive research in molecular phylogenetics which uses DNA to compare similarities/differences.

Description:  All species in the family are large lianas (woody vines) that can reach lengths of over 20 meters (whew!) ...and yes, the fellow I was with today used meters to describe something, I was pleased.  Leaves are alternate.  The vines develop a kind of a hooked thorn that helps them grapple up the sides of other trees/shrubs for support.  On main stems, branching is fairly limited but the lateral (side) stems seem to branch out more and form these hook like structures, which makes sense when you think about it...they're fishing for support.  I'll give you a link for a more in depth description of the flowers because it makes my head spin a little.  Still a long way to go for botanical terminology.  

Good write-up on the family

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Range:  Ancistrocladus robertsoniorum can be found in the Buda coastal forest of Kenya.  Next time you're in Kenya, have a look.  If you want to see an Ancistrocladus a little closer to home, you can find a fine specimen of Ancistrocladus robertsoniorum in the Missouri Botanical Garden's Climatron.  Look for it HERE.  The sign is a little tucked away, but it is there, and it is climbing up a nearby tree, you'll see a few of the tendrils sticking out of the tree.  

Why else did it make the plant today?:  Glad you asked.  Turns out, the African species have some really great compounds with medicinal purposes.  Fairly recently A. korupensis has been considered a potential anti-AIDS source by the National Cancer institute and you can be sure pharmaceutical companies all over the world are researching this plants compounds.  West African species are also showing considerable antimalarial activity...which they could certainly use in that part of the world and could benefit many others.

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This shows the more dense rosette type growth

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And here a bit more sparse

Plant of the day is: Succisa pratensis or devil's bit scabious

Plant of the day is: Succisa pratensis or devil's bit scabious

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Plant of the day returns!  The pause was due to teaching my first semester long class.  I really had no idea how much extra work teachers put in outside the class.  I sure do now!  Really excited to get back into this though.  I had some great students, but they can't replace the plants I love.

Taxonomy/etc.:  So if you get in real close, and I mean REAL close you can see that this is an inflorescence with lots of individual flowers.  If you get REALLY close you can see that the individual flowers only have 4 lobes as part of their corolla.  This differs to the otherwise extremely closely related Scabiosa which has 5 lobes.  A member of the Caprifoliaceae family, which still makes me think MADCAP Horse a handy way of remembering several genera of opposite leaved trees and shrubs. M= Maple (Acer) , A= Ash (Fraxinus), D = Dogwood (Cornus), C = Caprifoliaceae (honeysuckle), and Horsechestnut (Aesculus).  This follows the format and has opposite leaves.  The VERY first thing you ever do for plant ID is note the leaf arrangement.  Or maybe if it's got giant spikes or other traps around it...you can do that first.  The Succisa genus is quite small, with only about 4 accepted species.  

Botanical Description Here 

ID:  Looks a lot like Centaurea scabiosa but that is in the Aster family..the opposite leaves are the immediate giveaway for ID here.

Range:  Europe, Britain, South and East from Norway to N. Africa, Siberia and the Caucusus

Culture:  Very adaptable really, can handle a wide range of soils and moisture levels but does need a fair bit of sun.  Noted for growing in dry grassland but as long as soil is fairly well drained I don't see why it wouldn't handle some wetter conditions.

Fun Stuff:  O.k. whats with the whole devil's bit thing?  Glad you asked.  This plant has been used in times past for the treatment of scabies, eczema, fever, and notably, the plague.  There are a few variations on the lore, but the one I like involves the devil being displeased at the plants use to cure all of his evil sicknesses.  In his frustration, the devil tried to destroy it by biting the root off.  The root apparently does look kind of devilish.  Finnish and Latin names both come from succidere which means to 'break from the bottom' or 'to reap'

More Good Info Here

CC BY-SA 3.0 by Fornax

Etc.:  I didn't run across any scientific studies indicating that it IS in fact a remedy for anything.  The young leaves MIGHT be edible (again, don't eat without extensive study) but I'd have to spend a lot more time on it and I have my doubts they'd be tasty.  

Propagation:  Seeds should germinate easily in the Spring.  Currently unsure of their ideal germination temperatures.  Viability testing on this is a work in progress.  

For the UBER nerds out there, this is a fantastic paper on the species.  Lots of research.

CC BY-SA 2.0 by Udo Schmidt

GOOD TO BE BACK!