Thursday, June 25, 2015

Plant of the day is: Dryopteris goldiana or Goldie's wood fern

Plant of the day is: Dryopteris goldiana or Goldie's wood fern

In memory of my recently passed Grandmother Fern.  Here is another great fern.

Taxonomy, etc.:  A member of the Dryopteridaceae family, making it the type genus for the family.  There are around 250 species in the northern temperate part of the globe with the majority of diversity in eastern Asia.  They have characteristically round sori and a peltate indusium (covering of the sori).  The stipes have scales.  Refer to my recent fern post for illustration/description of some of these ferny terms.  Many of the species make great ornamental additions.  Notably: Dryopteris filix-mas, Dryopteris erythrosora, Dryopteris affinis, and one of my favorites Dryopteris tokyoensis.  All of these species can be found at the Missouri Botanical garden if you go a hunting!  D. affinis the scaly male fern has way too fun of a name for me to not go looking for this in the Chinese Garden.  D. goldiana is regarded as a parent of the rare hybrid Dryopteris x clintoniana (Clinton's wood fern)

Latin: Dryopteris = Drys (tree) and pteris (fern).  The genus is commonly called the wood fern genus.  

Description:   A deciduous (non-wintergreen) fern with an upright vase-like habit.  The tallest fern in Missouri, and I believe the largest in the genus.  It can reach of heights of about 4 feet when really happy.  There are reports of fronds up to 6 feet high, perhaps fish stories?  I'd sure like to see one.  The sori form almost right on the midrib or costa of the pinna (leaflet), which you can see in the image below.  I really recommend clicking on the full res image...the closer you look at ferns the more amazing they are.  So much fine detail packed in there if you stop and appreciate it.  Distinguished from other Dryopteris by it's size, sori arrangement, and abruptly tapering pinna.  Pinnae located near the base can be bipinnate (individual pinules) but towards the top are pinnatifid.  

For a further, and excellent writeup as well as good images to accompany the description, check out:
http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/grasses/plants/goldie_fern.html.  You can clearly see the scales on the stipes on one of the photos, a common fern theme.  

Full Quality Image Here

Habitat/Culture:  Grouping these together because they...go together?  A fairly well distributed fern along the eastern part of the country.  It makes it as far west as Missouri and down into northern parts of Alabama and North Carolina.  It is a fan of moist woodland areas, it needs a well drained soil rich in organic matter or humus (not hummus...you really shouldn't eat it).  No google, I did NOT mean hummus.  It IS a fern, so protection from strong winds will certainly help as well.  Dappled shade is best, avoid full sun at all costs.  North Creek Nurseries list hardiness as USDA zone 3-8 which sounds spot on.  Plant these in masses...it looks fantastic and adds great texture and height in a bed.  If you are looking for these in Missouri, there are scattered populations in 8 counties mostly south of the Missouri River (Steyermark).   





Why is it Goldie's fern?:  Glad you asked.  Named after its discoverer John Goldie, a Scottish botanist (1793-1886) who collected it on a trip to North American and returned with samples in 1819.   William Hooker or 'Hook' ...which you'll see all over the place for taxonomic credit...was the first to publish the species but his work was incomplete and was amended by Goldie.  American botanist Asa Gray (1810-1888), who is regarded as one of the most important Botanists of the 19th century, has the most complete classification for the species.  Admit it...that's WAAAAAY more than you ever cared to know and now you regret asking.



Thursday, June 11, 2015

Plant of the day is: Pterostyrax corymbosus or epaulette tree

Plant of the day is: Pterostyrax corymbosus or epaulette tree

It is nice to have a plant I don't have to scrounge around so many different places for information on.  This is a new tree for me but plenty of information out there on it.  I've got a couple little seedlings that I'm holding my breath on whether or not they can make it through the summer.  If not, I'll try again,

Why do we fall?  So we can learn to pick ourselves up.

Not really much in the way of CC images for this either.  Here is site with great info and pictures.

Taxonomy etc.:  A member of the very small Pterostyrax genus.  Just 4 other species in the genus which occur in the Styracaceae family.  The Styracaceae family is also quite small with only 11 genera and around 140 species.  All but the genus Styrax are composed of 5 or fewer species.  The standout genus you might recognize is Halesia (silver bells) of which we have the lovely Halesia carolina that manages to grow in St. Louis when well cared for.  When looking at the flower structure it is easy to see the relationship between Halesia and Pterostyrax.  As an odd detail, the genus is masculine but the species tend to be feminine.  Gender bending plants.  

Description:  A deciduous small tree hardy to about USDA zone 5-6 through 8.  The family is noted for having sprially arranged simple leaves with no stipules.  Flowers are symmetrical with fused petals.  Most species in the family are large shrubs to small trees and this certainly fits that bill, only reaching about 5m in height.  Fruits of the family are usually a dry capsule but this particular genus has fruits that are drupes.  The fruit also has narrow wings that make for the genus name Pterostyrax or "winged styrax".  Flowers are white, occur in early summer, and as you can see above, formed in pendant panicles.  The flowers are small and bell shaped.  Oh, they smell good too.  Supposedly some pretty decent fall color with shades of yellow.

Native Range:  Eastern China and Japan, Thickets around 1300 meters in Kiangs.  Damp shaded areas along streams around 400m to 1600m elevation.  

Culture:  This is where it gets interesting.  I suspect this plant takes a similar environment to our native Hydrangea arborescens.  It occurs in and probably grows very well in dappled or light shade that is moist but well drained.  The downside to this, is that you miss a lot of flowering.  Sunlight is a requirement for good flowering for many a species.  This species can take some full sun, but I should think it would like a little shade in the afternoon/evening.  As with a Hydrangea, the more sun, the more water needed, so plan accordingly.  

Propagation:  I sowed these outside on the 2nd of December (in St. Louis, MO) and by Mid March had germination.  Sown in a poly covered hoop-house so there was no snowfall.  4 out of 8 seeds.  Right on that 50% mark.  Reported as needed a 3 month cold stratification at 5C but definitely good to know that a Missouri winter and spring can provide.  Young seedlings were subjected to some late (but light) frosts with no problems.  

asiaflora.com photo they can come at me if they like.




Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Plant of the day is: Minuartia verna or Irish moss

Plant of the day is: Minuartia verna or Irish moss

Plant of the day WAS going to be Minuartia langii but there is a lot less information out there about it and NO easily found creative common usage images, which is lame.  I'll be taking photos of it and making them available for the masses soon.  Everyone should be able to see/use images of plants by golly.  For me, M. langii is the more attractive/robust of the two, you decide.  Let me Google those images for you. 


Taxonomy, etc.:  Another member of the Caryophyllaceae family.  If I'm being honest, I kind of have a soft spot for the family, some really great looking flowers and plants that grow in some rough soils.  The genus Minuartia is named after J. Minuart, a Spanish botanist and pharmacist.  I love the historical trend of physicians/people in and around medicine also being botanists.  The plants of this genus are typically referred to as the "sandworts".  Several species in Minuartia were formerly in Arenaria and Alsine.  The genus is the second largest in the family in North America, very likely there is one near you.  Minuartia patula or Pitcher's stitchwort.  There you go...sally forth and find it!

Flora of North America has an excellent botanical description of the genus that makes my head spin still.  Must study more.  It's a big genus, 144+ species at least.  A bit of a botanical hotbed for classification.  M. langii wasn't even listed as resolved in theplantlist.org

Description:  A small cushion-forming perennial, likes slag, exposed soils, bare scree, limestone, and basaltic or serpentine soils.  It really rocks.  It of course has the typical 5 petal look of the family but also has 10 very distinctive red/purple anthers that subtly stand out against the white petals.  Leaves are very narrow almost needle like (they remind me a bit of a diet-Phlox) and opposite. (Just found a an error in a published article's abstract in the first sentence...ahhh...a good day).  

Range:  Found throughout northern areas of Britain and in Scotland, it is also in Ireland and found in the Burren and Aran Islands.  Called Spring Sandwort from a decidedly Irish website.  

Propagation/Cultivation:  Germinates VERY well without any pre-treatment of the seed.  Seed is very small and easily sown in large numbers.  Mist bench germination works well but I would think many other standard forms of germination would work as well in temps from 15-20C (yeah, I'm evil, metric system people, it's a thing).  Should be in a VERY well drained mix and allowed to dry out between waterings.  A grit/rock topdress will help keep the algae funk at bay if overwatered a bit.  A fairly forgiving plant though, all things said.

Don't feel obligated to thin the seedlings, they grow quite happily in clumps together and individual plants are rather ...fragile.  If thinning, I'd recommend letting the clump of seedlings grow up quite a bit first.

Great detail.  Love it.

Random fun facts:  A hyper accumulator of copper and zinc in their leaves.  Considerable amounts of Fe, Cu, Zn, and Al have been found on leaf surfaces that were secreted by hydrathodes (a cool thing...look it up).  Possibly a good plant for phytoremediation of certain sites...hmmm.


Monday, June 8, 2015

Plant of the day is: Oreopteris limbosperma or lemon-scented fern

Plant of the day is: Oreopteris limbosperma or lemon-scented fern

It has been quite some time since I've hung out with a fern for a good hour, so here goes.  I ran across this one today and thought of giant flying Oreo pterodactyl hybrid.  Lots of ferns have dinosaur sounding names.  It's a thing.

by James Lindsey at Ecology of Commanster

If you SQUINT you can just make out the hairs on the axis and the yellow glands on the pinnules.


Taxonomy/etc.:  From the Greek oreos:mountain and pteron:wing in reference to the pinnae.  Sometimes called the mountain fern as well.  Quick thing about ferns, they have their own special terminology used to describe their morphology.  Here is a nice diagram so we can all keep it straight together, because I get confused from time to time as well.  

So, the blade is the where the pinnae first start up to the top.  The frond is the entire part from the rhizome, and the stipe is the stem or rachis below the blade.  There we have it.  Ferns don't have leaves, they have pinnae (plural of pinna) that can be subdivided into pinnules.  

You can also find this plant listed as Thelypteris limbosperma because of taxonomists doing taxonomy things.  The genus comes pretty close to being monotypic but there is also one other species O. elwsii that is included in the genus. 

Description:  Probably my favorite group of plants to explore the absurd minutia of differences in classification and ID are the ferns.  Limbo = marginal and spermum = seed.  Marginal seed.  In this case of course it means marginal sori (clusters of spores) BUT back in the day (late 1700s) there wasn't as strong of a distinction between seeds/spores.  The first picture shows the sori (black dots) on the underside of the pinnae.  The individual pinnules aren't quite entirely separate so they can be classified at pinnatifid.  Blade is tapering with shorter pinnae towards the top.  No visible indusia covering the sori.  There are hairs on the axes and VERY small yellow glands.  You'd likely have to have a pretty good loop or magnifier to see the glands. See HERE for a great photo of these characteristics.  It also has a rather distinguishing erect rhizome which can be seen in the illustration below as the brown ...thing...at the bottom of the stipe.

Most commonly confused with a Dryopteris filix-mas which has pinnae that taper lower to the base, even more marginal sori, and is a bit more slender/less scaly.

Range:  Surprisingly tricky on this one.  To fully understand it I'd probably have to spend another hour comparing herbarium specimens.  Apparently there is some debate on whether or not the North American versions should be classified as Oreopteris.  The quick and easy answer is that it is found Europe throughout temperate climates and is certainly a native of the British isles.  Whether or not this species is the same that was recently (1976) found in Newfoundland ...remains to be seen.

Etc.:  Called the lemon-scented fern because there is a faint lemon smell when you brush the fronds (especially young expanding fronds).  


by James Lindsey at Ecology of Commanster

Bonus photo!!  ENJOY!