moimoi's Serene World of Plants

Nice! Those trees are wild! I love those photos.

One of my friends here in the desert grows jasmine. It is quite lovely.

I never realized that frankincense was essentially pre-fossilized amber. I'm assuming that the tree is not very cold hardy, but those would make awesome boulevard trees. The crappy soil conditions along our streets wouldn't even be a problem!

Now I'm sitting here trying to figure out if I want an erotic plant blog in my work browser history, and whether or not I can successfully claim it to be work related.

Thanks! It's fun doing the research 

Now the Denver Botanic Gardens has posted a video of her sketching the corpse flower, and more of her sketches.

Her website is linked in my signature, but it features more birds than plants.

Foul Plants

Last night, as I pulled into my garage, I spotted a skunk rummaging around the trash cans in the alley. A harbinger of warmer weather? Sure, but also a signal that we're approaching the Ides of March, a bit of unpleasantness before we spring ahead. Having covered sweet-scented plants last time, we turn this week to the foul. Though the aforementioned titan arum is widely considered the worst-smelling plant on earth, here are a few other contenders:

Exhibit A: Symplocarpus foetidus (Eastern skunk cabbage)

Origin: wetlands of Eastern North America - native from Nova Scotia/southern Quebec to North Carolina and Tennessee.

Features: Eastern skunk cabbage has large leaves, over 1' long and 1' wide. Only the early spring flowers are visible above the mud. The flowers are produced on a 2-5" long spadix contained within a 4-6" spathe (the phallic-looking thing in the center), tall and mottled purple in colour. The rhizome is often 1' thick.

Fun Facts: 

• Eastern skunk cabbage is notable for its ability to generate temperatures of up to 15–35 °C (27–63 °F) above air temperature by cyanide resistant cellular respiration in order to melt its way through frozen ground, placing it among a small group of plants exhibiting thermogenesis. The higher internal temperature not only allows the flower to come up through snow-covered ground, but it may also help to attract pollinators by mimicking the heat released by a fresh corpse.
  
• Eastern skunk cabbage has roots which contract after growing into the earth. This pulls the stem of the plant deeper into the mud, so that the plant in effect grows downward, not upward. Each year, the plant grows deeper into the earth, so that older plants are practically impossible to dig up.
  
• In the 19th century the U.S. Pharmacopoeia listed eastern skunk cabbage as the drug "dracontium". It was used in the treatment of respiratory diseases, nervous disorders, rheumatism, and dropsy. Skunk cabbage was used extensively as a medicinal plant, seasoning, and magical talisman by various tribes of Native Americans.
  

Another great post! The vagina dentata plant made me laugh out loud, as did that last pic with the little girl. How are these real plants?? Life on Earth is amazing and I'm glad I'm here to see it.

I would posit that plants in general are sexy (in that they reproduce sexually and therefore have biomarkers of 'sexiness'). They appeal to all five senses (if you count wind rustling through the trees) and it's easy to develop certain fetishistic attachment to them. Like some people are crazy about roses. Or organic veggies. I admit, I'm kind of obsessed with my hydrangea bush that can bloom pink, purple, and blue at the same time by manipulating the soil PH. 

Before moving on from the topic of plant scent, here's a nice abstract of a recent article in Lucky Peach (for those of you with online access):

Smells like green spirit, Chemical warfare, distress signals, death, and deliciousness: Plants smells we shouldn’t like, but do

The sense of smell is a critical component of taste in consuming food. Plants emit odors that humans take in as flavors and aromas. However, what most people perceive as sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami, plants on the other hand release these smells as defense mechanisms to protect themselves. Without a sense of smell, the human ability to experience flavor would be muted and bland. A variety of volatile compounds attribute to the perceived smells in foods.

These lightweight compounds diffuse through the air and are distinguished by humans and other organisms as messages. Volatiles found in plants can be used for advantageous purposes to alert other plants of danger. The smell commonly found in chopped salads contain molecules called green-leaf volatiles that communicate with other nearby plants that cells are needed to heal and act as a distress call. In root plants like wasabi and horseradish, chemical aroma compounds are not necessarily created in the plant itself but are emitted when the plant is damaged. Enzymatic reactions create the volatiles from a storage of nonvolatile compounds. Another common aromatic compound commonly found in herbs and spice is a category called terpenoids which contains compounds that are used as insecticides, drought-protection, antibacterial components, and anti-grazing deterrents. Compounds found in the terpene family include limonene, citral, camphor, terpenoid 1,8-cineole, and thujone which in high concentration can cause excitation, convulsions, and brain damage but in plants, protect them from the risk of droughts.

These highly aromatic volatile compounds are often overlooked but play a critical role not only in food but also in nature and in the agriculture industry. A review of these compounds and their associated compounds remind the public that these aromas are more than just smells but a significant contributor to flavor complexity and plant productivity.

Johnson A. 2015. Smells like green spirit, Chemical warfare, distress signals, death, and deliciousness: Plants smells we shouldn’t like, but do. Lucky Peach. 15: 6-8.

Are cherry blossoms as plentiful in Japan as I imagine?  I appreciate the literary references.  I actually have a list of of the plants Lawrence mentions in his novels and poetry.

I didn't know about Hanami; that's lovely.  I think I'd like Japan generally.

songstarliner, I won't tell you how easy Morels are in Western Washington. My first go with my pal, his Dad, and me netted me a 1.5lb haul.

Living Fossils

From the ephemeral we turn to the unchanging and eternal*. There is no formal definition of a ‘living fossil’ – it’s not a scientific term per se – but many scientists have observed ancient species that: 1) have not gone extinct; 2) have not produced, or "radiated," many new species (i.e. low taxonomic diversity); and 3) have remained relatively unchanged over the course of millennia. These living fossils offer insight into plant, animal, and human evolution.

*if not for man-made and environmental threats

Exhibit A: Ginkgo biloba (Maidenhair Tree)

Origin: The sole species within its genus, Ginkgo is native to China and widely cultivated, but has no living relatives in other parts of the world. Fossilized leaf imprints of this tree have been found in sedimentary rocks of the Jurassic and Triassic Periods dating 135 to 210 million years ago — a time when dinosaurs still roamed the earth.

Features:
Ginkgo are large trees, normally reaching a height of 20–35 m (66–115 ft.), with some specimens in China over 50 m (160 ft). The tree has an angular crown and long, somewhat erratic branches, and is usually deep rooted and resistant to wind and snow damage. Young trees are often tall, slender, and sparsely branched; the crown becomes broader as the tree ages. During autumn, the leaves turn a bright yellow and fall, sometimes within a short space of time (one to 15 days). A combination of resistance to disease, insect-resistant wood and the ability to form aerial roots and sprouts makes ginkgo long-lived, with some specimens claimed to be more than 2,500 years old.

The unique, fan-shaped leaves and naked seeds of living Ginkgo biloba trees have changed very little in more than 200 million years. Since its seeds are not protected by an ovary wall, it can morphologically be considered a gymnosperm. The apricot-like ‘nuts’ produced by female ginkgo trees are not technically fruits, but are seeds that have a shell consisting of a soft and fleshy section and a hard section.

Fun Facts:

• The scientific name Ginkgo is the result of a spelling error that occurred three centuries ago. Japanese kanji typically have multiple pronunciations and the characters 銀杏 used for ginnan can also be pronounced gin-kyō. Engelbert Kaempfer, the first Westerner to investigate the species in 1690, wrote down this pronunciation in the notes that he later used for the Amoenitates Exoticae (1712) with the "awkward" spelling "ginkgo".
  
• Ginkgo nuts are used in congee, and are often served at special occasions such as weddings and the Chinese New Year (as part of the vegetarian dish called Buddha's Delight). In Chinese culture, they are believed to have health benefits or aphrodisiac qualities, but scientific testing has produced mixed results. Furthermore, Ginkgo extract or seeds can be toxic or produce allergic reactions if handled improperly.  
  
• Extreme examples of the ginkgo's tenacity may be seen in Hiroshima, Japan, where six trees growing between 1–2 km from the 1945 atom bomb explosion were among the few living things in the area to survive the blast. Although almost all other plants (and animals) in the area were killed, the ginkgos, though charred, survived and were soon healthy again. The six trees are still alive; they are marked with signs at Housenbou temple (planted in 1850), Shukkei-en (planted about 1740), Jōsei-ji (planted 1900), at the former site of Senda Elementary School near Miyukibashi, at Myōjōin temple, and an Edo-period cutting at Anraku-ji temple.
  

Exhibit B: Araucaria araucana (Monkey Puzzle Tree or Chilean Pine)

Origin: Native to central and southern Chile and western Argentina, it is the national tree of Chile. The recently found 'Wollemi pine', Wollemia, though discovered in south-east Australia, is possibly a relative. Their common ancestry dates to a time when Australia, Antarctica, and South America were linked by land as part of the supercontinent known as Gondwana.

Features: It’s an evergreen tree growing to 1-1.5 m (3–5 ft) in diameter and 30–40 m (100–130 ft) in height. The leaves are thick, tough, and scale-like, and triangular with sharp edges and tips. The leaves persist for 10–15 years or more, covering most of the tree except for the older branches. The tree is usually dioecious, with the male and female cones on separate trees, though occasional individuals bear cones of both sexes. The cones disintegrate at maturity to release the 3–4 cm (1.2–1.6 in) long nut-like seeds.

Fun Facts:

• The origin of the popular English language name 'monkey puzzle' derives from its early cultivation in Britain in about 1850, when the species was still very rare in gardens and not widely known. Sir William Molesworth, the proud owner of a young specimen at Pencarrow Garden in Cornwall was showing it to a group of friends, when one of them, the noted barrister and Benthamist Charles Austin, remarked, "It would puzzle a monkey to climb that". As the species had no existing popular name, first 'monkey puzzler', then 'monkey puzzle' stuck.
  
• Its piñones, or seeds, are edible, similar to large pine nuts, and are harvested by indigenous peoples in Argentina and Chile, The tree has some potential to be a food crop in other areas in the future, thriving in climates with cool oceanic summers, e.g., western Scotland, where other nut crops do not grow well. A group of six female trees with one male for pollination could yield several thousand seeds per year, and since the cones drop, harvesting is easy. The tree, however, does not yield seeds until it is around 30 to 40 years old, which discourages investment in planting orchards. Once established, trees can live possibly as long as 1,000 years.
  
• The trees feature in the film, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), in the novel Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer, and in both of Harper Lee’s novels, To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman. The pseudonym "Araucaria" was used by a British crossword compiler for The Guardian newspaper, the Reverend John Galbraith Graham MBE (1921–2013), who also provided cryptic crosswords under the pseudonym Cinephile—an anagram of "Chile Pine" the tree's alternative name—in the Financial Times and puzzles for other publications.
  
  

Exhibit C: Division Bryophyta (Moss)

Origin: The fossil record of moss is sparse, due to their soft-walled and fragile nature, but unambiguous moss fossils have been recovered from as early as the Permian period (298.9 to 252.17 million years ago) in Antarctica and Russia, and a case has been put forward for mosses during the Carboniferous period (358.9–298.9 million years ago). Mosses appear to evolve 2–3 times slower than ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms.
 Recent research show that ancient moss could explain why the ice ages occurred. When the ancestors of today's moss started to spread on land 470 million years ago, they absorbed CO2 from the atmosphere and extracted minerals by secreting organic acids that dissolved the rocks they were growing on. These chemically altered rocks in turn reacted with the atmospheric CO2 and formed new carbonate rocks in the ocean through the weathering of calcium and magnesium ions from silicate rocks. The weathered rocks also released a lot of phosphorus and iron which ended up in the oceans, where it caused massive algal blooms, resulting in organic carbon burial, extracting more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Small organisms feeding on the nutrients created large areas without oxygen, which caused a mass extinction of marine species, while the levels of CO2 dropped all over the world, allowing the formation of ice caps on the poles.

Features: Mosses are small flowerless plants that typically grow in dense green clumps or mats, often in damp or shady locations. The individual plants are usually composed of simple, one-cell thick leaves, attached to a stem that may be branched or unbranched and has only a limited role in conducting water and nutrients. Although some species have vascular tissue this is generally poorly developed and structurally different from similar tissue found in other plants. They do not have seeds and after fertilization develop sporophytes (unbranched stalks topped with single capsules containing spores).

Fun Facts:

• Pre-industrial societies made myriad use of the mosses growing in their areas: Laplanders and other circumpolar people in North America used mosses for bedding, insulation in boots and mittens, food storage, wound dressing, diapers, and maxi pads. In rural the UK, Fontinalis antipyretica was traditionally used to extinguish fires as it could be found in substantial quantities in slow-moving rivers and the moss retained large volumes of water which helped extinguish the flames. This historical use is reflected in its specific Latin/Greek name, the approximate meaning of which is "against fire".
  
• Moss is often considered a weed in grass lawns, but is deliberately encouraged to grow under aesthetic principles exemplified by Japanese gardening. In old temple gardens, moss can carpet a forest scene. Moss is thought to add a sense of calm, age, and stillness to a garden scene. A passing fad for moss-collecting in the late 19th century led to the establishment of mosseries in many British and American gardens. The mossery is typically constructed out of slatted wood, with a flat roof, open to the north side (maintaining shade). Samples of moss were installed in the cracks between wood slats. The whole mossery would then be regularly moistened to maintain growth.
  
• Mosses are sometimes used in green roofs. Advantages of mosses over higher plants in green roofs include reduced weight loads, increased water absorption, no fertilizer requirements, and high drought tolerance. Since mosses do not have true roots, they require less planting medium than higher plants with extensive root systems. With proper species selection for the local climate, mosses in green roofs require no irrigation once established and are low maintenance.
  
• Decaying moss in the genus Sphagnum is also the major component of peat, which is "mined" for use as a fuel, as a horticultural soil additive, and in smoking malt in the production of Scotch whisky. The practice of harvesting peat moss should not be confused with the harvesting of moss peat. Peat moss can be harvested on a sustainable basis and managed so that regrowth is allowed, whereas the harvesting of moss peat is generally considered to cause significant environmental damage as the peat is stripped with little or no chance of recovery
• In World War I, Sphagnum mosses were used as first-aid dressings on soldiers' wounds, as these mosses were said to absorb liquids three times faster than cotton, retain liquids better, and are cooler, softer, and less irritating. It was also claimed that they had mild antibacterial properties. 
  
  

Up Next: Forum Faves & Requests, including Triffids, Lobelia dunbarii, Gentiana, Hydrangea, and Himalayan Blue Poppy...