Looking up through the leaves of Fargesia scabrida
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”.
Foliage spray of Thuja plicata
The overlapping leaves of Thuja plicata are small, only 3-6mm in length (and sometimes as small as 1mm). In quantity, though, they can sustain trees exceeding 70m (230 ft.) in height.
Flowers of Lilium ‘Patricia’s Pride’
Lilies certainly have a high rank among the groups of plants with the most cultivated (named) selections, with over 3000 entries in the RHS Horticultural Database. If anyone has the inclination to do so, it’d make for an interesting discussion in the comments about which genera have the most cultivars, particularly by plant groups (trees, shrubs, conifers specifically, etc.).
Few-flowered inflorescences of Liatris punctata along the stem
Another school year is starting soon, requiring the annual recitations of “almost always” and “most of the time” with respect to explaining plants.
The aptly-named brown screw-moss
The Flora of North America describes the distribution of brown screw-moss as spanning western North America (including Mexico), western and southern South America, Europe, western Asia, Africa, some of the Pacific Islands (Hawaii, New Zealand), Australia, and Antarctica. It is therefore one of the relatively few multicellular species that can be found on all major continents.
Flowers of Meriania nobilis
Some consider this tree to be the most beautiful flowering tree in the world, as noted by Priscilla in the comments with her photo on Flickr. Meriania nobilis is a small tree (to 15m/49 ft.) native to a narrow elevational range (1900m-2900m) within the central and western Colombian mountains.
Close-up of Calceolaria biflora flower
Species of Calceolaria are variously known as slipperworts, slipper flowers, pocketbook flowers, and lady’s purses. The common names are similar to lady’s slipper orchids or slipper orchids (Cypripedium spp.). Today’s Calceolaria biflora does indeed bear a superficial resemblance to Cypripedium parviflorum, for example, but there are differences. For one, Calceolaria are eudicots while orchids are monocots (see monocots versus “dicots”).
