Quercus lobata growing on Table Mountain

Quercus lobata

Published by Daniel Mosquin on April 2, 2020

For those who wander looking for wildflowers during California’s springtime, I suspect this tree will be immediately familiar. It is the valley oak or roble that grows near the main parking lot to the exceptional North Table Mountain Ecological Reserve, photographed seven years ago in early morning light.

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Cercidiphyllum japonicum 'Morioka Weeping'

Cercidiphyllum japonicum ‘Morioka Weeping’

Published by Daniel Mosquin on March 30, 2020

Like last week’s Philesia magellanica, today’s species is also a member of a family containing only two species. In this instance, though, both species are within the same genus, Cercidiphyllum.

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Anemone pavonina, the peacock windflower

Anemone pavonina

Published by Daniel Mosquin on March 27, 2020

It is likely this plant is just finishing its flowering in UBC Botanical Garden’s E.H. Lohbrunner Alpine Garden, but I can at least revisit it with my photograph from 2015.

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The flowers of Rhododendron thomsonii

Rhododendron thomsonii subsp. thomsonii

Published by Daniel Mosquin on March 26, 2020

Researching the plant featured in today’s photograph seems to have helped resolve much of a long-standing mystery: why is there a Beer Trail in UBC Botanical Garden? And what does that have to do with a photo of Obama in Asheville, North Carolina?

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The three-petaled Philesia magellanica

Philesia magellanica

Published by Daniel Mosquin on March 23, 2020

A highlight of last year’s trip to Chile was seeing all of the members of the Philesiaceae in the wild–all two of them! The viny Lapageria rosea has previously been featured on BPotD; this is its scrambling shrub-like relative, austral bellflower or coicopihue.

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The flowers of Calochortus leichtlinii

Calochortus leichtlinii

Published by Daniel Mosquin on March 16, 2020

Although there are a number of spring bulbs in bloom at the moment locally, today’s photograph features a summer-blooming geophyte. Leichtlin’s mariposa is native to California, Nevada, and Oregon, though it is by far more common in California than elsewhere.

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Looking up through the leaves of Fargesia scabrida

Fargesia scabrida

Published by Daniel Mosquin on March 13, 2020

First scientifically described in 1985, Fargesia scabrida doesn’t seem to have a well-known common name. On the label for this plant growing at UBC Botanical Garden, we’ve opted to tentatively use “orange stem bamboo”.

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