Close-up of Stapelia grandiflora
Stapelia grandiflora is native to the Northern Cape and Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa. It has a long list of common names, including carrion flower, starfish flower, starfish cactus, and giant toad plant. These names are shared with the similar Stapelia gigantea, featured on BPotD in 2005. Contrary to some of its common names, starfish cactus is not actually a cactus, though it is a succulent. It does resemble a starfish!
Cold temperature and light responses in the leaves of Rhododendron calophytum
It seems next week will see the appearance of the first significant span of freezing temperatures this winter in our region. Snow isn’t in the immediate forecast, so I won’t have the opportunity to improve upon this photograph, but the cold temperatures will likely be enough to start the seasonal leaf-rolling and -drooping of many of UBC Botanical Garden’s rhododendrons.
The flower of Abutilon persicum
Abutilon persicum is native at a minimum to India, Bangladesh, Burma/Myanmar, and the biogeographical region of Malesia. Some references suggest it is present in other areas (Africa, Bhutan, and China), but at least one of these requires skepticism (see the Flora of China account for Abutilon). Where it does occur, plants typically grow along paths and forest edges in moist deciduous and semi-evergreen forests. Abutilon persicum‘s common names include pipal-leaved evening mallow and Persian mallow (despite seemingly not occurring in Iran).
Rosa ‘George Lawrence Price’
One hundred years ago today, Private George Lawrence Price (a Canadian) became the last soldier of the-then British Empire to die before the 11 a.m. Armistice of November 11. In the Belgian village of Ville-sur-Haine, Private Price was shot and killed by a sniper at 10:58 a.m.
A close-up of Grevillea longifolia
Grevillea longifolia is a narrow-range endemic with a distribution restricted to New South Wales in Australia. Within New South Wales, Grevillea longifolia is primarily found in the southern half of the Sydney Basin and the Woronora Plateau. It grows in moist forests on yellow clay soils and Sydney Basin Hawkesbury Sandstone, typically along the banks of rivers, streams, gullies, and creeks.
Glehnia littoralis subsp. leiocarpa
Depending on the taxonomic treatment, Glehnia is either monotypic or ditypic (containing one or two species). In the recently-published Jepson Flora, a single species with two subspecies is recognized, while the Flora of China recognizes two species. However it is treated, though, there is agreement that there is a distinction between the taxon that grows along the coast of western USA and Canada (from California to Alaska) and the taxon that grows along the coast of China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and Russia.
Flowers of Hesperantha coccinea
Scarlet river lily and crimson flag lily are two of the many common names used for Hesperantha coccinea. This species was previously featured on Botany Photo of the Day in 2006: Hesperantha coccinea.
