Published by Daniel Mosquin on March 23, 2015
This delightful little plant has been producing this dramatic colour show for me each spring for four years now. I grew it from seed received as Zaluzianskya ovata. I was expecting the typical white-flowered form that I had grown previously–a form that had never survived the winter for me. I was thrilled with the bright […]
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on April 28, 2010
This species was previously featured on BPotD and again here. Today’s photo is undoubtedly from a different specimen. Daphniphyllum macropodum is dioecious. The magenta buds in this image will open into male flowers–berries will not form on this plant. The bright yellow-green emergence of new leaves contrasted with the magenta bracts and flower buds makes […]
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on January 11, 2010
The cannonball tree has one of the most appropriate common names of any plant I know. Not often seen outside its native range (northern South America and southern Central America), it is grown as a sacred plant in Hindu temples in India and as an oddity in tropical botanical gardens.
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on June 24, 2009
Each day, this showy specimen of over 6 metres presses its flowers back and forth against the glass of my office’s window. The tree, one of 130 species within Styrax genus, rises high above a small, shallow lagoon, and heaves its thin woody branches over the railing of the wooden walkway that gives entrance to […]
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Published by ericlafountaine on June 4, 2009
The December 10, 2005 Botany Photo of the Day entry shows a bleached fruit of the rare Rehderodendron macrocarpum. The same tree is pictured in today’s entry, this time as it’s beginning to open its flowers.
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on January 31, 2008
Vancouver has been graced with a few good snowfalls this year. These photos were taken late January, in Nitobe Memorial Garden. The garden was not yet open for the day, so the fresh layer of snow was undisturbed, except for the few paths that had been cleared by horticulturist, Junji Shinada, who has tended the […]
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on November 24, 2005
You might not recognize the seeds in this image as a common food source–rice. Oryza sativa is a staple part of the diet of almost fifty percent of the world’s human population. Needless to say, understanding the genetics of rice is crucial to understanding and protecting this valuable resource.
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