While looking over photos from my California desert trip this spring, I came upon this curious plant:
You can see most of the plant is dead (white branches), though there are two clumps of vigorous growth, shown up close here:
What’s going on here?
Answer Monday!
As Jason rightly guessed, this is a Schlumbergera species, specifically S. truncata, also known as the Thanksgiving cactus (which has toothed edges as shown). It’s related to the Christmas cactus (S. bridgesii – scalloped edges) and the Easter cactus (S. gaertneri, whose segments are three-sided rather than flattened). [Disclaimer: the nomenclature of this genus and its species is a mess. Even the university websites disagree on whether it’s Schlumbergera, Hatiora, or Rhipsalidopsis.… Continue reading this article “Morphology quiz answers”
Take a look at this photo:
This is a two part quiz: on what plant would you find these hairs, and what are these hairs called?
Answers on Monday!
Nobody in their right mind considers pesticides safe. They are, after all, poisons which we have created to kill things, be those things plants, insects, fungi, rats, or whatever. The idea that we could have foods with no pesticides on them is attractive. Now I’ve got to admit that, as a general rule, I don’t think that the levels at which most pesticides are found on foods is concerning. Our methods of detecting poisons are just too sensitive today and so we end up saying that a poison is “present” on a tomato or whatever even if it’s there at a harmless parts-per-trillion level. … Continue reading this article “Dirty Dozen?”
As Paul suspected, this is a Phalaenoposis flower. Here it is again, shown next to another flower on the same plant (but different stalk):
As to the second question – why does it look this way – there could be a number of reasons. I’m leaning toward environmental. This particular flower stalk is an old one – after it had bloomed initially (with normal flowers), we left it on after the flowers fell. As often happens, new flower buds appeared, but all of them have been abnormal. … Continue reading this article “Flower demystification”
What am I? And why do I look like this?
Neither the flower nor photo has been altered. But it is a tricky question.
Answer on Monday!
Just got a picture of the cover of a new book I’ve got coming up soon. It’s a collaborative project with an old friend of mine who is a political science professor at UNC Charlotte. We look at a bunch of different environmental issues, different things that the government could do about these issues, and then we rate these options by how the well the right and left wingers would like them. Sure to tick people off! … Continue reading this article “Right and Left”
Lots of good guesses this week! As many of you realized, this is a huge tree root making the best of a small tree pit. But it’s not a Norway maple (sorry John) or a mulberry (sorry Robert), but a sweetgum (Liquidambar styraciflua) (congratulations Brian!). (You can see the little mace-like seed pods on the ground.) The root does resemble a bicep (“Treebeard’s elbow”) flexing to crack the concrete (aka Robert’s Concretious blandmulsia):
Though sweetgum can be nice urban trees, their roots are quite vigorous and can lift sidewalks several inches above grade as they increase in diameter:
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Thanks for all the entries – our readers are smart and funny!
What am I? Lots of clues here…
Answer and more photos Monday!
I enjoyed Jeff’s post on the RootTrapper and thought I’d share another interesting and [relatively] new development in the world of greenhouse growing containers.
Take a tube full of growing media, wrap a paper sleeve around it, and voila – the Ellepot!
It’s bottomless, root permeable, and degradable. Each Ellepot sits in its own cell in a re-usable tray. The great aeration and drainage makes for a happy, healthy root system. Another plus is that after transplanting, there are no pots or packs to throw away
I’d say the bulk of Elle Pots are utilized at the propagation end of things – starting seeds and rooting vegetative cuttings – either for greenhouses to “grow on” themselves or as plug/liner products sold to finishing growers (see student Paul Hutcheson holding a geranium liner above).… Continue reading this article “Building a Better Container, Part Deux: The Ellepot”