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!

The pin oak

Species name: Quercus palustris

Common name: Pin oak

Location: Ontario

My friend Tanya demanded more native species in my blog, so here we go! Another native tree, just for Tanya. The pin oak is just barely native to Ontario; the native range extends only as far north as my hometown so I guess I should be considered lucky! The native range extends quite far south, as far as Georgia and all the way west to Oklahoma and Kansas. In Ontario this tree is relatively rare except where planted for ornamental value, and it's difficult to say what might happen with climate change. Species ranges are expected to move towards the poles (so in this case, north) but one also has to keep competitive ability in mind before you make those kinds of assumptions. The pin oak is an incredibly poor competitor, especially when it comes to shade and moisture. In the spring, during the seasonal flooding periods, the pin oak is incredibly tolerant of being partially submerged, and opts to set leaves later in the season once the ground is drier. During the growing season, however, the pin oak is very intolerant of standing moisture around the trunk, and any moisture at all towards the base of the tree often leads to severe decay. Unlike most other oaks, the pin oak doesn't have a large taproot that it uses for underground support; instead it has a very shallow root system that stretches over a large area. Once the bottom of the trunk is rotten, the tree no longer has a support system and it is prone to being blown over during any kind of severe weather. This tree is also very shade intolerant; even small shrubs can out-compete this tree for resources when young. It just doesn't seem to have the ability to push up out of the lower canopy, even though the potential height of this tree is 60 feet or more.

I guess this is the first blog post where I have to admit that my plant identification skills are sometimes aided just by the location that I'm in. My hawk-eyed blog readers will notice that there's a post coming out of the ground in front of the tree with an information plaque on the top. All of Western University's campus is an arboretum, which is basically an outdoor museum of living plants. It's not quite a botanical garden, since botanical gardens often have public greenhouses associated with them (we don't), but they also have ALL plants labelled to the species level. At Western, it's only the trees that have labels, not all plants. The label contains the common name, the species name, the family that the species is in, and soon will have information about whether or not the tree is native, and whether or not the tree is considered invasive. It's incredibly convenient being able to walk around campus and learn about plant identification; you can actually walk up to the trees and touch them, smell them, feel their bark, break open young twigs to see what colour they are, etc. It's also incredibly helpful to be able to see a tree through the seasons, which can also help with remembering names of trees.

But back to the pin oak!

The uses of pin oak are many aside from the ornamental value of this plant. The pin oak is actually one of the many reasons why we now have an entire field of work called "forensic botany"! Sometimes the pin oak is sold as lumber under the name "red oak," which as you know is a completely different species. If it stopped there, then I wouldn't really see a problem. But in reality the wood of the pin oak is much weaker compared to the red oak, has much less of a desirable colour and grain pattern, and has many, many more knots in the wood than a red oak would. Using this species in place of red oak could lead to disastrous consequences, depending on the intended purpose of the wood. The best use of pin oak wood is as firewood, or to make wooden pins for building construction (where the common name probably originates). It is also a medicinal plant, having been used historically in a tea used to treat intestinal and abdominal pain.

The oak of champions

Species name: Quercus rubra

Common name: Red oak, champion oak

Location: Ontario

The red oak, who's "official" common name is actually the Northern Red Oak, is native to North America, specifically the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. It is a popular ornamental and lumber tree worldwide, and has been spread across Europe and Asia. It's also the state tree of New Jersey.

The pictures I selected to showcase the red oak aren't exactly your typical tree pictures. We had three oak trees growing in the front yard: one angled slightly over the neighbour's driveway (they never park there anyway), one angled slightly over our driveway (it's just a car!), and one angled slightly over the house (...it's just a house?). Since the one angled slightly over the house swayed more than just a little in the wind, it was decided that it would probably be best to cut it down. The top picture is what's left of "Curly" from our Three Stooges trees. Upon closer inspection (middle picture), the stump actually shows some pretty cool things about red oak trees! Even using a regular camera lens, you can actually see some of the cells that make up oak wood since they're so large. These cells are present in all trees, just larger in some than others, and are called vessels. Along with tracheids, they are the two types of cells that conduct water up the tree from the roots to the leaves. What most people don't know is that the only part of the tracheid and vessel system is still useful in a tree, and that's what's on the very outside of the tree. Trees actually grow by adding a new layer of wood to the outside of the tree, pushing the bark further outwards (which is why bark cracks and has ridges in it!). So that "old wive's tale" that you shouldn't carve your name into a tree because it might die? It's true! Injuring any part of the new growth of a tree leaves it open to infection even if there's still enough remaining wood for water transport.

Another neat thing that you can see from this tree stump is the ring pattern itself. Not all tree rings are created equal! In temperate areas, we always have trees with rings. Tree rings are created by the tree's generation of new tracheid cells. These tracheids are larger in the spring because there's lots of water and nutrients around, and smaller in the summer because of the lack of water. This makes a difference in density of the wood, creating what looks like stripes in the wood to our eyes but are actually just gradients of different sized cells. Red oaks are also what we call "ring porous," where all of the vessels are restricted to the spring wood, giving an even more distinct ringed appearance of the wood (which also gives a more pronounced grain when turned into furniture or flooring).

The last picture shows a phenomenon called "oak apple," which is the result of a parasitic wasp called the gall wasp laying eggs inside the plant tissue. This causes the plant to release wounding hormones at the site, which then causes tissue to be rebuilt. The gall wasp exploits this reaction by the larvae injecting these hormones continuously into the plant, causing the plant to make a bigger and bigger gall or apple. Once the larvae have matured, they bore a tunnel out of the gall, moult on the gall surface into the adult form, and fly away. In general, oak gall won't kill or otherwise harm the tree except in localized areas. If you're planning on growing a "show tree," the oak apples themselves are not very sightly. But if you do happen to have them, you should be thankful! Oak apples are one of the sources of a reddish-brown pigment used as ink ever since the Middle Ages, and they're actually the main source of ink for some of the oldest, most important texts of modern times. Now you know!