Can The Cat Come Back?

Species name: Typha angustifolia

Common name: Narrowleaf Cattail

Location: Ontario

There is a bit of debate as to where this species originated, but I'm going to give it the benefit of the doubt and say it's a North American species that has been introduced to Europe. It's entirely likely it happened the other way around; the species is so broadly distributed across the Northern Hemisphere that it has become difficult to tell where it "has its roots," so to speak. All cattails are what are called "obligate wetland" species, meaning that they require the wetland environment in order to grow. This doesn't mean they need to have the base of the plants submerged; it just means that they require very loose, very wet soil to grow with poor drainage. They have adapted throughout the millennia to be able to survive having water-logged roots, where most plant species would essentially drown. Even though roots grow underground, they still require oxygen to survive!

Cattails have a long history of use in North America, from food to clothing and baskets. Almost every part of the cattail is edible, with the youngest parts being favoured. Even though the plant doesn't ever grow true wood, it still can get "woody" (like bamboo; that's not real wood, either) and difficult to chew. The underground rhizomes can be eaten like potatoes, and were once thought to be "the next great agricultural crop" when the whole world floods after the ice caps melt. This idea was rather quickly abandoned since, well, they're not all that tasty. But in a pinch they're actually quite nutritious, even more than a potato or sweet potato. If you're ever lost in a wetland and about to die of starvation, go dig up some cattail rhizomes! Just make sure you cook them; they're incredibly unpalatable when raw, and some even report they might be mildly poisonous. Best not to risk it.

I remember when I was a kid we used to go pick the green leaves to make grass skirts out of for "Hawaiian Day" at day camp. I thought we did that only because we don't have palm trees in Canada, but it turns out that they have been used for exactly that purpose for hundreds of years. Granted, they're not called "Hawaiian grass skirts" when you're not in Hawaii (or using grass...). The reeds are also fantastic for making baskets. Weave the green leaves while still fresh, then allow to completely dry. The basket will be lightweight, can get wet without falling apart, and floats. Great for collecting cattail rhizomes! The leaves can also be woven into a flat mat, laid on a flat rock then pounded flat with a smaller rock. Once all of the leaves have been split open and the fibres have all been mashed together, the sheet is let dry. The dried sheet can be written on exactly like paper would have been, but this material is much more durable. It's actually the exact same method that ancient Egyptians used to make papyrus, where we get the English word "paper". I'm not sure whether the method for making paper this way was independently discovered in North America, or whether word had spread from Europe during the early days of exploration.

Due to disappearing wetland habitat around the world, all cattails are at risk for population decline. To compound this fact, there are some "facultative wetland" species (species that don't require wetlands to survive, but can grow perfectly well there) that outcompete cattails for resources and habitat space. Unless we actively start ripping out invasive aquatic plants and conserve wetlands, this species is at a real threat of disappearing.

Spiraea: one of the top potential invasive species

Species name: Spiraea japonica

Common name: Japanese spiraea

Location: Ontario

This species or ornamental plant is native to Japan (as the name suggests; but also China and Korea) but has been naturalized in North America and parts of Europe. This plant is normally kept under control in gardens, but has the potential to become invasive if left unchecked. It prefers riparian or boggy habitats, so the first place you'll notice this plant popping up if becoming invasive in an area is along roadside ditches. It's unfortunate that this is yet another species of potentially invasive plants that prefers moist habitats since our bogs, swamps and marshlands are already under such large threats by invasives already.

Since I profiled how to identify a plant as being a member of the mint family, Spiraea is a good example of how to identify a plant in the rose family. Members of the rose family have typical 5-petaled flowers, and the petals are roundish at the edges and narrow towards the interior of the flower to make a star-shape in the middle when the flower is fully open. The female parts of the flowers are very difficult to see, but the male parts are numerous (more often than not, more than 12 stamens). Spiraea in general is not a good example of this, but the leaves of the rose family also more often than not have something called a stipule at the bottom, which is like a "mini leaf" at the base of the leaf's petiole where it attaches to the stem. There are other families of plants that have stipules, but only this family has the characteristic 5-petaled flower (usually pink or white, but not always) with many male parts and stipules.

The arrow in red points to the stipule at the base of the petiole of a compound leaf in the rose family (from Wikipedia)

The roots of Spiraea plants have been used for hundreds of years in Traditional Chinese Medicine as an anti-inflammatory tea. Recently, a couple of researchers from China looked at whether or not root extract from Spiraea has biologically active chemicals, and they found five new alkaloids in the roots that do show anti-inflammatory effects in mice. The kinds of effects this could have on humans and the diseases it could be useful to help treat are numerous and scientific investigations are ongoing.

A non-bloody blood iris

Species name: Iris sanguinea

Common name: Blood iris

Location: Ontario

This species of Iris is native to eastern Asia (China, Mongolia, Russia and Japan) and, like it's Yellow Flag cousin, enjoys having it's "feet wet" in damp soil and grows well as an aquatic plant. Since the flowers are a vivid purple, one can guess (and would be correct in that guess) that the most popular pollinators of the blood iris are bumble bees. Unlike it's yellow cousin, it cannot fully tolerate the "true" conditions of a bog (it will grow happily for a while, but it's not a good competitor) where the water is about pH 4.0. It requires only slightly more alkaline water and/or soil at a pH of at least 5.0 (up to pH 6.5).

Gardeners would describe this plant as being "prolific," which should suggest its invasive nature when conditions are optimal. The blood iris reproduces equally well from seeds and from the uprooting and disturbance of its rhizomes, which can re-root themselves into the ground and produce new plants. Merely pulling the plant out of the ground (which is actually incredibly easy) and throwing it onto a trash pile will grow a new patch of blood iris.

One of the attractions of this plant as a flowering plant for the garden is its late flowering time, depending on your location. In my garden this plant usually flowers from the end of May to the beginning of July, which is actually quite late as far as "spring flowers" go. As with other irises, all parts of this plant should be treated as toxic and this plant should not be consumed in any capacity.

Is the fleur-de-lis really an iris?

Species name: Iris pseudacorus

Common name: Yellow Flag Iris, Yellow Flag, Yellow Iris

Location: Ontario

The yellow iris is an aquatic plant native to Europe, Asia (western) and Africa (north coast). It thrives in aquatic conditions, especially where the water is of low pH (it does very well in bog-like conditions where many other aquatic plants cannot survive), the plant is partially submerged, and the rhizome experiences constant anoxic (oxygen-deprived) conditions. In North America, these are the reasons why (coupled with the fact that it is a very popular pond and garden plant) it has the potential to become invasive. I would argue (and I think others would, too) it has become invasive already in certain areas like the Byron/Sifton Bog in London, where it can out-compete native aquatic plants for resources. Some regions in North America have banned the sale and planting of this plant due to its potential to become invasive, but most gardeners and landscape companies continue to plant it unaware of its potential for environmental destruction. Because Ontario does not recognize this species as invasive, I have not highlighted the invasive box.

Aside from being potentially invasive in non-native habitats, this plant is incredibly important throughout its native range for other species. It can form a very dense cluster of vegetation, so is prime breeding ground for fish, frogs, and birds. There is even one species of bird in Scotland that is endangered called the Corn Crake that uses yellow iris patches as breeding grounds. The bird is a ground-nester, where it lays its eggs directly in a nest made of grass leaves in a hollow in the dirt. This is especially easy in a patch of yellow iris since the leaves are so easily detached from the rhizomes underground.

Like all irises, the juices from a cut rhizome are irritating to the skin, so gardeners planting this species should wear gloves (especially those with sensitive skin). Historically, this plant was used medicinally as an emetic. More recently, it was discovered that this species is especially effective at taking up heavy metals through its root system and has this has led to experimentation with this plant as a water clarifier.

Many have argued that the fleur-de-lis (used on the Quebec flag and in Quebec and France as a decorative symbol) is a stylized version of an iris (despite the name "fleur-de-lis" meaning "lily flower"). I would say based on the name alone it's more likely designed from a yellow or white lily than an iris. The fleur-de-lis doesn't look much like either, does it?

Pitcher plants as ecosystems and not just carnivores?!

Species name: Sarracenia purpurea

Common name: pitcher plant

Location: Nova Scotia

Despite there being numerous species of carnivorous pitcher plants around the world, there is only one species in Canada. This species of pitcher plant occupies boggy habitats from Newfoundland all the way across Canada to British Columbia, and to the north through Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

The morphology of different pitcher plants is different, but all of them have one thing in common: they all use a trapping mechanism called the pitfall trap. The leaves of the pitcher plant are modified into receptacles that contain a liquid with enzymes that digest insects unlucky enough to fall into the trap. The top of the trap is coated with a wax-like substance that is very slippery, ensuring a higher success of trapping insects. Why would a plant want to capture insects in the first place? Typically carnivorous plants  live in very nutrient poor environments, and require the vast majority of their nutrients to come from sources that don't include the soil that they sit in. An excellent source of nitrogen and phosphorus, two elements required in relatively large numbers by plants, is the insect body since it's composed of mostly proteins (great sources of nitrogen). Various carnivorous plants employ a huge diversity of trapping mechanisms, but all of them converge on the same purpose which is as a method of nitrogen acquisition.

The idea that pitcher plants only have pitchers to capture insects is actually one of the many misnomers of plant biology. The pitchers of a pitcher plant are actually micro-ecosystems full of complex interactions between plants and insects. In Canadian bog systems, pitcher plants are the main breeding grounds for mosquitos and other small flying insects. Here, the interaction between pitcher plants and insects is much more complex than just digesting insects for nutrients. The adult insects lay their eggs in the pitcher plants, and the larvae of these insects swim in the liquid and feed on other insects that fall into the sweet substance. Their excretions are the main source of nutrients for the plant, who absorb the insect larva poop that sink to the bottom of the pitcher. There are also mutualistic bacteria, protists (what I affectionately refer to as the "garbage can of Biology": if it doesn't fit in any other group, it's a protist), and rotifers ("wheel animals") that live in the liquid of the pitcher. They are often the first line of attack for a pitcher plant, and the plants allow these groups of species to start to break down or decay the insects that fall into the trap, releasing the nutrients from the insect for the plant to absorb.