This page is a random selection of wiki entries which is updated daily.
You can subscribe to it as an RSS feed
.
The RSS feed contains 'media' data and can be used as a 'photo feed' by programs such as screen savers, slide shows and picture frames.
Click to add Bulb Day to your MyYahoo page
From
Cynoglossum on Sunday 26th of June 2022 05:23:17 PM PDT
Cynoglossum grande, or
Pacific Hound's Tongue is a non-invasive herbaceous perennial native to woodland habitats from British Columbia south to California. It begins its vegetative cycle in late Winter, sending up hairy leaves which unfold somewhat like hairy rainbow chard, before sending up a flowering stalk to two feet. The flowers open magenta and turn vivid blue as they age. Five white appendages surround the base of each flower. It grows from a modified rhizomatous taproot that can produce many rosettes from a single root system. It exhibits a marked summer dormancy, quickly retreating into dormancy when the ground dries up in its native summer dry territory. Pictures below by
Travis Owen
From
Begonia on Saturday 25th of June 2022 05:07:49 PM PDT
Begonia × tuberhybrida 'Nonstop' is an F1 hyrbid seed strain introduced by the German seed company Ernst Benary in 1972. They feature bright big flowers on small robust plants. Seed is dust like, sown in February it will produce flowering plants by August. In the photographs below by
David Pilling notice the difference between the (double) male and (single) female flowers. Leaf cuttings can be used to produce more plants.
Tubers are dug up and stored frost free through the Winter, the first photo shows the first sign of growth in spring; they can be split in two if both halves have shoots (see photo 2).
Photographs of commercially supplied viable seed on a 1 mm grid, in the second image the grid lines are just visible at left and right. The third photo shows a seed pod forming and a ripe one, this time on a 10 mm grid; I have never got seed collected from this strain to germinate.
From
Eriospermum on Friday 24th of June 2022 05:17:05 PM PDT
Eriospermum spp. The first photo below was taken by
Nhu Nguyen at the
UC Botanical Garden September 2008. It is a summer growing species. The second photo shows the mature "wooly" seeds of an unidentified species. The third photo shows an Amaryllis worm making a meal out of a leaf of an unidentified species. The second and third photos were taken by
Cameron McMaster at Cathcart in February 2008.
Keys use the flowers for identification and sometimes the tubers. Since the leaves are usually dry at flowering and often appear after the flower is gone and because there are so many species, it is difficult to identify plants by their leaves when seen in the wild. The photos below from
Mary Sue Ittner were taken in different locations in South Africa. The first two photos show plants that were growing sheltered by rocks in the shade at
Maclear. There are four species noted in the field guide for the Drakensberg. The second photo could be
E. ornithogaloides which is described as having a heart shaped solitary leaf with red margins fringed with hairs and lying flat on the ground. The third photo was taken near Tulbagh, the fourth in the Komsberg (possibly
E. capense which is heart shaped, often with ridges), and the last at Darling.
From
Canarina on Thursday 23rd of June 2022 07:24:50 PM PDT
Canarina eminii Asch. & Schweinf. is native to East Africa (Eastern Congo to Ethiopia, south to Malawi) where it grows in montane forest, riverine forest, and montane grassland.
Photos from
Dylan Hannon who writes "
Canarina eminii is an epiphytic species that has grown well in the Los Angeles area (away from the coast). Here it is a winter grower like
Canarina canariensis, though it starts growth earlier in the fall just as nights start to cool. Both are dormant and kept dry in summer."
From
Orthrosanthus on Wednesday 22nd of June 2022 06:06:15 PM PDT
Orthrosanthus laxus (Endl.) Benth. occurs over a wide range in southwestern Australia in a variety of soils often moist for a period of time. It is a rhizomatous perennial with grass like leaves from 10 to 45 cm tall and a few branched inflorescence to 70 cm tall with pale to bright blue, rarely white flowers. It blooms August through November. Photo taken by
Bob Rutemoeller near Pemberton in southwestern Australia September 2007.
From
Nivenia on Tuesday 21st of June 2022 05:12:45 PM PDT
Nivenia inaequalis Goldblatt & J.C.Manning grows to 1 m tall and has light to dark blue flowers with a long tube and narrow leaves. This species flowers in late spring and grows in fynbos. The photos below from the book
Plants of the Klein Karoo courtesy of
Jan and Anne Lise Schutte-Vlok.
From
Agrostocrinum on Monday 20th of June 2022 06:09:34 PM PDT
Agrostocrinum hirsutum (Lindl.) Keighery is usually found in woodlands, heath or sedgelands in a variety of soils. It has a shorter rhizome than the other species and has hairy flowering stems and buds (back of sepals) and narrow green leaves. Leaves are from 10 to 40 cm long and 2-4 mm wide. It blooms in spring with the flowering time extended in wetter areas. It has dark blue flowers with black anthers. The perianth segments are 12 to 16 mm long and 6 to 8 mm wide. These pictures were taken north of Albany October 2007 by
Bob Rutemoeller and
Mary Sue Ittner. The first is a habitat shot and the other pictures focus on the flowers, showing the hairy pedicels and buds, the blue flowers, and the back of the flowers.
From
Trillium Species Two on Sunday 19th of June 2022 05:17:22 PM PDT
Trillium lancifolium Raf. has twisted petals in many forms, but these are very long, thin and erect. It also has a unique look, taking its name from the lance-shaped leaves. The stems can be very tall, easily up to 18", and 2.5 to 3 times longer than the leaves. Flower color appears very variable, from dark maroon, through bicolors to almost green. The rhizome is also very unusual, being long and thin, and very brittle. It also tends to branch and form tight clumps more frequently than most other trilliums. In habitat it is more often found closer to small creeks, usually on the flood plain and in areas that can be totally inundated for several days or weeks in particularly wet springs. In addition to the 'normal' populations in central Georgia and Alabama, there are populations in the Florida panhandle near the Chattahoochee River which flower very early, before the end of February in many years. Photos by
John Lonsdale.
From
Dracontium on Saturday 18th of June 2022 05:55:11 PM PDT
Dracontium spruceanum (syn.
Dracontium loretense) is distributed from Central America (Costa Rica) to Southern tropical America. It grows from a tuber that is approximately 15 cm in diameter. The stalk/scape has a spongy texture/tissue 1 meter in length and a spathe 20-35 cm long, 3-6 cm wide and flower head (spadix) that is dark green, almost black. In Choco (Colombia) they call it the snake plant because of how the color of the scape/stalk is similar to a snake. They grate the bulb and it is used to dry up boils, and as an antidote for certain snakebites. Plant cultivated and photographed by Fabio F. Suarezmotta who collected it in the Lebrija River valley in the northern part of Santander Department (Colombia) in a pasture. He thinks that the periodic flooding of the Lebrija River carried the tuber from the wild down to where he collected it..
