British Columbia

The low-growing Lupinus lepidus var. lobbii

Lupinus lepidus var. lobbii

Published by Daniel Mosquin on August 22, 2018

Like the previous Medicago sativa, elegant lupine or dwarf mountain lupine is a member of the pea family, or Fabaceae. The Fabaceae contains about 750 genera and 19000 species, making it the third largest plant family by number of species.

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The fleshy seed cone of Taxus brevifolia

Taxus brevifolia

Published by Daniel Mosquin on July 30, 2018

Ignored or disdained as a “weed tree” for many years by forest industrialists, Pacific or western yew received an unsustainable amount of interest in the last few decades of the 20th century due to the presence of paclitaxel in its bark.

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Flowers of Cardamine cordifolia

Cardamine cordifolia

Published by Daniel Mosquin on July 18, 2018

Although not the showiest of montane plants, this heart-leaved bitter-cress caught the attention of many Botany BC participants at last year’s meeting in Cathedral Provincial Park and Protected Area. It is uncommonly encountered in British Columbia, with a distributional range that barely extends into the province.

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The flowers of Rubus nutkanus

Rubus nutkanus

Published by Daniel Mosquin on July 9, 2018

Rubus nutkanus? For those familiar with this species, you’ll probably be wondering what justifies the change in name of thimbleberry from Rubus parviflorus.

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Flower of Sisyrinchium littorale

Sisyrinchium littorale

Published by Daniel Mosquin on July 5, 2018

A relative of irises, Sisyrinchium is composed of about 80 species primarily (and perhaps exclusively) native to the Americas and Hawaii. The Flora of North America entry for Sisyrinchium explains the name as follows: [Greek] sys, pig, and rynchos, snout, alluding to swine grubbing the roots for food.

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Bisexual (hermaphroditic) flower of Sidalcea hendersonii

Sidalcea hendersonii

Published by Daniel Mosquin on June 29, 2018

In the Botany Photo of the Day entry on Sidalcea malviflora, Taisha noted that two of the difficulties in checkermallow taxonomy are gynodioecy and morphological variation. Today’s photographs of Henderson’s checkermallow illustrate both of these challenges.

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The diminutive flower of Vaccinium oxycoccos

Vaccinium oxycoccos

Published by Daniel Mosquin on June 20, 2018

The diminutive bog cranberry or small cranberry is wide-ranging across northern Europe, Asia, and North America. As one of its common names implies, it is a species of bogs–and also fens, muskeg, and arctic-alpine tundra.

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