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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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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Published by Daniel Mosquin on June 12, 2018
I (Kem Luther) was contacted recently by a British Columbia provincial biologist about non-native and invasive mosses. The topic is not much discussed in bryological circles. When compared with the impact of non-native vascular plant species, the ecological issues presented by the invasion of non-vascular flora are relatively benign.
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on June 11, 2018
Bark-sniffing? Check. Mushroom-licking? Yep. Indumentum-licking? Not yet, but maybe next time. Apparently, the hairs on the underside of the leaves of northern Labrador tea give a buzz when licked (see the indigenous knowledge section), which opens up an entirely new way of experiencing rhododendrons that I hadn’t considered before. Perhaps I should add it to […]
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on May 22, 2018
For a relatively wide-ranging species, sticky false asphodel or sticky tofieldia has one of the most precise distribution maps I’ve seen on Flora of North America. Native to parts of northern North America from Alaska to Tennessee and Oregon to Newfoundland, this species is the most widespread of the three that occur in North America. […]
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on April 20, 2018
The recent entry on Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir reminded me that we had yet to feature its iconic relative, coast Douglas-fir. What better tree to represent the taxon than Canada’s second-largest coast Douglas-fir, Big Lonely Doug?
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on March 9, 2018
Coastal bunchberry, western bunchberry, or Alaskan bunchberry, is native to western North America and extreme eastern Russia. According to the Flora of North America account of Cornus unalaschkensis, the species inhabits “maritime copse or heath, maritime coniferous forests and bog woodlands, moist broadleaf or coniferous forests” from elevations of 0 to 3000m (to 10000 ft.).
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