Botany in a modified world - Is every plant worthy to know?

A Quaker philosophy that I try to hold near to me is that every person has an inner light.   Maybe a similar thought can be applied to every plant:  the idea that every plant (or every organism, regardless of taxonomic group) can tell a worthy story.

We live in a world of modified landscapes.  I recall one of my mentors telling me that there are no truly pristine place left on earth.  All habitats are modified.  Another memorable experience was walking through the "old growth" portion of Cook Forest with a naturalist visiting from Germany who kept commenting that the forest was over-browsed by deer, and questioned how the forest could be accurately referred to as "old growth".  Even the least disturbed places on earth have been modified by humans; habitats aren't what they were before there were 7 billion people on earth.  Global climate change will touch every "pristine" place.

I wandered through a local nursery last week, looking at the "native" trees - catalpa, oaks, and even witch hazel.  Although these trees represent native species, the ones at the nursery were still varieties that had been chosen by humans interested in particular traits.  I suspect these garden center/nursery trees harbor different genes from a population genetic standpoint than the original wild populations of the same species 300 years ago.  If I buy one of those trees (which I was thinking of doing) will I be continuing the trend of diluting the locally-adapted gene pools?

I find it overwhelming.  The cup seems more than half empty when my mind tries to grasp the extent that humans have modified the world, and especially when I glimpse of my own role in the process.  It's like catching a view of yourself in the back of a spoon- distorted and ugly; my overuse of resources, my failure to curb and set greater limits on my children's consumer temptations, and so on and so on.

Looking at things from the half-full standpoint is so important.  In a previous post I commented about learning from unredeeming places.  I think I am an unredeeming person at times, but I'm going to go with the belief that all plants and all people, even those most modified & even mass produced by humans, like corn, are still fascinating, and worthy of study, if for no other reason than the love of learning / the joy of gaining basic, unapplied knowledge.

There are two genera of plants that I want to share today.  Each genus has both a native and a horticultural relative that occur in my area.  In both cases, I learned the horticultural variety before I ever discovered the native species, and I think I appreciated the native ones even more because I was already familiar with a close relative.

Impatiens

Walmart sells an abundance of these flowers. They might be hybrids or just highly bred individual species - I really don't know.  They are so commercialized that it is easy to look down one's nose at their artificial colors and their universal commonness.  And yes, they are even a bit invasive; I recall seeing the garden varieties that had snuck into the rainforest in Costa Rica while I was part of an OTS class, but they are interesting plants even despite being so modified by humans.  I especially love to turn the flowers over - the garden varieties often have spectacularly long nectar spurs.

There are two native species in my neck of the woods. Superficially and from a distance, the garden Impatiens look quite different from the native ones, but close up and with the eye of a botanist, some similarities stand out - especially the fantastic nectar spurs.

Impatiens pallida

Impatiens capensis

Spiraea

Most of the year the horticultural varieties (which seem to me to be mostly hedge bushes) in the Spiraea genus are nondescript - almost invisible in their plain background green color and short shrubby stature. Here's a picture of a Spiraea bush blooming near my house. The flowering bush pictured below is probably native to Asia and really doesn't "belong" in Pennsylvania.

Yesterday we kayaked at a state park in Pennsylvania, and lo and behold I was introduced to a native member of this genus. This pretty native Spiraea grows in wet areas.

Spiraea tomentosa

If I were a plant, I fear I would probably be a modified garden variety, mass-produced and similar to so many other plants found in the aisles of Walmart garden center - I am a native want-to-be but I have given in too much to the seduction of modern technology and mass culture. Furthermore, my genes are most certainly transplanted to Pennsylvania through a long history of human colonization.

Maybe the cup isn't quite so empty though, maybe even modified people, modified landscapes and modified plants have a story to tell.  And while it is admittedly a stretch, I think that knowing the modified plants might help us appreciate the native ones even more.  I suppose you could also argue for the potential for restoration of these modified places and things.

Maybe I am justifying and thinking way way too much & maybe I should just simply enjoy every plant and every person without a lot of deep thought!!

Actaea racemosa and racemes

I joined my daughter on a one-day trip to a Girl Scout camp.  While the girls were climbing the rock wall, I was looking for wildflowers in the lovely forest there.  We saw many large flowering Actaea racemosa whose common name is Black Cohosh and Black Snakeroot.  This plant has a long (6 inches or more) raceme of white flowers.  The leaves are divided (compound) and most of the leaves arise from the base of the plant, but some are alternate along the stem.  The mass of multiple stamens spewing out of each flower give you a clue to the plant family - a basil Eudicot, Rununculaceae.

This plant is in the same genus as White Baneberry (Doll's Eye) which is a distinctive poisonous plant of Pennsylvania.

As I tried to key out this plant - I had to distinguish between racemes and spikes.  In a raceme, each flower has a stem or stalk.  In a spike, the flowers are stalkless. For more information visit this wikipedia page:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spike_(botany)

Here are some pictures of this interesting plant!

Basal Eudicots

Basal Eudicots

The phrase "Basal Eudicots" may be outdated & a paraphyletic concept but it seems to help me mentally organize plants.   

Having lots of stamens is probably an ancestral characteristic in the angiosperms.  (Wind pollination is probably derived!)

Characteristics:  Many stamens, actinomorphic (radially symmetrical) flower, generalized pollination where many insects could pollinate as they roam around the flower, many separate carpels in individual flowers (true in the Caltha but not in the Podophyllum)

Ranunculales is one of the plant orders that is considered a Basal Eudicot & you can see the loads of stamens on these pretty flowers.  They are also nice and symmetrical, and you can even see the multiple carpels on the top picture.

Culley, T. M., S. G. Weller, and A. K. Sakai. 2002. The evolution of wind pollination in angiosperms. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 17:361-369

Friedman, J., & Barrett, S. C. 2009. Wind of change: new insights on the ecology and evolution of pollination and mating in wind-pollinated plants. Annals of Botany, 103(9), 1515-1527.

Caltha palustris

Podophyllum peltatum

Ostrya virginiana and Carpinus caroliniana

Hop Hornbeam, Ostrya virginiana

American Hornbeam, Carpinus caroliniana

Carpinus caroliniana

Common names of plants can cause confusion.  There are at least two trees in the eastern United States that are called "hornbeams" - these two tree species are also both sometimes referred to as "ironwood".  These two tree species are closely related (Betulaceae) and tend to be small to medium sized trees with very similar toothed simple leaves, and wood that is dense and hard.  My dog walk route takes me by both species, and the pictures above were all taken this summer (the two bottom picture I took this week).  On top is the "hop hornbeam" or Ostrya virginiana named because the fruit looks a bit like a completely unrelated species of herbaceous plants, called "hops" that are fermented to make beer. Ostrya virginiana has bark that is flaky and peels.  The bottom two pictures show Carpinus caroliniana which has very smooth bark and whose fruits are a little less compact (bottom left picture).  I like the name "musclewood" or "blue beech" for Carpinus caroliniana better than the common name "American hornbeam" because it tells a little bit about the bark.

I enjoy these two species even if their names are confusing. Not only are they lovely native trees that are often overlooked, but they were the plants that first gave me an image of what beer hops might look like.  Beer hops are Humulus lupulus, and they belong in the Cannabaceae.

Welcome to Phloem Here To There

Today's Plant Trivia:  mangos and poison ivy belong to the same plant family.
I am a biology teacher and a mom, and this is my first post on a blog of my own.  My daughter recently explained to me that mangos are in the same plant family as poison ivy (Anacardiaceae).  How did she learn this fact?  She learned it playing Fruit Ninja on her iPod.  I waffle about modern technology; how should I feel about my daughter and me wasting attention, time, and energy on mindless computer activities like Fruit Ninja?   In a world of so many detrimental temptations, I guess I will still try to value every opportunity to learn, even if that opportunity comes from time wasted with a cartoon fruit sensei.  This blog is one of those opportunities to learn: a place for me to post my daily musings on plants.  I would like to learn more about the plants that I see on my daily dog walk. I would also like to learn more about plant families and their characteristics.  Obviously the best way to learn about the plants around me would be to stop typing and step outside, but I think that we are all sometimes stuck in place for real or imagined reasons, and just like the Fruit Ninja game and my daughter, maybe we should grab every opportunity to learn, even if the opportunity arises from an unredeeming place.   Please feel free to post comments and to join me in this virtual adventure to learn more about plants.