Plant of the day is: Medinilla succulenta

Plant of the day is: Medinilla succulenta

This is a genus that I ran across recently as there are a few species at the Missouri Botanical Gardens.  If you go hunting, you can find M. magnifica, M. scortechinii, M. cummingii, and M. myriantha in the Climatron for the first two and in the Kemper Center for Home Gardening Building for the second two.  REALLY worth hunting down for a look, especially if you can catch them in flower, they have a fantastic inflorescence.  

Taxonomy, etc.:  This particular species is a bit difficult to find information on, so bear with me.  Firstly, there are no commons images available so the featured images highlight a few other species of the genus.  Medinilla is a member of the Melastomataceae family which contains another neat looking plant I've recently growth called Osbeckia chinensis (also with showy pink flowers).  I've also been lucky enough to collect some wild Rhexia here in Missouri.  Otherwise there are about 197 genera that I've largely never heard of, some work to do in that family.  Melistomes, as they say, have opposite decussate leaves.  Don't worry, I had to look it up.  Decussate means shaped like an X or intersecting to form an X.  Flowers are perfect (which means it has stamens and carpels) and borne singly as in Osbeckia or in a paniculate cyme like the pictured Medinilla here. For the downright absurdly nerdy, the seven genera of Memcylaceae have been merged into Melastomaceae.  Fascinating.  Truly fascinating.  

Only around 70 ACCEPTED species according to the plant list.  This species is actually listed as unresolved but that doesn't mean it is not a species.  I can't really find a reference in theplantlist.org OR tropicos for other synonyms so this plant is ....yeah ...tough.

Genus named by Carl Ludwig von Blume, a German - Dutch botanist who worked at the Rijksherbarium at Leiden.  Say that five times fast.  Dare ya.

"Melastomataceae - Medinilla speciosa-2" by Hectonichus CC BY-SA 3.0

Description: M. succulenta is a rare, small, compact shrub from Indonesia.  It has lime-green foliage and grows to a height of about 50 cm in height.  Leaves look to be fairly glossy from the few pictures I can find, which seems to fit the bill based on its habitat.  Can likely be an epiphytic plant or a terrestrial plant.  The leaves look borderline succulent which is likely a reason for the species designation.  The bottom line here is that I can't even find a description for this plant.  All the main culprit sides for descriptions are blank.  Guess there is some work to do...  Also from the pictures it looks like it may be cauliflorous or flowering directly on the stem/wood (possibly at the nodes?).

"Medinilla magnifica flor". by Alberto Salguero CC BY-SA 3.0

Culture:  I CAN give some insight into this as M. magnifica is a fairly available houseplant.  Watering and care requirements should be pretty similar for both species.  The plant prefers to dry out quite a bit between waterings.  Plant in a well drained media (some bark will help) that doesn't compact too much.  Remember the whole epiphyte thing?  Likely doesn't enjoy heavy clay soils. It apparently likes moist soils but that is just from one reference.  M. magnifica likes to dry out a bit between waterings so...keep an eye on it and read the plant.  It'll talk to you if you listen.  Obviously not frost hardy, indoors only.  I did find a specific note for M. succulenta that it benefits from some tip pruning.  The berries are produced on older wood though, so don't cut back too hard.  Supposedly can produce flowers/berries throughout the year so it would make a fantastic houseplant.  

I want one.

"Medinilla magnifica flor". by Alberto Salguero CC BY-SA 3.0

"Starr 020913-0003 Medinilla cumingii" by Forest & Kim Starr. CC BY 3.0

Plant of the day is:Toxicoscordion venonosus or meadow deathcamas

Plant of the day is: Toxicoscordion venonosus or meadow deathcamas

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported credit: Stan Shebs

I've got this listed as Zigadenus venenosus and several other sites do as well, including the USDA Plants Database.  Take your pick.  It looks like Toxicoscordion appeals to a larger taxonomic crowd.  Always a good idea to check synonyms for plants if you're having a hard time finding information.  This is a pretty neat plant, and QUITE deadly.

Taxonomy, etc.:  A member of the Melanthiaceae family whose members reside in the northern hemisphere.  It is a family of monocots that contains about 17 genera and 5 tribes.  Toxicoscordion is in the Melanthieae tribe along with Veratrum (which has Veratrum nigrum the black false hellebore which is also a sweet plant).  Other familiar genera include Paris and the Trilliums.  The Toxicoscordion genus is mainly distributed in the midwestern US and western North America.  Toxicoscordion has been moved out of Zigadenus because of those crazy crazy molecular phylogenetic scientists throwing down on science.  Only about 8 accepted species here, tis a small genus.  Quite small. 

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic credit: Matt Lavin

Description:  Distinguished from other members of it's tribe by the presence of narrow, clawed tepals with a single, conspicuous, rounded gland.  Hmmm..bet that's fun to look for...

    T. venenosum is a perennial bulb that grows up to 70 cm tall with grass like leaves.  The bulbs are oval and while they may look a little bit like onions, they DO NOT smell like onions.  Sometimes these are confused with wild onions...with deadly results.  I always say use your nose people, it's good for these things, maybe we even evolved a purpose similar to that when we were hunters and gatherers?  Flowers are cream colored to yellowish.  Bulbs are geophytes, fun word to describe a plant that spends part of its life cycle underground, just chillin, waiting for the right time to resume life.  Anyways, flowers form in a simple, terminal, spike-like cluster.  There are 6 tepals...that claw I mentioned...very lacking to as much as one whole mm long.  Gar.  That gland is yellowish-green, oval and usually broader than long.  Flowers between April and July.

Habitat:  Widespread throughout much of the western United States, Canada, and northern Baja California.  It grows in dry meadows, dry hillsides, sagebrush slopes, and montane forests.

Hopefully the USDA database fixes their maps soon.  I miss them.

Propagation:  Needs a cold-moist stratification of anywhere from 40 to 90 days.  I missed getting my seed into cold stratification and no germination occurred for several weeks.  After 2 months with no germination I threw them into a 5C fridge and forgot about them for awhile.  About 3 months later they were germinating in their cells still in the fridge.  No light requirement for germination but if you sow them deeply they will not germinate (according to some source I forget).  And ...they will germinate at 5C or so, which is neat and makes sense as they put on growth in the spring and go dormant during hot summer temps.  Shoot for a late fall/early winter stratification to have them ready for cooler spring temperatures for growth as hot temps can prematurely force them into dormancy.  Learning the cycles of dormant plants has been a fun challenge.  Plants are good teachers, often cruel, but always good.  I don't think they are particularly picky about media but go for something well drained.

Fun stuffs:  It is quite poisonous, do not eat it.  Even if you feel you're pretty metal and enjoy the name deathcamas, do try to refrain.  You might die, and that is so not metal.  They contain neurotoxic alkaloids like zygacine and esters of zygadenine.  Just those names sound bad.  Yeesh.  Zygadenine is possibly more potent than strychnine...so yeah, gonna want to watch out for that.  ONE bulb ingested can be fatal.  It basically just stops your heart, complete and total failure.  Again, don't eat it you silly humans.  Reportedly some memebers of the Lewis and Clark expedition became ill from eating the bulb, because eating random bulbs in the middle of the wilderness is survival tip number 1?  Humans...  After they were ill...they ate their dogs to sustain them on the rest of the trip.  Things you don't learn in school.

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported credit:  Walter Siegmund

Plant of the day is: Polygala lewtonii or Lewton's milkwort

Plant of the day is: Polygala lewtonii or Lewton's milkwort

One of the things I love most about my job is working around such passionate people that introduce me to some of the best things the world has to offer.  This little plant has an interesting and at times, sad, tale.  Notice the flower structure below, it's quite unique.

Public Domain

Taxonomy, etc.:  Unique enough to warrant a family.  A member of the Polygalaceae family, or milkwort family.  I don't believe I've covered this family before, kinda neat.  The Plant List notes 27 genera for the family with around 1200 accepted species.  Polygala is the type genus for the family.  The genus has a near-cosmopolitan distribution.  The inflorescence is a raceme of several flowers.  Flowers have two large petal-like sepals (plural calyx btw.) on the sides.  You can those sepals in the picture above.  There are three smaller sepals found behind.  The three true petals are joined at the bases the lower of the three making up the "keel" petal which is cucullate (hood-like).  You can also make out above, the stamen and style that are found in the curve of the keel petal.  All in all, a really interesting flower, and flowers are of course what taxonomic designation is all about.  I can see why these get their own shout-out.

Description:  A short-lived perennial (5-10 years) with a taproot.  Fleshy stems arise from the taproot about 20cm tall.  Leaves are alternate and overlapping.  Leavers are linear to spatula-shaped and only about a centimeter long.  THIS is the neat part here.  There are three types of flowers that occur on the plant.  What?  Three types of flowers?  That's crazy!  The flowers on top are your typical chasmogamous flowers.  You know, chasmogamous, "open marriage"?  These are normal flowers relying on open pollination.  This plant ALSO produces cleistogamous "closed marriage" flowers at the base of the plant.  This is where it gets fun.  These flowers, in the lower leaf axils, do not open and are self-pollinated.  The THIRD type (what?!?!) is also cleistogamous and occurs underground and also self-pollinate.  The very cool practice of developing seeds asexually is called apomixis.  The even coooooler practice of producing above ground chasmogamous flowers and below ground cleistogamous flowers is called amphicarpy.  Seriously folks, plants are SO much more than meets the eye.  This is one of only a few DOZEN amphicarpic angiosperms known WORLDWIDE.  Kind of a big deal yo.

 From Native Florida Wildflowers Blog

But why!?:  Seems like an awful lot of work huh?  All those weird flowers, well, rest assured, there IS a reason.  Firstly, I'll say that cleistogamous flowers are actually cheaper in terms of energy investment to make.  They typically aren't fully formed complete flowers, they don't exist to attract pollinators so why spend the time and energy into nectar, color, petals, and the like?  These plants still get the added benefit of sexual reproduction for genetic vigor (and better evolution) but the germination rates of the insect pollinated flowers are notoriously low (as low as 10%).  This presents a problem for species conservation, that I'll touch on shortly.  But why UNDERGROUND flowers and seeds?  That takes us to our next topic...

 From Native Florida Wildflowers Blog

Habitat:  So I may as well mention now, this is endemic to Florida and a federally listed endangered species of the United States (as of 1993).  :(.  It occurs in the central ridge of the peninsula (the sandhills) and there are only about 49 occurrences of the plant remaining, most of which contain very few plants.  The cause: Humans, habitat degradation, same ole story.  It is a rather neat ecological area for plant life and there are several other plants that are endangered found in this habitat.  In the instance of this plants demise, it's all about fire.  Coming back to those underground seeds, they formed in case the plant up top gets roasted by a fire!  Clever right?  Dang clever.  Smoke is thought to aid germination as well (I SO want to do germination studies on this plant).  Fire helps eliminate competing plants and rejuvenates populations of the plant.  The plant declines the longer its habitat goes without a fire.  Absolutely atrocious fire suppression policies (country-wide really) coupled with the conversion of its habitat to citrus groves and residential areas has greatly reduced this species numbers and resulted in habitat fragmentation.  Add to ALL of this the fact that some of the remaining populations are in areas popular for off-roading ....and you've just got all kinds of human neglect and failure.

The good news is that some populations are now on protected land with prescribed burns.  Also, the passionate plant people of the world will be working to introduce new populations, bank seeds for long term storage, and test germination and development.  

There is still some good left in the world Mr. Frodo.  For a detailed report on the species as well as current conservation plans, the USFWS 5-Year Review is a great read.

Plant of the day is: Drosera affinis or South African sundew

Plant of the day is: Drosera affinis or South African sundew

Hard to cite these:  Tell me to take it down if ya own it and hate education.

Hopefully I'll be growing several of these soon.  I've never grown carnivorous plants before.  Should be an adventure.  Can't wait to see some tentacles.  It'll be the first time I'll feed a plant with fish food (seriously...fish food).  Though...they may get plenty of bugs in my greenhouse.

Taxonomy/etc.:  Where to start really?  Drosera is a fascinating genus in the Droseraceae family and is the type genus for the family.  It is a small family with around 200 accepted species (LOTS of debate about species designation in the Drosera genus).  Drosera are, of course, called sundews and are one of the largest genera of carnivorous plants.  Typically perennial (rarely annual) herbaceous plants.  Most of them are relatively small but D. erythrogyne has climbing stems that can reach up to 3 m.  Impressive.  There are a few divisions of sundews, including: temperate, subtropical, pygmy, tuberous, and petiolaris complex.  The pygmy and petiolaris complex groups are found in Australia.  D. derbyensis is a BONKERS looking petiolaris complex, just bonkers.  Click here if you don't believe me.

Description:  Drosera affinis is one of the subtropical species resembling D. nidiformis when young.  Early growth forms as a basal rosette which then forms an elongated stem up to 25cm long.  The petioles of the leaf are a nice yellow/red color, as well as the lamina (leaf blade).  The tentacle looking things that stick out of the leaf are ...called tentacles and at the tips there is a mucilaginous bead that contains enzymes to digest the unwary (and unlucky) insect that happens to wander into its snare.  The liquid suffocates the insect and then the insect is digested.  Pretty rough way to go, reminds me of the pit of Sarlacc.  Most carnivorous plants have developed these complex strategies for survival because they live in very nutrient poor soils and have adapted to supplement their diets with readily available nitrogen from passing insects.  The pygmy sundew, for example, doesn't even produce certain enzymes that most other plants do that are necessary to extract nitrogen from the soil (like nitrate reductase).  Sometimes I think it's easy to forget just how OUTSIDE the box many plants have evolved to survive.  Truly impressive.  

Habitat:  Middle Africa (Angola, Dem. Rep. of Congo), eastern Africa (Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Aambia, Zimbabwe)

Culture:  Like many carnivorous plants living in swampy/boggy areas, D. affinis prefers lots of moisture and a lot of light.  D. affinis is actually one of the easier species to grow and has become more and more popular and available as that discovery has come to light.  It used to be a fairly uncommon species in cultivation.  From a few blogs I ran across, it looks like it does like a good amount of water and at least 30% relative humidity.  Grow in 2 to 4" pots as they develop a long root system.  Feed once every two weeks. For BEST results, use RO or distilled water.  You want water with very low mineral content or total dissolved solids (TDS).  

On growing media:  Two options are common.  The first is a 1:1 blend of milled pet and sand.  The downside to using this is that you need to "rinse" both of these (basically rinse out in multiple changes of water in a 5 gallon bucket) to get the best result.  This leaches out the minerals/nutrients and leads to less algae growth down the road.  Best to use silica sand (quartz sand) as well, as it tends to be much cleaner (pool sand is good).  Downside is that silica sand is an irritant when inhaled and can cause silicosis if too much for too long is inhaled.  The second method is the method I am going to use, which just uses long-fibered sphagnum.  You still need to "rinse" the long-fibered sphagnum but it is a MUCH easier process and only requires working with one component.  Sounds good to me.  Throw in some antimicrobial properties of long-fibered sphagnum and you've got a great media to grow in.  

Watering:  Must always be wet.  Best strategy is to use bottom watering by placing your pot in a plastic watertight bin and flooding with 1/4" to 1" of water in the bottom.  Add water when low but do not let the plants dry out.  Easy method.  Again, use RO or low mineral/nutrient content water.

Fertilizing:  Beta Bites pellets (crushed).  Can use bloodworms, fruit flies, fungus gnats (they might help clean the greenhouse for you!).

HUGE thanks to Aaron May, Lutz Pludra, and Phil Anton at GrowSundews.com for their AMAZINGLY detailed work to educate noobs like me on the art of growing sundews.

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.  

public domain by Maria97

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).   

public domain from An Illustrated Flora of the Northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions

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.

CC CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication by Daderot

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.

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. 

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported by Qwert1234

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.

public domain painted by Jacob Sturm

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.

Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported by Qwert1234