Garden List 2014 Update: June 3

Here's my updated Garden List from my round of plant identifications last week :) Every time I identify a new plant, I'm always amazed at the diversity we have in our back yard. I've been asked by a couple people how I manage to "fit" all of these plants in the back yard, so here's where I need to come clean about a few things. Ahem...

...my name is Jen, and I hate pulling weeds.

We have a very unique garden at home that is unlike every other in the neighbourhood. It's not because the back yard is a wasteland that is completely neglected; it's nearly the complete opposite. I would bet that we (and by "we" I mean my Dad who is the resident gardener) spend more time on our garden than anyone else in the neighbourhood. It takes a lot of work because we have...no lawn. Well, we've got a bit of a lawn in the front yard, but the back yard is 100% gardens (plus a pond). This means we have A LOT of room for weeds. A lot. But you know what? It's pretty awesome. There are some areas that are naturally weed-free (or at least have minimal amounts of weeds) like the whole north east corner of the garden. There are some plants that manage to escape through fences from each of the neighbours, but that area stays remarkably weed-free. Some hostas, an iris patch, some bleeding hearts, a flowering dogwood, a spruce, a couple of cedars, the requisite daylily (in every single corner of the garden, it seems) and a fir tree. Other corners of the garden, the ones that get much more sun, are a little...unruly. That's where I'm finding most of the diversity of plants, so that shouldn't be at all surprising! In the southwest corner of the garden there are so many plants you have to be careful where you step for fear of not crushing one of the many I haven't collected yet. In that area we have some REALLY COOL native plants that are not yet in flower (so I won't spoil the surprise by adding a list here; stay tuned to find out what they are once they start flowering and are collected for my Garden List!), some of the typical ornamental species that are found in many gardens in North America, and...weeds. Some have spilled over from the neighbour's house, others have been carried in from the rain, and yet more just magically find their way into the yard other ways. It's a pollinator's paradise...I've never seen so many bees and other flying insects in my life! Two weekends ago when all of the violets were out in all their glory I had to be careful where I stepped to avoid all of the bumble bees. Oh, and dragonflies. They LOVE that corner of the garden (that's also the corner with the pond, too, but dragonflies love to sun themselves and that's the sunny corner).

Now that that confession is out of the way (whew! I feel better!), on to the garden list! I forgot to include the legend last time of what all of the colours and symbols mean, so here it is this time:
- Plants in bold text are new to this iteration of the Garden List (numbered from the bottom up so new plants will always be at the top)
- Plants in green text are species native to northeastern North America (specifically, southwestern Ontario)
- Plants with an asterisk (*) beside their name are invasive in this area (again, specifically southwestern Ontario)
- Any plants that I've already blogged about have links included

Cheers :)

Jen's Garden List 2014: 
44. Annual blue grass (Poa annua)*
43. Mouse-ear chickweed (Cerastium vulgatum)*
42. Thyme-leaved speedwell (Veronica serpyllifolia)
41. Lily-of-the-valley (Convallaria majalis)*: read all about lily-of-the-valley HERE and HERE.
40. Great Solomon's-seal (Polygonatum biflorum or sometimes called Polygonatum commutatum or even Polygonatum giganteum): read all about great Solomon's-seal HERE.
39. Bugle (Ajuga reptans)*
38. Red oak (Quercus rubra): read all about the red oak HERE.
37. Common or umbrella liverwort (Marchantia polymorpha)*: read all about the umbrella liverwort HERE.
36. Sweet woodruff or sweetscented bedstraw (Galium odoratum)*: read all about sweet woodruff, aka master of the woods, HERE.
35. Woodland Jack-in-the-pulpit (Arisaema atrorubens or sometimes called Arisaema triphyllum): read all about Jack-in-the-pulpits HERE.
34. Freckled violet (Viola sororia 'Freckles')*
33. Purple plum (Prunus cerasifera 'Thundercloud')
32. Fivestamen chickweed (Cerastium semidecandrum)*
31. Terrestrial water-starwort (Callitriche terrestris)
30. Yellow alyssum (Aurinia saxatilis or its other name Alyssum saxatilae)
29. Yellow rocket or winter cress (Barbarea vulgaris)*
28. Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata)*: read all about garlic mustard HERE.
27. Lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis): read all about lungworts HERE.
26. Common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)*: read all about dandelions HERE and HERE.
25. Fortune's spindle (Euonymus fortunei)*
24. Violet lesser periwinkle (Vinca minor 'La Grave')*
23. Northern blue violet (Viola septentrionalis)
22. Creeping wood-sorrel (Oxalis corniculata)*
21. Bleeding hearts (Lamprocapnos spectabilis): read all about bleeding hearts HERE.
20. Field pansy (Viola kitaibeliana)
19. Moss phlox (Phlox subulata): read all about moss phlox HERE and HERE.
18. Mountain rock cress (Arabis alpina subsp. caucasica)*
17. Norway spruce (Picea abies)*: read all about the Norway spruce HERE and HERE.
16. Tulips, at least 2 different unknown varieties (Tulipa sp.): read all about tulips HERE.
15. Hyacinths, at least 3 different unknown varieties (Hyacinthus orientalis): read all about hyacinths HERE.
14. Daffodils, 2 different unknown varieties (Narcissus sp.): read all about daffodils HERE in my blog post about plants of the Chinese New Year.
13. Judas ear (Auricula americana; a fungus)
12. Common violet (Viola papiliomacea or Viola sororia)*
11. English violet (Viola odorata)*
10. Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara)*
9. Eastern white-cedar (Thuja occidentalis): read all about the Eastern white-cedar HERE.
8. Corn speedwell (Veronica arvensis)*
7. Wild strawberry (Fragaria virginiana)
6. Eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis): read all about the Eastern hemlock HERE.
5. Siberian or wood squill (Scilla siberica)*
4. Variegated lesser or dwarf periwinkle (Vinca minor 'Agenteovariegata')*
3. Purple lesser or dwarf periwinkle (Vinca minor 'Atropurpurea')*
2. Bigleaf periwinkle, greater periwinkle (Vinca major)*
1. Hoary/hairy bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta)*

A purple bugle (Ajuga reptans) growing neatly in the corner of the garden, now completely covered in purple flowers.

The yellow alyssum (Aurinia saxatilis) cascading over some rocks. If you don't want it to cascade, you can prune it back after it's done flowering. Who knew?! 

Our purple plum (Prunus cerasifera) in flower. I'll have to pay more attention this fall to whether we have fruit; they're edible and from what I hear quite tasty!

Flamboyant Flamingo Flowers

Species name: Anthurium sp.

Common name: Flamingo flower

Location: UWO Greenhouse

The common name "flamingo flower" actually refers to an entire genus of plant species; Anthurium is estimated to contain 1000 or more species with almost all of the diversity of this genus existing in the South American tropics. There are a few exceptions, but none of them are notable. Approximately 3/4 of the species known in this genus are either threatened or endangered due to habitat loss, which makes the entire group incredibly vulnerable to extinction. These flowers are actually remarkably difficult to grow from seed in a greenhouse, so plants in some locations were hunted almost to complete eradication for the international tropical plant trade. Now, ornamental species are grown in greenhouses and propagated from cuttings, which means two things: first, they are no longer collected in the wild (or at least very little wild collection), and second the populations grown in cultivation are all genetically identical. This could be devastating for the flower trade (and once again for the wild Anthurium populations) if there was a pathogen that invaded greenhouses and flower plantations and wiped out all of the plants because they had no resistance.

The Anthurium flower, like the Jack-in-the-Pulpit flower (which you can read all about HERE), is a specialized type of flower. Anthurium species break all the rules when it comes to determining if a plant is a monocot or a dicot. Monocots have flower parts in multiples of 3s, and have long, narrow leaves with parallel veins. Dicots have flower parts in multiples of 4s or 5s, and have wide, broad leaves with net-like veins. Anthurium is a genus of monocots with broad leaves, veins that are somewhere between parallel and net-like, and have one inflorescence made up of tiny flowers that have their flower parts in multiples of four. Someone should tell these plants that they need to read more botany books to learn the rules! Anthurium flowers are made up of two parts: the spathe, or the white shield-like petal surrounding the rest of the inflorescence (its role is to attract pollinators), and the spadix which houses all of the tiny little flowers (thousands of them less than 1 mm across!). On the bright side, we've made up a new rule concerning the ways to tell monocots and dicots apart when the plants refuse to read books: whenever you see a plant with an inflorescence made up of a spathe and spadix, it's always a monocot!

Peekaboo! I see you!

Species name: Arisaema triphyllum

Common name: Jack-in-the-pulpit, bog onion, brown dragon, Indian turnip

Location: Ontario

Jack in the pulpit flowers are great examples of exceptions in the plant world, which is one of the reasons why I like them so much. It is another example of a native eastern North American plant. We have these growing in our back yard, which confused me at first (like they do many people) since I mistook them for poison ivy and ripped out all of the leaves one year (with gloves on!). The leaves of poison ivy and jack in the pulpit are both what are called "trifolate", which means there are three leaflets coming out of each "leaf point" on the stem. Once this plant starts to flower, however, is very obvious that it's not poison ivy! Silly me. Like the last plant in this blog, hyacinth, jack in the pulpit also grows from a corm.

One of the amazing things about this plant is just how variable it can be depending on environmental conditions, and what type of genetic variation it contains. The flowers themselves can range in size from 12-36 cm tall, and can be anywhere from pure green (like in the photo) to green with dark brown (almost purple) stripes. The "jack" on the inside can also be bright green or dark purple-brown, or anywhere in between. The plants themselves can be from 30-65 cm tall, depending on nutrient levels of the soil.

In general, a good rule to use to figure out if a plant is a monocot (in other words, most closely related to grasses) or a dicot (in other words, most closely related to an oak tree) is by the shape of their leaves and the number of flower parts. In general, monocots have long and thin leaves with parallel veins and flowers with flower parts (petals, sepals, stamens and stigmas) in multiples of three. Dicots have broad leaves with net-like veins and flower parts in multiples of either fours or fives. Jack in the pulpit, then, seems to be a dicot. Its leaves are broad and have net-like veins, and unless you have a very powerful hand lens it's impossible to tell if flower parts are in multiples of 3s or 4-5s. Unfortunately...that would be incorrect. This is a monocot! One unusual group of monocots is the family Araceae, which includes the peace lily (a common ornamental plant, often used as an aquatic plant in wedding centrepieces). They have broad leaves with (mostly) parallel veins (but some are cross-wise) and a specific type of flower called the spathe and spadix. Here, "Jack" would be the spadix and his pulpit would be the spathe. If you zoom in on the spadix, you would see that it's actually a multi-flowered flower head (called an inflorescence), with each little facet on the spadix being one flower. Neat!

But, of course, the uniqueness of this plant doesn't stop there. This is also a great plant to demonstrate all of the unique evolutionary mechanisms plants have derived to avoid self-pollination or inbreeding. There are separate male and female flowers on the spadix, but never both at the same time. Usually the plant starts with predominantly male flowers (if there are female flowers, they are not mature yet) that are producing pollen. Flies are attracted to the spadix because they are much warmer than the ambient air (thanks to the spathe), and they have a rather...unpleasant smell. The fly is covered in pollen, then travels to another flower. If the plant plays its cards right, the next flower will be predominantly female flowers (if there are male flowers, they are no longer mature) which are receptive to receiving pollen. The fly deposits the pollen onto the stigmas, and pollination occurs. Even neater!

This plant is absolutely toxic if consumed raw (it contains calcium oxalate crystals which can perforate the digestive tract), but is actually often cooked as a root crop like you would cook potatoes (but boiled a bit longer because they're much tougher) and eaten. I have never tried it so I can't vouch for what it would taste like, but I can't imagine it would be too flavourful. Native North American people often used this plant as a medicine to treat sore eyes, rheumatism, bronchitis, snake bites, and to induce sterility. Whether or not it's an effective treatment against any of these I have no idea. I wouldn't recommend experimenting.