Plant of the day is Selaginella martensii or Marten's spikemoss

Plant of the Day is: Selaginella martensii or Marten's spikemoss

This earns a spot into plant of the day because it is a great houseplant for lower light spots and just looks downright cool.  Almost reminds me of a Thuja (arborvitae) or something.  Also this is not a clubmoss, as that is something different (but related).

Also, it's old.  REALLY old.  In fact, the Lycopodiophyta division is the oldest living vascular plant division at around 410 million years old.  Whew!  Not to get too much into taxonomy but this genus is kind of the go to for both an order AND a family.  Selaginellaceae.  There, i just learned a new family too!

So, all of that being said, they aren't like your standard flowering plants.  Not quite ferns but in terms of care they are very similar.  They like to be well watered with high humidity and kept fairly warm.  Room temp should be fine.  To combat your bone dry house in the winter either put a dish with water and rocks under the pot...or they even make humidity trays that work well (Niki got one for her fern and BAM...much better).  

As you can see from the picture below, you can find them with yellow to white variegated tips that remind me of a Thuja/Chamaecyparis blend.  Almost like having a little evergreen in your house!

I've seen these around and not grabbed one but it's definitely on my radar now.  

I'm not going to go into a whole lot of detail here but they are spore producing and as an interesting distinction, lycopods only have one microphyll (leaf vein) per leaf compared to the many in ferns and many other plants.  Unlike almost all lycopods, Selaginella actually does have some trace branching off of the microphyll.  Obviously kicking it oldskool and far less evolved.  Obviously a pretty solid model, however, considering they are still around.

This particular species was listed in my houseplants book with a common name of resurrection plant.  In times of extreme drought they turn brown and curl up into a ball and can be uprooted.  When moisture returns they turn green and bounce back.  Pretty cool really.   

As a note, I gotta say.  I'm astounded by the amount of stuff I've yet to learn, so much terminology, so many plants in varying degrees of evolution.  I'm overwhelmed at times but I'll keep on a tryin.

Plant of the day is Schlumbergera spp. or Christmas cactus

Plant of the day is Schlumbergera spp. or Christmas cactus.

So basically, gotta get me one o these.

awwwww yeah

The wiki page on this is quite extensive so I really recommend checking it out.  It has a lot of information, the taxonomic classification of this is almost comical.  

So this is a true member of the Cactaceae family.  Yay.  Amazingly enough Linnaeus started the GENUS Cactus back in 1753.  Heh, they had a lot of cacti to find eh?  There are about 125-130 genera in the Cactus family now...for reference.  So anyways, it is a native of the coastal mountains of south east Brazil.  It is unique from a lot of cacti in that it does well in quite a bit of shade and actually handles some cooler temperatures well.  Making it a pretty solid choice for a houseplant.

Where are the leaves you ask?  Well, in a broad sense there aren't any really.  The green segments are stems that are photosynthetic.  There are two different types of Schlumbergera, the Truncata group and the Buckleyi group.  The Truncata group plants have pointier segments and less symmetrical flowers (zygomorphic) while the Buckleyi group have rounded (crenate/dentate) teeth on the segments and more symmetrical flowers.  

A note on the flowers.  They've got a whole buncha tepals.  Inner parts of the flower form a tube that hummingbirds like.  Most species require cross pollination to fertilize.

The plant has been around and in cultivation/breeding since the first half of the 19th century.  It is a hugely popular houseplant and comes in a variety of sizes, colors, etc.  Widely hybridized (hence the spp.).  

So a quick note on care and what not.  In nature these are epiphytes (live on trees) or lithophytes (live on rocks).  So, slightly acidic very well drained soil would be great.  Yep.  Don't overwater, it IS a cactus.  They DO like humidity so maybe don't stick it near you heater.  Thar be other plants for that.  Flowering is directly tied to length of daylight/darkness, that's on you to look up :).

I don't have any Cacti members at home.  Only Crassulaceae, my Jade plants would love more light.  Oh, they also do the CAM photosynthesis thing if you ever get curious about it...its fascinating.  I promise.  Let me just store my CO2 as an acid till I need it....brilliant.

That's all folks!

Plant of the day is: Ledebouria socialis or silver squill

Plant of the day is: Ledebouria socialis or silver squill

This is a great plant my grandmother gave me last year.  It makes a wonderful houseplant and can even be used as an annual bedding plant.  Doesn't take a freeze, so don't put it in the freezer (or outside about now).  Its pretty easy to take care of and makes little baby bulbs that you can divide and spread the love with.  More on the care in a bit.

I had absolutely no idea what it was as my grandma just called it an "onion" plant.  It is in the Asparagaceae (that's right, asparagus) family which was pulled out of the Liliaceae family and there was another family made (whose name escapes me) that has more onion like plants in it.  Go figure.  Anyways.

So here you have it, lovely right?  Most Ledebouria you'll run into are from Africa, a few species in Madagascar and even India, etc, etc.  They are generally quite drought tolerant (which you can totally use to your advantage you lazy plant people).  They like well drained soils and a lot of light.  That being said, mine doesn't get a whole lot of strong light (because I have very few windows *sadface*) and it still does quite well.  

Don't over water!!  Before I knew what this plant was and based on where my grandmother had it placed I figured it liked a fairly shady and moist soil.  Derf.  I started noticing that it just did not look happy in the moist soil I had it in so I decided I needed to find out what it was.  A very wonderful and enthusiastic plant person who will remain nameless was kind enough to give me the answer and save me a lot more time.  

Put this in a very well drained soil and let it dry completely before watering and you got yo'self some happy bulbs.  Since the re potting and more light, its been quite vigorous.  I'm digging that it is doing well despite the somewhat shoddy light I have.

There are also a lot of other species of this, I'd love to get a hold of a few others.  One last picture showing a bit of flower action up close.

If you see this little plant somewhere...take it home!

Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden. 22 Dec 2013 <http://www.tropicos.org/Image/100115238>

Plant of the Day is: Cocos nucifera or Coconut

Plant of the Day is: Cocos nucifera or Coconut

    What with it being the winter solstice today and all, perhaps we could all use a nice reminder that the days are going to be getting longer again :).  

Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden. 21 Dec 2013 <http://www.tropicos.org/Image/16821>

    So my boss and some other co-workers alike love to ask extremely specific and interesting questions.  Just the other day it was "where is the embryo in a coconut?"  Of course we all had to look it up, and I was very impressed with the development of a coconut.  Here is the inside of a coconut.

Tropicos.org. Missouri Botanical Garden. 21 Dec 2013 <http://www.tropicos.org/Image/16859>

To the right side of the image is the embryo.  In this picture, germination is occurring.  Now, what happens here is the cotyledon develops inside the area where the coconut water is and actually absorbs the water for energy.  As this is happening, the first shoot and root emerge from that hole in a coconut. 

Here is another illustration of the seed.

As you can see, the liquid and surrounding tissue are actually endosperm (think of it as starting charge for a seed).  So, there are the first baby steps of a coconut.  Now, on to the other stuffs.

So, some of you may know that Coconuts are a member of the palm family (Arecaceae).  That family is actually the only member of its order, which is kind of nifty.  The coconut tree is also not a tree, none of the palms are actually trees as they are monocots.  I won't get into a whole lot of detail, but they don't have what is called "secondary growth" and as such are not trees.  Do they have exceptionally lignified tissues, sure, but no cork cambium for sure (often they have syringyl lignins).  Palm trees actually increase their diameter by division and enlargement of parenchyma cells which is termed "diffuse secondary growth".  It's neat.  Really.  I promise. 

I'm not going to get into all the uses of coconut, you know a lot of them.  Drink it, eat it, make fiber out of it.  It's commonly used as a growth media for marijuana.  The vast usage of the plant is quite amazing.

As far as ID goes, it is a monocot, so it has straight veins in the leaves that usually fan out.  There ARE two different groups of palms, the ones that are more upright with a fan at the top and ones that tend to form a kind of shrub and branch out near the base of the plant.  The true flowers are 3 (a monocot trait) and these occur in a fairly large inflorescence which houses separate male and female flowers (monoecious).  It is believed to be cross pollinating but may self (I'm not going down that insane road right now).  The female flowers are a fair bit larger, so look for that.  

As a last note, Cocos nucifera is the only species for the genus Cocos.  Which makes it???....

Monotypic.  A monotypic genus.  

Have some coconut over the holidays and think of a warm beach :).

Plant of the day is: Ostrya virginiana or hop hornbeam

Plant of the day is: Ostrya virginiana or hop hornbeam

This lands a spot as a plant of the day because it is one of those plants that has just recently found me again.  On the family ranch this last weekend I was out hiking with my Dad (and Niki) and I finally looked up and saw these great fruit.  My dad had been wondering for some time what they were and pointed them out to me in the past (when they weren't fruiting).  He had mentioned something about ironwood but I hadn't put it together as I was really only familiar with the hop hornbeam common name, thus given because the fruit resembles hops.  I know you can see it.  Anyways, turns out we have a massive swath of these through some of our forest.  Yay.

Copyright Gerrit Davidse

“Tropicos, botanical information system at the Missouri Botanical Garden - www.tropicos.org” 

This plant of the day gonna be a little bit more informal, and that's just how its gonna be.  So, to start, the fruit above is of whats called an involucre or a bract (modified leaf) that in this usage relates to a very conspicuous bract at the base of an inflorescence.  Tis a silly word involucre.  If you get a chance to grab one of these, they come apart very nicely and there is a seed inside the papery enclosure.  What you are looking at above is the pistillate or female inflorescence.  This is a monoecious plant which means that it has both male and female organs on the same plant and in this instance, separate male (staminate) and female (pistillate) flowers.  Below is the pistillate flower, super cool.

“Tropicos, botanical information system at the Missouri Botanical Garden - www.tropicos.org” 

So above is the pistillate flower, with some cool looking styles.  I like its style, dude.  These open up during the spring around the time the leaves are emerging (as you can see by the young leaf above).  Now, below, are the male flowers or catkins (a term thrown around a lot in the elm or Betulaceae family).  So these form a little earlier and are present throughout the winter. 

Copyright Gerrit Davidse

“Tropicos, botanical information system at the Missouri Botanical Garden - www.tropicos.org” 

Anyways, onto some other stuff.  This is a fairly small tree.  30 to 50 feet tops, often you'll see it much smaller.  If you are looking for these fruity type things that are the best ID feature.  Look anytime after mid-summer as they begin to mature.  The fruit starts out fairly white looking, fades to a green, then turns brown.  The bark is fairly peely and vertically arranged, its ...got a character to it that I think you could probably get familiar with and use as an ID trait.

The genus is small (only about 10 species) and often called ironwood as the wood is very dense and hard and has been used for bows.  It apparently goes well with Euonymous atropurpureus or Eastern wahoo which is supposed to make good arrows.

It is a host for the Walnut Sphinx which is a pretty solid looking moth whose caterpillar produces a high pitched whistle when attacked.  Fun fact for the day.

Basically, this is a pretty solid tree that is often overlooked (even by me apparently).  Sadly, wasn't taught much about it in school other than an honorable mention.  It can handle some pretty rocky dry soils so, its roots like to breathe.  Probably don't plant in clay, but it is a tough tree.

Enjoy.  Good hunting, this is one worth seeing.

Plant of the day is: Russelia equisetiformis or coral plant (sometimes firecracker plant)

Plant of the day is: Russelia equisetiformis or coral plant (sometimes firecracker plant)

Photo Copyright David Stang under creative commons

“Tropicos, botanical information system at the Missouri Botanical Garden - www.tropicos.org”

It's been awhile, but I'm hoping to pick this back up a bit over Thanksgiving.

Culture:    So, this is a zone 9-11 plant with a spread and height of about 3-5 feet depending on its happinness.  It can't handle a temperature much below freezing, maybe down to about 25F if you're lucky.  It will handle just about any kind of soil providing its fairly well drained.  I should imagine it would perform decently in clayey soils provided they aren't overwatered for extended periods of time.  It can handle heat, and once established can handle a fair bit of drought.  It does best in full sun but can grow in part shade but you can be certain to expect fewer flowers.  If you are wanting to save some for next year you have two options.  You can keep in a bright well lit window (it has to be very bright though) and maybe even get it to bloom OR you can cut it back hard and store in a dark cool place that won't freeze.  This HAS escaped cultivation in areas where it is hardy so if you live in one of those areas make absolutely SURE that is not going to happen.  Be responsible plant peoples.

Use:  It can be grown in the ground as an annual, grown in a pot, a basket, or on a wall.  The stems start out fairly erect but then arch over into a nice mound form.  If you are feeling ambitious you can even train them up a trellis.  I like the idea of using them around walls.  I may use these in some pots next year.  It attracts hummingbirds and butterflies so you can use it for ...that.

Taxonomy:  Tropicos and Wiki both list the family as Plantaginaceae so thats good enough for me.  This genus is often listed in a few other families but I'm going to stick with Tropicos.  The plant genus was named by Baron Nikolaus von Jacquin to honor Swedish naturalist Alexander Russel.  Yep.  The species equisetiformis means basically that it resembles Equisetum or horse tail rush.  See below for a nice shot.  It's a neat plant for the family, a real character.  Kind of hard see how the flowers relate to Plantago really but I'm sure they share some commonality.

Thats really about all for now, enjoy.  Maybe plant some of this, it looks fun.  

Plant of the day is: Clethra alnifolia or sweet pepperbush

Plant of the day is: Clethra alnifolia or sweet pepperbush

So I thought of this plant as I was working up a mental list of plants for my brother's house.  This is a wonderful plant I've spent a lot of time with throughout the seasons and I do enjoy the absolutely bonkers crowds of insects it attracts.

First a picture of the raceme...this one pink, most are white.

Notice that nice little bee.

Why you should look for it and plant it:  It's a great and versatile shrub.  It can be around 2 meters tall and just slightly smaller in spread.  There are some notable cultivars like 'Hummingbird' that are around a meter in height and a little wider more mounded looking.  What makes this such a nice shrub is that it has nice dark green foliage, great looking flowers, a big bee draw, and the ability to handle clay soils.

'Hummingbird' I believe.

Now, the informations on the interwebs will tell you (and yes I did that on purpose) that it prefers wet the moist soils and to avoid placing in dry places.  This is probably a good rule to follow but I have seen these situated on some very dry places but in nice shade and they still seem to do very well.  If you have a particularly low spot, this should be a great and easy plant.  It should handle wet clay well too, which can be a problem soil when looking for an ornamental shrub (Lindera can get a little crazy...).  This shrub is also later in the season to flower, they are just getting into that now in mid July.  A great sequence plant really if you are looking for some white colors well after a lot of your spring flowers have gone.

The one downside I can think of is that it does leaf out fairly late in the season, if you're me, you appreciate having another plant to watch leaf out :).

It is called sweet pepperbush for two reasons.  It has a kind of cloying sweet smell, that I love and am looking forward to smelling VERY soon.  Pepperbush because it has a little bit of winter interest with the seed pods that look a little bit like peppercorns.

So to sum up for the practical application of this plant, it can be planted in pretty shady places, but can also do well with full sun if provided a little moisture.  That being said, planting it on the south or west side of your place is probably silly.

-------------------------------
For the taxonomy/nerdier crowd:

A member of the Clethraceae family, this would then be the ... yes, type genus for the family.  At one point Clethra was considered the only member of the family.  The family now includes the genus Purdiaea, which is found throughout the Caribbean, Central America, and northern South America.

This particular Clethra is native to much of the eastern United States.

There has been a push to reduce the number of species designations (having seen some peoples idea of what qualifies as a unique species I have to agree...) so China has gone from 35 recognized species to 7 for Clethra...crazy right.  According to Wiki the USDA recognizes just 2 here...though I wouldn't trust the USDA in plant ID...just saying.  After looking through Tropicos.org ...well, who knows, maybe we've gone a little slap happy with the different species and varieties here eh?

Well that's all.  If you haven't checked out Tropicos.org I HIGHLY recommend it.  I get lost in there sometimes...an amazing look into botany, taxonomy, and its development.