Ginkgo

Ginkgo is also known as the Maidenhair Tree after Adiantum. It is a unique species of tree with no close living relatives. The ginkgo is classified in its own division, the Ginkgophyta, comprising the single class Ginkgoopsida, order Ginkgoales, family Ginkgoaceae, genus Ginkgo, and is the only extant species within this group. It is one of the best-known examples of a living fossil, because Ginkgoales are not known from the fossil record after the Pliocene Epoch.

For centuries it was thought to be extinct in the wild but is now known to grow in at least two small areas in Zhejiang province in Eastern China, in the Tian Mu Shan Reserve. However, recent studies indicate high genetic uniformity among ginkgo trees from these areas, arguing against a natural origin of these populations. Therefore, it has been suggested that the ginkgo trees in these areas appear to have been planted and preserved by Chinese monks over a period of about 1000 years. Whether native ginkgo populations still exist has not been demonstrated unequivocally and is therefore uncertain.

The relationship of Ginkgo to other plant groups remains uncertain. It has been placed loosely in the divisions Spermatophyta and Pinophyta but no consensus has been reached. Since Ginkgo seeds are not protected by an ovary wall, it can morphologically be considered a gymnosperm. The apricot-like structures produced by female ginkgo trees are technically not fruits but are seeds having a shell that consists of a soft and fleshy section (the sarcotesta) and a hard section (the sclerotesta).

Cuckoo Flower

The Cuckoo Flower (Cardamine pratensis) is a small mustard plant with showy pink flowers. It gets its name because the flower appears in the spring, about the time the Cuckoo bird starts to sing. It is native to Europe and Western Asia and has been introduced into North America where it can be found in most of Canada and the northern states. Oddly, while it has been naturalized in the US and Canada, the plant is under threat in European countries like Germany.

Cuckoo flower, like other mustards, can grow in large numbers, covering fields. This makes it a beautiful addition to the countryside.

This plant is also the food plant for the orange tip butterfly (Anthocharis cardamines). Many gardeners who value the Lepidopterans have planted this flower to help attract them.

This mustard isn’t particularly known for it’s edibility, but it has been used as a substitute for watercress and is very edible.

Cuckoo Flower in Legend

According to certain European folklore, it was said that cuckoo flower was sacred to the fairies, and was thus unlucky to bring indoors. Because of this, they didn’t include the flower in May Day garlands.

Similar Species

Large Bittercress has purple anthers. Explosive fruits are also found in two small flowered species, making them a problem for gardeners. The annual Hairy Bittercress mostly has four stamen; Wavy Bittercress has six and is usually perennial.

Common Bistort

Common Bistort (Persicaria bistorta) is a small wildflower native to Europe. It grows on moist soil as a wildflower throughout the central regions of the continent. Because the flowers tend to be showy, the plant has also been cultivated as a garden herb.

Bistort as a Pudding

It turns out that Common Bistort was used in Northern England to make a bitter pudding during Lent. This pudding was made from the plant’s leaves, some oatmeal, egg, and a few other herbs. It is also the principle ingredient in dock pudding or Easter-Ledge Pudding. For those that fancy making this dish, these are the ingredients:

60g each of finely chopped bisort, nettle, and dandelion leaves
6 large blackurrant leaves, finely chopped
1 leek finely chopped (or about 12 ramson leaves)
120g oatmeal
100g whole barley
1 tsp salt
1 egg
butter or bacon fat to fry

A Plant by Many Names

Common Bistort goes by other names, depending on where you find it. It has been called Adderwort, Dragonwort, Easter giant, Easter ledge, Gentle dock, Great Bistort, Osterick Oysterloit, Passion dock, Pink pokers, Pudding grass and Water ledges, among others. Most of these names are in reference to the fact that the plant has been used to make the bitter tasting pudding mentioned earlier.

Coast Redwood

Redwood trees are not only the largest plants in the world, they are the tallest trees and the tallest living organisms found on Earth! They can grow as high as 370 feet tall, and they’re found in the temperate coastal rain forests of Northern California and Oregon.

How old are Redwoods?

Redwood trees are some of the oldest living trees in the world. Some trees can live as long as 3000 years. (The oldest living trees in the world are the Bristlecone pine, and there are trees living today in the United Stated that are over 6000 years old!)

Redwood trees have been around for longer than that though. Fossil records show that ancient forests of Redwood trees have been living throughout most of North America for the last 100 million years. At that time Redwoods were growing alongside the dinosaurs. Since the climate has changed much over the last 100 million years, today’s redwood forests are restricted to the pacific coast of northern California and Southern Oregon where the climate is moist, fairly cool, and the winters are mild.

The name Redwood and Sequoia

The Latin name of the Coast Redwood is Sequoia sempervirens. Sempervirens means “Forever green” or “living forever.” Sequoia sempervirens are cone-bearing gymnosperms and evergreens. Coast Redwoods are related to two other Redwood species: the Giant Sequoia, Sequoiadendron giganteum, which is found in the mid-elevations of the central Sierra Nevada mountains of California, and the rare Dawn Redwood, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, from China.

Coast Redwood trees are some of the fastest growing conifers in the world. As they grow, old needles, cones, and branches fall to the ground and make up the forest floor. As the duff decomposes, nutrients are recycled back into the environment. The duff is also a habitat for a wide variety of fungus and mushrooms. These organisms are essential for making the decomposition of duff possible and also provide many of the forest plants the nutrients they need to survive. Some common forest plants that live under the tall branches of the redwoods are ferns, oxalis, understory trees, like Cascara, Tanbark Oak, California Bay, Western Hemlock, Sitka Spruce, Douglas Fir, and shrub like huckleberry, Salal, Gooseberry, and Elderberry.

Christmasberry

Schinus terebinthifolius is a species of flowering plant in the cashew family, Anacardiaceae, that is native to subtropical and tropical South America (southeastern Brazil, northern Argentina and Paraguay). It is found in the following states of Brazil: Alagoas, Bahia, Espírito Santo, Mato Grosso do Sul, Minas Gerais, Pernambuco, Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Norte, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, São Paulo, and Sergipe. Common names include Brazilian Pepper, Aroeira, Florida Holly, Rose Pepper, and Christmasberry.

Chocolate Lily

Chocolate lilies have long green lanceolate leaves and chocolate brown petals. The stem is approximately 20 cm from the ground and rises from a bulb made up of small grains. Chocolate lilies do not smell like chocolate; they smell like carrion (dead animal). The name makes for excellent practical jokes! By smelling like carrion, they attract flies. When the flies come into investigate, they pick up pollen spores. When they move to the next flower, they will bring those pollen grains and help to pollinate it. The bulbs of this flower are edible and were called rice lilies by Inuit tribes.

Broad-leaved Paperbark Tree

A tree coated in paper

No, we don’t get paper from the paper bark tree, but the bark of this tree has been traditionally used in a similar fashion over ages. Melaleuca quinquenervia is one of about 200 species of “paper bark” trees in the genus Melaleuca. This particular tree is often called the Broad-leaved Paperbark Tree or the Paper Bark Tea Tree. While native to Australia, New Caledonia, and Papua New Guinea, it has become a serious invasive species in the Florida Everglades. It also occurs in California and Hawaii in great numbers.

Australian Pine

The Flowering “Australian Pine” Tree

Ironwood trees are often called Australian Pines, but they are not a pine at all. To a casual observer it might look like they have long needles that come off the branches of the tree, and small cones that form in clusters on the branch. However, instead of being a gymnosperm, this is a flowering plant. It is more closely related to lillies or green beans than it is to a pine tree.

Distribution

Ironwood trees are native to Australia and a few of the surrounding islands. They have been introduced to several places around the US and have been particularly invasive in Florida and Hawaii.

Ironwood as an invasive species

Ironwood trees were first introduced to Florida and Hawaii along beaches to stabilize the sand. In Hawaii they were also introduced to the hillsides to prevent soil erosion. The main problem is that ironwood trees can form monocultures and shade out native plants. The needles that fall have chemicals that leach out and essentially kill all other competitors. It’s a type of chemical warefare known as allelopathy.

Alligator Weed

An Invasive Biocontrol Plant

This plant has been documented in the Mississippi area. It is a fairly common emergent plant species in the South and can be found easily in drainage ditches and lake edges.

Info

Alligator weed is a good example of an invasive weed that has been successfully managed through biological control programs. Take these numbers for instance: there were 97,000 problem acres of alligator weed in the US in 1963; by 1981 there were less than 1,000 problem acres. Why did this happen? It was mostly the work of the following three biocontrol insects:

1. Alligator weed flea beetle (Agasicles hygrophila)
2. Alligator weed thrips (Amynothrips andersoni)
3. Alligator weed stem borer (Vogtia malloi) shown in the video

Textile Cone Snail

Conus textile is a species of cone snail known as the “cloth of gold.” It lives in the waters of the Indo-Pacific, Australia, the Indian Ocean from eastern Africa to Hawaii, and French Polynesia. Typical length of adults is about 9.0 cm (3.5 in).

It uses a conotoxin to kill its prey. The animal uses microscopic needles to inject the toxin into its prey. The proboscis, the tip which holds the harpoon-like, radular tooth, is capable of being extended to any part of its own shell. The living animal is a risk to any person handling it who has not taken proper care to protect exposed skin. Several human deaths have been attributed to this species.

The female lays several hundred eggs at a time, which hatch after about 16 or 17 days. After hatching, the larvae float around in the current for approximately 16 days. Afterward, they settle at the bottom of the ocean. By this point their length is about 1.5 mm (0.06 in).