The last of the palms: Otto von Bismarck's tree

Species name: Bismarckia nobilis

Common name: Bismarck palm

Location: Dominican Republic

Well, we have finally come to the end of my images from Dominican Republic, and this is my last plant species to profile from my lovely vacation in February (I can't believe these pictures have lasted me until May! I need to go on vacation more often...). I figured since it's the last one, I should probably go out with a bang...

The Bismarck palm is native to, like almost all palm species, Madagascar and is declining in numbers there (like many, if not most, of their endemic plant species). The fertile land is being cleared and converted to agriculture, with a few select trees being saved to represent landmark "specimen trees" throughout the landscape. Bismarck palms can be incredibly long-lived, have enormous canopies if given enough space, and provide great shade and habitat for other species. By leaving even just a few Bismarck palms, Madagascar is potentially saving tens of species who use these trees as refuge. Unfortunately, agricultural crops are worth far more money to the economy of Madagascar, and these trees likely don't stand a chance of sticking around for long. It's a shame; a country that was once one of the most biodiverse locations in the world is now becoming a barren agricultural landscape. I know I've poo-poo'd on Madagascar in a few blog posts, but the more people know about their biodiversity crisis the more that can be done about it. World economies really need to start putting pressure on countries that house the most diversity to stop cutting down forests because the species themselves have some sort of economic value. It's a slippery slope once you put a price on diversity, but it's true what they say in the business and commerce world: Money talks. Fortunately for the worldwide population of Bismarck palms, they are planted in huge numbers around the world as ornamental species (in the tropics and sub-tropics; they can actually survive temperatures as low as -6 degrees Celsius for short amounts of time). There are two main varieties of this tree: the green kind that's pictured above, and a variety that is almost blue because of a very thick layer of wax that is deposited on the outside of all of the leaves (which you might guess would be much more tolerant of drought and cold snaps; you would be correct with that assumption).

Bismarck palms are some of the most easily recognizable palm trees in the entire world...once you know what you're looking for. They have characteristic fan-shaped fronds with a very thick petiole connecting the leaves to the trunk of the tree. These petioles, as you can see from the image with the pink arrow, are curved presumably to allow the fronds to sway from side to side but prevent the snapping of the fronds if shaken up and down (since we all remember from elementary school that an arch is much stronger than a straight line...right?). This also provides a really unique habitat for animals, other plant species, fungi, and even bacteria since all of the rain that the fronds catch is funnelled down the petiole towards the trunk of the tree. Because the bases of these petioles are so warm and moist, they usually rot right off the tree before the leaf has a chance of dying, especially in very warm, wet areas. The inflorescences produced are also quite characteristic, and look a bit like marine ropes emerging from the base of a leaf. These mature into flowers (some male flowers are pictured in the 8th image; you can tell because they are full of stamens and very little of anything else), which either produce pollen or ovules. These trees, like the pacaya palm (which you can read all about HERE), are dioecious meaning one plant either produces male or female flowers but never both. The trees with the female flowers end up producing the fruit, which starts off green when immature and ripens to be yellow or brown (you can see the green fruit in the bottom image). The fruit are not reported to be edible by humans, although I'm sure someone somewhere has tried them. These are the preferred fruit of some birds and other animal species, so these trees do play an integral role in the food webs of the ecosystems they're living in.

I keep mentioning that these trees are integral parts of their ecosystems, so I think it's about time to show you what I mean. In the two pictures below (the same image, the first one is unaltered and the second one has a bunch of boxes around interesting features) you can see symbiotic plants and animals all living in the same tree:

The green and yellow boxes show the fruit of the Bismarck tree: the green box shows the immature green fruit and the yellow box shows the more mature yellow and brown fruit. Inside the pink box are three different species of plants, the heart-shaped leaf vine, the oval-shaped weedy plant, and the roundish-shaped weedy plant. What these species of plants are I have no idea; they were about 15 meters in the air and I wasn't about to climb the tree to find out! There are also a whole lot of sticks at the top of the tree, which is weird (in the purple box). In fact, I'm guessing that's the way those three plant species managed to make it up into the top of that lone tree; there are no trailing stems or roots to suggest that they "climbed" up there. In the orange box we have a lone bird, who seems to just be hanging out on an old petiole of a leaf. But is he really?

Well, Mr. Bird there isn't actually just hanging out on a petiole by chance; he's protecting his nest. Yes, that massive thicket of twigs was more than likely made by that ridiculously tiny bird (you probably are aware of the species; we call them "that brown bird that makes all the noise at 5 am during the spring" and this common name probably reflects about 500 species of bird). In fact, we stood under the tree for a while and watched more than one of these little brown birds fly to and from the nest; there's likely a whole family of them living up there. In hindsight, it was probably pretty stupid standing under the tree staring up at them (not that I'm afraid of a tiny brown bird or anything): if you're really observant you'll see white patches all over the underside of the palm fronds. Those aren't patches of fungi. Those are patches of "bird paint."

Here's another example of plant species that exploit this tree. Again, I have no idea what species this is since they're just tiny seedlings, but these are growing from seeds that would have been blown down those arc-shaped petioles and landed at the base of the leaf where there is likely an accumulation of organic material that is damp and warm: perfect conditions for plants (amongst other things) to germinate. These plants likely won't last long being squished into a petiole like that, but depending on what species they are they might be able to complete their entire life cycle without ever leaving the protection of their host plant. If those are species that are perennials or require much more space to grow, they'll likely die before producing anything substantial.

And, like I promised in my first blog post about pictures of plants I took while in the Dominican Republic, lizards also call this tree home. These pictures represent what is likely two different species of anole lizard (Anolis spp.) that are in all likelihood native to Dominican. If you think about it, these trees are absolutely perfect habitat for lizards to hide from predators in the petiole hollows, build nests at the bases of petioles, and jump from leaf to leaf to catch bugs to eat. They were pretty curious as to what I was doing holding a camera so close to their home; I guess I did neglect to ask them permission to photograph their treehouse. Next time I'll make sure to bring "lizard waivers" with me!

I hope you've enjoyed the rather long series about "Plants in the Dominican Republic" over the last few months! 

Shhh. Don't wake the morels!

Species name: Morchella angusticeps

Common name: black morel

Location: top secret!

Now, normally I don't have the species status diagrams on blog posts when I blog about mushrooms, because it's so difficult to determine if a species is native to a specific location. The black morel is one of the exceptions, thanks to a paper published in late 2012. The authors looked at the distribution of the 13 known species of morels and sequenced their DNA to see how species are distributed around the world. What they found was shocking for a few reasons. First, there actually aren't 13 species of morel, there are 65. Just a few that we didn't know about! And second, the distribution of different species of morel is very restricted and always predictable. In eastern North America, black morels are always Morchella angusticeps, but up until 2012 we would call them Morchella elata. Turns out Morchella elata is only found in cool-temperate Europe and nowhere else.

The habitat of morels is very similar amongst all species; they are known root associates of decaying roots of living trees. Usually when the tree is cut down the morel species can still exist for a few years but quickly decline in numbers of fruiting bodies (or mushrooms) produced until none are left. The yellow morel is often associated with trees of the rose family, especially apple trees. Don't expect to go to an apple orchard to go morel hunting! The catch is that these apple trees must be left alone for years in an abandoned field in order for morels to fruit. There is definitely something to the idea that they thrive in undisturbed areas! The black morel fruits under hardwood trees. There is another species of black morel in eastern North America that is found almost exclusively in coniferous forests, but now we're finding that this species only occurs north of 44 degrees of latitude! This begs the question: what is the species found in pine reforestation areas south of 44 degrees? Is it the same species as the morel fruiting under hardwoods? For the distributions of each species to be so narrow, I find it hard to believe they would also be habitat generalists. Usually when a species occupies a narrow range they also have adapted to a very specific niche within their range (which is especially true in the fungi).

It's not often that I withhold the location of my finds, but if I published where I found these morels I just might be lynched by the mushroom community! :) It is a general rule that one NEVER divulges the location to morel patches since they are so rare. Morels are a prized edible group of mushrooms, selling for up to $50 per 100g of dried mushrooms in some areas. Wouldn't you want to keep that all to yourself?! If you want morels you're going to have to find your own secret hunting grounds.

Lupine: the state flower of Texas

Species name: Lupinus sp.

Common name: Lupin, lupine

Location: Nova Scotia (second photo from Wikipedia showing the flowers of various ornamental species)

The lupine (or lupin, as this plant is referred to outside of North America) is native to a wide variety of locations from all continents. Now, various species can be found worldwide and only a few can be distinguished by leaf shape and leaf characteristics alone (this isn't one of them--hence "Lupinus sp."). Lupines are part of the bean family, and have characteristic bean flowers and also share the most sought-after characteristics of beans as agricultural crops: they have high concentrations of protein and oil in their seeds, and have symbiotic bacteria in their roots that fix nitrogen. This biologically-available nitrogen is then released to the plant in return for sugars and oxygen, where it can be used by the plant in photosynthesis to make more sugar (and in respiration to make energy). For this reason, lupines are very popular in some agricultural systems to be planted alongside crops that require large amounts of nitrogen fertilizers like corn and wheat. These types of plants are referred to as "green manure". There are about 280 species in the genus Lupinus, and the Texas Bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis) is the state flower of Texas.


Certain species of lupine can be eaten, but others are quite toxic. If you don't know what species is growing in your back yard, it is best not to try to consume it. Mediterranean dishes are ones that are most likely to contain lupine seeds: in Portugal and Spain they are consumed dry-roasted like peanuts with beer, in Lebanon they are served as a pre-dinner snack and called "Termos", in the Andes (OK, so not part of the Mediterranean) they are called "tarwi" and eaten like any other bean, in Germany they are often ground and used as a meat substitute. The "bitter" varieties of lupine have high concentrations of toxic alkaloids in their seeds which can cause a temporary paralysis in the lower limbs, muscle decay or atrophy of the buttocks (which can be permanent), and cell death in motor neurons (which would lead to permanent paralysis).


Like most plants that have very broad geographical ranges, there are ornamental species of lupine that have been introduced to North America over the years (accidental or on purpose) that have escaped and have become invasive. There are certain areas in the southern USA that are completely covered by lupines in roadside ditches and sometimes even growing up in the front lawn. While the flowers are incredibly attractive, if they're growing where you don't want them it's definitely not ideal. 


One last special characteristic to note about these plants is that they are an important food crop for the larvae (i.e. caterpillars) of some butterfly species, and the flowers can serve as important nectar sources for many pollinating insects (including some butterflies). If you are going to create a butterfly garden, adding lupines would be a great idea; just make sure you're planting native species that are food sources for the native butterflies that will be visiting your garden or you might be disappointed in the results!