7/4/14
It’s Friday at last! Happy Fourth of July everybody back in
‘Murica! While all of you are lighting fireworks and day drinking, I am walking
the steep slopes of the garden in freezing rain to collect flower specimens for
the garden’s specimen stand and kiosk! But seriously. Three hours of power
walking the garden with Horticulturist Alice Notten to learn the ropes for our
Friday activities. Walking with Alice was like walking with a blitz of plant
knowledge. Alice is in charge of the display stands and informational signage.
She knew every plant we walked by and could probably tell you an interesting
fact about all of them. For instance, Buchus are a range of scented shrubs that
are a part of the fynbos. Mostly represented by the Agathosma genera and if you chew the leaves in your mouth, it
secretes a mucus texture. It has many other uses as well. By the end of our
walk, we had three big bags of flowers ready to be placed on display.
First we went to the specimen stand. This wooden stand is
located outside the front gate and presents the cream of the crop flowers we
collected, including the plant of the week (chosen by Alice). This week’s plant
was Leucadendron tinctum. The 18
plants presented became our ID list for the first of many weekly plant tests.
This week’s plants are:
·
Proteaceae Family
o
Protea longifolia hybrid ‘Satin Pink’
o
Protea eximia
o
Leucospermum praecox
o
Leucospermum catherinae
o
Leucospermum reflexum var. luteum
o
Leucadendron tinctum
o
Leucadendron laureolum
o
Leucodendron salignum
o
Serrura rosea
·
Ericaceae Family
o
Erica hirtiflora
o
Erica abietina subsp constantiana
o
Erica coccinae
·
Rutaceae Family
o
Agathosma crenulata
o
Acmadenia mundiana
·
Restionaceae Family
o
Thamnochortus bachmannii
o
Restio multiflorus
·
Strelitziaceae Family
o
Strelitzia reginae ‘Mandela’s Gold’
·
Iridaceae Family
o
Chasmanthe aethiopica
My two favorite are probably the Serruria rosea and
Leucospermum catherinae. The two most intriguing flowers.
One of the glorious benefits of ID tests is it forces you to
learn more than just specie specific traits and opens the door for new plants.
The big lesson for me this week was identifying the difference between proteas,
leucodendrons, and leucospermums. Proteas have upright showy bracts with form a
cone-shape, but open up to reveal the feathery inners of reproductive organs.
Leucodendrons have cones. That’s about it. They do have color in the bracts
which open up to reveal the cone, but the structure is much more open, less
showy, and lacks that unique soft feather effect. Leucospermums are the
pincushions. Instead of bracts and notable petals, you see the ball of stamen
protruding from the cone structure. Very showy compared to the other two. Below
are clear examples of the three in the order: Protea, Leucadendron, Leucospermum.
After we finish the specimen stand, the rest of the
specimens go to the display kiosk. This is a glass encasement full of 40+
specimens in vases. For this stand, we use fresh cut flowers as well as some
from the previous week that can survive in water for another week. A great deal
of thought is put into the presentation of the two stands. By the time we
finished collecting and creating flower art, it was 1:00PM. Five and a half
full hours of flower detail work. Week 2’s list will be on the display kiosk.
Here are the plants I will be learning this week (cause I'm a week late on this post):
·
Proteaceae Family:
o
Protea susannae
o
Protea mundii
o
Protea longifolia hybrid ‘Satin Pink’
o
Protea magnifica hybrid
o
Leucadendron salignum ‘Noel Rose
o
Leucadendron galpinii
o
Leucadendron laureolum
o
Leucospermum calligerum
o
Leucospermum praecox
o
Leucospermum catherinae
o
Mimetes fimbriifolius
o
Seruria rosea
·
Ericaceae
o
Erica discolor
o
Erica baueri subsp gouriquae
o
Erica formosa
o
Erica coccinea
o
Erica hirtiflora
o
Erica cerinthoides
o
Erica baueri subsp. Baueri
o
Erica sessiliflora
·
Rutaceae
o
Agathosma crenulata
o
Agathosma mucronulata
o
Agathosma ovata ‘Kluitjieskraal’
o
Acmadenia heterophylla
o
Acmadenia mundiana
o
Adenandra obtusata
o
Coleonema pulchellum
·
Restionaceae
o
Restio multiflorus
o
Thamnochortus cinereus
o
Thamnochortus insignis
o
Elegia nuda
·
Asteraceae
o
Felicia echinata
o
Euryops virgineus
o
Metalasia muricata
·
Scrophulariaceae
o
Selago villicaulis ‘Purple Turtle’
o
Freylinia crispa
·
Rhamnaceae
o
Phylica pubescens
·
Asphodelaceae
o
Aloe arborescens
·
Iridaceae
o
Chasmanthe floribunda var duckittii
·
Lamiaceae
o
Leonotis leonurus
Cody, your blog posts are my saving grace right now! As I sit here busting my brain with chemistry, I take my study breaks reading about your botanical adventures. The ID lists sound amazing, and give me new plants to google haha Thank you for your great posts and big hello from SLO!! :D
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