#botany 2022

[gaynaturalistghost]

I made it to my conference! Have some scary ivies

Anybody here at Botany 2022?

[monmorgandy]

Ophrys bertolonii subsp. benacensis by Giuliano Da Zanche Via Flickr: Ophrys bertolonii subsp. benacensis (Orchidaceae) 125 22 Ophrys bertolonii grows to a maximum of 45cm and carries 3-8 large flowers on each inflorescence. It is the dark, almost black, velvety lip with its shiny speculum that makes the flower so attractive. The sepals and petals are a lovely shade of pale pink, sometimes tinged or marked with green. This orchid grows in grassy and stony places and sometimes can be found in open woodland. This orchid is widespread throughout much of the central Mediterranean region and it spreads as far south as Greece. It is particularly common on the Gargano Peninsula in Italy. In France, a rare but very similar plant occurs, Ophrys bertolonii subsp. aurelia, and there is another similar-looking orchid recorded from northern Italy - Ophrys bertolonii subsp. benacensis.

[gaynaturalistghost]

I’ve been thinking about the Ophelia / beautiful dead girl thing that is played over and over in a confusing way. I can’t really put it into words, something about there being layers to motifs and plants that are rarely pushed deeper than the immediate concept. I thought I’d try something different. These are all “carnivorous” plants, not truly ‘meat-eating’ more like catching vitamin supplements or making their own nutrient rich soil.

The first plant I wanted for this was Utricularia, the ‘bladderworts’ (bladder= sac, wort =plant), they’re under the surface. They have trigger hair bladders of varying size, some are just to catch zooplankton. They’re beautiful under the water but with just stems and flowers poking out above.

I picked the plants I chose carefully, but a lot of these notes I found after the fact. (and @crypto-botanist had perfect pictures and a very enviable username) like Drosera linearis, the sundew with red flowers. They reproduce asexually so energy sunk into flowers that don’t actually facilitate sexual reproduction is bananas! I used wiki to look through species lists and apparently Darwin said this: “…at the present moment, I care more about Drosera than the origin of all the species in the world.”

Sarracenia purpurea, the pitcher plant I chose (pics from crypto-botanist, again), is the only species that grows in cold climates. A wide distribution range is a huge advantage when ~97% of your genera’s habitat is gone. The weird thing, though, is that their seeds usually get only 5cm away from their parent plants. How did they get spread all over? We don’t know! They also have a microbiome in their pitcher fluid that helps them break down their … acquired nitrogen source. As I’m primarily a microbiologist, this makes me very happy.

The last is a butterwort, Pinguicula lusitanica, isn’t the most memorable carnivorous plant. It can be weedy for cultivators though it isn’t very genetically diverse to adapt to environmental change, still vulnerable despite temporary proliferation. Mostly this one represents one of the things I love about botanists, the love for the inconspicuous and seemly unremarkable. This popped up in the notes I found from pinguicula.org under the pictures took in the field with little personal notes and exclamation points. The ability to be obsessed with something no one else thinks about and just being excited that it exists. Scientists are very sentimental.

So I guess the flowers I chose here are analogous to Ophelia’s. Showy plants with more to offer if you manage to look (re plant blindness) and the way I’ve grown attached to this concept of poison ivy but actually as sentimental, passionate, angry and conflicted as we can be. Something like that.

[monmorgandy]

Saponaria ocymoides by Giuliano Da Zanche Via Flickr: Saponaria ocymoides (Caryophyllaceae) (111 22 Saponaria ocymoides is a species of semi-evergreen perennial flowering plant belonging to the family Caryophyllaceae, native to southwestern and southern central Europe. This species ranges from the mountains of Spain to Corsica, Sardinia, and Slovenia, from the Apennines to the Alps. It grows in rocky and stony places, on dry slopes, and in forests (especially pine forests). It prefers calcareous soils, at an altitude of up to 1,500 meters, rarely up to 2,400 meters. Reaching a height of 10–40 centimeters, the stem is prostrate to ascending, woody, reddish, quite hairy, and very branched. The leaves are ovate to lanceolate, sessile, and hairy, 1–3 cm long. The five-petalled flowers are arranged in groups at the ends of branches. They have red or pink (rarely white) petals and blue anthers Source: Wikipedia.

[monmorgandy]

Dactylorhiza maculata subs. fuchsii by Giuliano Da Zanche Via Flickr: Dactylorhiza maculata subs. fuchsii (Orchidaceae) 178 22 Dactylorhiza fuchsii is a widespread and abundant orchid with a distribution throughout temperate Europe, as far east as Siberia and is a member of the large Dactylorhiza maculata group of the genus Dactylorhiza. Dactylorhiza fuchsii and Dactylorhiza maculata share a close morphological resemblance but their differing habitat choice is a key differentiation, with the latter species exclusively a plant of acidic or neutral substrates and Dactylorhiza fuchsii an orchid of alkaline soils. There are also morphological features that serve to distinguish them, among them, the more slender, pointed leaves and less centralized, more discreet lip markings of Dactylorhiza maculata. These characteristics seem to be less apparent in the central and eastern parts of their range and this greater convergence leads some botanists not to recognize any species separation. Dactylorhiza fuchsii although exclusively tied to non acidic soils, is nonetheless tolerant of a wide range of conditions from the driest chalk grassland to marshes and from full sun to shade. Its flowers are typically pale with bold markings and it's not uncommon to find completely white examples. Source: Orchids of Britain and Europe.

[monmorgandy]

Vaccinium vitis-idaea 178 22 by Giuliano Da Zanche Via Flickr: Vaccinium vitis-idaea (Ericaceae) 178 22 Vaccinium vitis-idaea (lingonberry, partridgeberry, mountain cranberry or cowberry) is a short evergreen shrub in the heath family that bears edible fruit, native to boreal forest and Arctic tundra throughout the Northern Hemisphere from Eurasia to North America. Vaccinium vitis-idaea spreads by underground stems to form dense clonal colonies. Slender and brittle roots grow from the underground stems. The stems are rounded in cross-section and grow from 10 to 40 cm in height. Leaves grow alternately and are oval, 5–30 mm long, The flowers are bell-shaped, white to pale pink, 3–8 mm long, and produced in the early summer. The fruit is a red berry 6–10 mm across, with an acidic taste, ripening in late summer to autumn. From Wikipedia

[monmorgandy]

Campanula barbata by Giuliano Da Zanche Via Flickr: Campanula barbata (Campanulaceae) 176 22 Campanula barbata is a perennial flowering plant in the Campanulaceae family. Campanula barbata can reach a height of 20-30 centimeters. This plant produces a small basal rosette of grey-green, simple, lanceolate leaves with toothed, alternate margins. It has racemes of gnarled bell-shaped flowers, pale to deep blue in color, which are hairy on the inside (hence the Latin name barbata, meaning bearded). It bloom from June to August. This species is native to Norway, France, Italy and central Europe and is found in mountainous regions at an altitude of 1,100-2,600 meters.

[monmorgandy]

Aconitum napellus by Giuliano Da Zanche Via Flickr: Aconitum napellus (Ranunculaceae) 282 22 Aconitum napellus (monkshood, aconite, Venus' chariot or wolfsbane) is a species of highly toxic flowering plant in the genus Aconitum of the family Ranunculaceae, native and endemic to western and central Europe. It is an herbaceous perennial plant growing to 1 m tall, with hairless stems and leaves. The leaves are rounded, palmately divided into five to seven deeply lobed segments. The flowers are dark purple to bluish-purple, narrow oblong helmet-shaped, 1–2 cm tall. The plant is extremely poisonous in both ingestion and body contact.