Published by Daniel Mosquin on February 7, 2020
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.
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on August 2, 2019
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 […]
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on April 18, 2019
Flowers get most of the attention at this time of the year in northern temperate areas, but emerging foliage deserves some as well. The tactile experience of brushing one’s fingers along the needles of a branch of Larix laricina is another delight of spring.
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on April 1, 2019
First planted in UBC Botanical Garden in 2012, patches of David’s golden saxifrage can now be found here and there as a groundcover throughout UBC’s David C. Lam Asian Garden. The golden colour is particularly evident in the early spring, due to a combination of the new leaves, the flowers, and the higher intensity of […]
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on January 23, 2019
Scientifically described in 1990, Crocus rujanensis is native to southern Serbia and adjacent Macedonia in oak-hornbeam forests, mixed Hungarian-Turkey oakwoods, Dianthus meadows, degraded shrublands, and grasslands.
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on December 24, 2018
Was this purple foxglove intentionally planted against the orange lichen-encrusted wall? The effect of having all three of the secondary colours adjacent to one another is pleasing to me, whether it is by design or not.
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on November 29, 2018
It seems next week will see the appearance of the first significant span of freezing temperatures this winter in our region. Snow isn’t in the immediate forecast, so I won’t have the opportunity to improve upon this photograph, but the cold temperatures will likely be enough to start the seasonal leaf-rolling and -drooping of many […]
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