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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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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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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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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