As I noted previously, I'm presently on vacation. Unfortunately, I'm in areas with very sporadic web access, so I'm only posting when I can!

We spotted this sparrow's-egg lady's slipper on the trail to the mineral licks just north of Muncho Lake (in northern British Columbia). I'd been hoping to see this species on my trip, but wasn't really expecting to find it so soon (on the morning of the third day). We could only find a few individuals in the shady areas of some mixed forest.

Read more about this orchid via the USDA's "Meet the Ladies": Cypripedium passerinum. The Flora of North America also has its scientific account of this species.

I'm at a conference this week, so I'm only posting abbreviated entries when I have the time!

Mimulus aurantiacus, or bush monkeyflower, is a native to the southwestern US. In yesterday's field trip to the San Gabriel mountains, we noted that this species defied its harsh conditions (growing on rock walls) with prolific masses of blooms.

Two things today: first of all, thanks again to Jackie Chambers for the write-up and photograph. Secondly, I'm about to be absent for 4.5 weeks. New postings to BPotD will be quite sporadic during this time (don't be surprised to see week-long or longer gaps). Apologies, but there hasn't been enough time to prep postings in advance.

Jackie writes:

Colquhounia coccinea can be found at forest edges and clearings in the Himalayas and southwestern China. This particular specimen was growing in Nepal at an altitude of 2300m.

The stems of the Himalayan mint shrub are tomentose, or covered in small, matted, stellate hairs. This gives the 3m+ stems a soft, felty texture. There are two varieties of Colquhounia coccinea, and the colour of the hairs is a characteristic used to distinguish the two varieties. Colquhounia coccinea var. mollis has very dense rust-coloured hairs whereas Colquhounia coccinea var. coccinea has fewer rust-coloured hairs and instead appears to be more silvery.

The leaves are also covered in soft hairs, and can range between 5-15 cm long. Like most mints, the leaves are held in an opposite arrangement along the stem and are aromatic when crushed. Clusters of orange or red tubular flowers are produced late in the season. These bloom from August to November. Fruit production occurs from November to January. Quinish Garden Nursery has another photograph of the plant, while the Flora of China provides a comprehensive description of Colquhounia coccinea.

Pronounced ko-hoo-nia the genus is named after a Scotsman, Sir Robert Colquhoun, who lived in Nepal in the early 19th century.

The specific epithet, coccinea, is derived from the name of a scarlet red dye obtained from cochineal insects. These insects are soft-bodied, oval-shaped scale insects hosted on some members of the cactus genus Opuntia. Cochineal extract is a red colouring made from the raw dried and pulverized bodies of insects.

Thanks again to Ron Long for sharing one of his photographs with us through Botany Photo of the Day. Ron went to the Siskiyou Mountains area of Oregon a couple weeks after we had returned from the area. I gave him directions to some of the areas we investigated that had an incredible diversity of plants, and he was not disappointed (and, in fact, found many different plants that had not yet bloomed when we traveled there). As an example, the Cypripedium californicum was just starting to bloom when Ron visited the area, and we hadn't identified any plants from leaves alone.

California lady's slipper, like so very many plants in the Siskiyous area, is native only to northern California and southwest Oregon. It was first discovered in California, hence the dibs on the name. Named in 1868 by Asa Gray, it has the most restricted distribution of any Cypripedium species in North America. The genus Cypripedium is restricted to arctic and temperate climates of the northern hemisphere.

Often growing in association with Darlingtonia californica, California lady's slipper is found along shady mountain streams and springs.

Much of today's information is gleaned from Carlyle Luer's The Native Orchids of the United States and Canada excluding Florida. I'm compelled to quote this passage from the book (page 62): "...The surprisingly long, leafy stems curved gracefully out from the banks...Each stem bore in its upper half and orderly row of little slippers, each accompanied by a leaf. What they lacked in individual beauty was amply compensated by numbers. The long rows of flowers seemed to dangle like lanterns in the checkered sunlight, each facing in precisely the same direction away from the embankment..."

Nhu Nguyen, aka xerantheum@Flickr is the photographer behind today's image (original via BPotD Flickr Group Pool).Thank you!

The common name for Drosanthemum is dew-flower, which also happens to a literal translation of the name of the genus (drosos meaning dew and anthos meaning flower). This is in reference to the glistening papillae found on branches and flowering stems -- you can see this phenomenon in today's photograph with a close look at the topmost unopened flower bud.

Although native to South Africa, one species of Drosanthemum (not D. bicolor) has naturalized in California, so the Flora of North America has an entry on the genus: Drosanthemum.

By special request (from a conversation with a friend on the weekend), here's an infrared photograph of Yucca brevifolia (along with a non-IR photograph of the inflorescence).

Joshua trees have made a previous appearance on BPotD in a brief entry on Joshua Tree National Park. In the comments section, Bill Hooker of Open Reading Frame suggested this article by Chris Clarke on Creek Running North: Joshua trees and extinction. In a bit of coincidence, during the same month that Chris wrote his piece, a journal article came out that suggested things are a bit more hopeful for the Joshua tree than was thought at the time. See: Vander Wall et al. 2006. Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) seeds are dispersed by seed-caching rodents. Ecoscience. 13(4): 539-543.

Since it's a well-known plant from California (and also Arizona, Utah, Nevada and Baja California), excellent resources for more information exist: Calphotos, the Fire Effects Information System factsheet, and the Flora of North America: Yucca brevifolia.

...and another thank you to Nuytsia@Tas on Flickr for both today's photograph and suggestions for links (original | BPotD Flickr Group Pool). I'm always grateful for photographs from Tasmania, despite the sad story behind this one.

Eucalyptus gunnii subsp. divaricata is a localized subspecies of the Tasmanian endemic commonly known as Miena cider gum. Drought, "possibly linked to climate change", has killed off a few stands of this threatened tree, including the one in today's photograph. Ten thousand individual plants were thought to remain in the wild as of 2003, though it is estimated this number continues to decline.

Nuytsia@Tas suggests the following links:

• Resurrecting Ghost Gums from the Threatened Plant Action Group of Tasmania
• Australian Threatened Species: Miena cider gum (PDF) from the Threatened Species Network of Australia

I'll also add the suggestion to visit the Hardy Eucalyptus Page, particularly photographs of Eucalyptus gunnii (and subsp. divaricata).

Thank you to Dougeee@Flickr of Georgia, USA, for contributing today's photograph to BPotD (via the Flickr BPotD Group Pool | original). Much obliged!

This cultivar is a recent introduction from Tony Avent's Plant Delights Nursery. I have to link to the commercial site to give you more information, since other resources about this cultivar are sparse to non-existent. Abutilons are also commonly known as flowering maples, due to the resemblance of the leaf shape (of some species / hybrids) to the classic maple form.

Malvaceae.info has a photo gallery of both species and hybrids of Abutilon. The genus is native to tropical and subtropical areas of the world.

Once again, I'm indebted to Jackie Chambers for sharing both her photographs and writing talents. Very much appreciated, as always.

Eleusine coracana is an annual plant native to Africa, where it has also been grown as a food crop since ancient times. It is similarly cultivated throughout Asia, where it is believed to have been introduced as a cereal crop thousands of years ago. The plant has easily adapted to higher elevations and is grown in the Himalayas; the field in this photograph was growing at an altitude around 2300m.

Due to its wide cultivation, Eleusine coracana goes by a variety of common names. For an interesting list of local names in the original scripts, please see the Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database: Eleusine coracana (maintained by Michel Porcher).

Finger millet, one of the English common names, tolerates poor soils and low rainfall. It also lasts a very long time in storage. These features, combined with its very high nutritional value (higher in protein, fats and minerals than corn or rice), makes it an essential crop to some of the poorest farmers in the world. For more information, read the entry in the Plants for a Future Database.

As a member of the grass family, the plant has strap-like green leaves with parallel venation. The seed heads are distinctive, sometime described as a goosefoot, or cat claw. As a result of centuries of cultivation, seeds heads can vary in colour and shape, including curved heads on this ornamental variety or straight heads as seen in the Wikipedia entry on Eleusine coracana.

GrassBase -- The Online World Grass Flora coordinated by The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew -- provides a detailed botanical description of Eleusine coracana.

Besides being a food crop, Eleusine coracana is also fermented and made into alcohol. I first encountered this plant when drinking tongba, or hot millet beer, while traveling though Nepal.

The grains of millet are cooked, fermented, and dried. To serve, the dried mash is placed in bamboo flasks with boiling water then poured over the mash. The concoction is allowed to sit for a few minutes to "stew". A straw is used to suck out the water and alcohol from the mash. The resulting warm beverage has a distinctive sweet-sour taste. As the mixture becomes dry, more boiling water is added and the process repeated. This is not a quick drink; the process can last for hours until the alcohol (or the individual consuming the beverage) is depleted.

Apologies about the breaks in BPotD the last week or so. A few work-related things have crept up that have been somewhat exhausting, so other tasks suffer. Anyway, here's an attempt to get back on track.

Thank you to James G. aka J.G. in S.F.@Flickr of San Francisco, California for sharing today's photograph (original via the Flickr BPotD Group Pool). Much appreciated!

Calycanthus occidentalis, or California spicebush, is a close relative to the Chinese Sinocalycanthus chinensis featured on BPotD a few years ago. The Calycanthaceae are distributed in eastern Asia, southwest and southeast North America, and Queensland, Australia. Calycanthus occidentalis, as suggested by its common name, is native to California. There is also record of a disjunct population growing in Washington, but mention of those plants isn't found in the references I usually use for Washington state. Curious.

More photographs of Calycanthus occidentalis are available via CalPhotos. You can also read about some plant breeding work with the genus occurring at North Carolina State University: Re-inventing Sweetshrubs at the Mountain Horticultural Crops Research Station.

And another round of thank yous to Jackie Chambers, UBC BG Horticulturist, for sending along these photographs and accompanying write-up. Much appreciated!

Scaevola taccada (syn. Scaevola sericea) is found on tropical beaches of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Due to its large native range, Scaevola taccada goes by many different local names. In Hawaiian, it is called naupaka kahakai. English common names include beach naupaka, beach scaevola, fan flower or half flower.

These large evergreen shrubs can reach 3-4 m in height, and the glossy, light green leaves can range from 5-15cm long. The plant is able to quickly colonize areas because it easily roots wherever branches come in contact with the ground. For this reason, it was introduced to coastal areas outside of its native distribution to be used for erosion control. However, in some places such as Florida, it has become an invasive weed.

The flowers are produced throughout the year and are composed of five white to pale purple petals in a distinctive fan shape. The flowers are hermaphroditic, meaning they have both staminate (pollen-producing) and carpellate (ovule-producing) structures. They also exhibit protandrous flowering -- this means the anthers release pollen before the stigma of the same flower is receptive. For more information on protandry, see the Wikipedia entry.

The fleshy white fruit contains lightweight, buoyant seeds. The seeds remain viable even after prolonged exposure to sea water, but will only germinate in fresh water. Images of the fruit, as well as general growth habit, are available from Insect Images: Scaevola taccada.

It is interesting to note that there are several Scaevola species in Hawaii occupying a range of habitats. For example, Scaevola taccada is found on beaches, whereas Scaevola gaudichaudiana is found in the mountains. This is believed to be an example of adaptive radiation, a situation where rapid speciation occurs to fill many ecological niches.

Hawaiian legend offers another explanation for at least two of the species. A long time ago, two lovers upset the Volcano Goddess Pele. As a result, one was turned into beach scaevola. The other fled into the mountains and was turned into mountain scaevola -- the distinctive "half flowers" found on each plant represent the eternal separation of the lovers. Was it evolution or the wrath of a goddess? For photos of the different Hawaiian Scaevola species, please see Scaevola from the Hawaii Native Plants site.

Thank you again to David Smith of Delaware, USA for sharing photographs from his state of residence (originals via the BPotD submissions forum). Much appreciated, David.

I was surprised to learn that Hottonia inflata, aka American featherfoil, is a member of the Primulaceae, like Dodecatheon pulchellum and Androsace pyrenaica. Two species of Hottonia are recognized: the eastern North American Hottonia inflata and the Eurasian Hottonia palustris, or water violet.

Despite its North American distribution, little information is available about this annual aquatic online: the best sources seem to be this rare plant factsheet (PDF) via the Maine Natural Areas program and this article from the Connecticut Botanical Society.

Another thank you to Krystyna Szulecka for contributing one of her photographs to BPotD (posted in this thread via the BPotD submissions forum). See more of Krystyna's images by searching for “Krystyna” on the FLPA web site.

Today's image was photographed in the Branklyn Garden of Perth, Scotland, well-known for its collection of Meconopsis species. Krystyna provides details about the species via Steve McNamara in the BPotD submission posting -- a good thing, too, as resources about the plant online are few. A recent posting (May 20) to the May garden highlights of Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh also provides a description of the plant.

GRIN's account of Meconopsis punicea provides both a common name (red poppywort) and a distribution: western central China and northeastern Tibet.

More photographs of Meconopsis punicea, including images of the plants in habitat, are available via eFloras.org. Asianflora.com also has a few images.

Thank you to Meighan@Flickr for sharing today's photograph, via the Flickr BPotD Group Pool (original image). Meighan has plenty of plant-related photographs on Flickr, including a number of images of Ikebana. Much appreciated!

Cuphea ignea is native to Oaxaca, Veracruz and Chiapas. In English, its common names include cigar flower and firecracker plant (a nod to the specific epithet ignea, meaning fiery-red). With a long, red tubular flower, it is no surprise that these are hummingbird-pollinated.

If you're a gardener, you may like to read what Herself's Houston Garden has to say about the plant and / or read the Kemper Center for Home Gardening's factsheet: Cuphea ignea. For those of you in tropical climates, though, be cautious: Cuphea ignea is listed in the Global Invasive Species Database. I think it's a coincidence, but another member of the family is a well-known invasive to North Americans: Lythrum salicaria.

Unlike other members of its 250+ species-strong genus, there doesn't seem to be any use of Cuphea ignea in the production of cuphea oil, a palm oil substitute.

Michigan State University's Plant Encyclopedia has a series of photographs of Cuphea ignea.

Today's images are the results of my very first attempts using a new piece of software to process the raw files. I also used a point-and-shoot camera instead of my usual SLR.

Pseudotrillium rivale is a relatively recent moniker for this species. Formerly named Trillium rivale (and still known horticulturally as such), it is a Siskiyou Mountains endemic tolerant of ultramafic soils. Its separation from the genus Trillium is due in part to the molecular phylogenetic work of Susan Farmer; see: S. Farmer and E.E. Schilling. 2002. Phylogenetic analyses of Trilliaceae based on morphological and molecular data. Systematic Botany 27(4):674-692. For some of the morphological differences, read Recent and Continuing Studies in Trilliaceae (reprinted from BEN #301): spotted petals, an elongating pedicel, and (in many individuals), glossy, heart-shaped, Philodendron-like leaves. On our trip to the Siskiyous, we saw enormous variability in this latter characteristic, and the particular individual plant in today's photograph was the foremost exception. Also exceptional was the fact that I don't think we spotted any plants growing near a watercourse, despite its common name of brook wakerobin.

Calphotos has a good set of photographs: Pseudotrillium rivale. You can also have a look at this image of a garden-grown plant by Silver Creek Garden @ Flickr. Lastly, if you are a Trillium enthusiast, then Trillium-L is the discussion list for you!

Botany resource link: Cactus adaptations to dry environments from the Mauseth lab at the University of Texas at Austin. Follow the menu items along the left side of the page; the botanical information is fascinating (and illustrated!), while the travel section is both funny and (occasionally) discomforting.