The university’s server was down for scheduled maintenance over the weekend and I missed getting this posted. So you have until next Friday to consider this interesting flower from the Berkeley Botanical Gardens:
What is this plant?
And what is the function of these long, green horizontal structures?
Have fun
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Linda Chalker-Scott
Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott has a Ph.D. in Horticulture from Oregon State University and is an ISA certified arborist and an ASCA consulting arborist. She is WSU’s Extension Urban Horticulturist and a Professor in the Department of Horticulture, and holds two affiliate associate professor positions at University of Washington. She conducts research in applied plant and soil sciences, publishing the results in scientific articles and university Extension fact sheets.
Linda also is the award-winning author of five books: the horticultural myth-busting The Informed Gardener (2008) and The Informed Gardener Blooms Again (2010) from the University of Washington Press and Sustainable Landscapes and Gardens: Good Science – Practical Application (2009) from GFG Publishing, Inc., and How Plants Work: The Science Behind the Amazing Things Plants Do from Timber Press (2015). Her latest effort is an update of Art Kruckeberg’s Gardening with Native Plants of the Pacific Northwest from UW Press (2019).
In 2018 Linda was featured in a video series – The Science of Gardening – produced by The Great Courses. She also is one of the Garden Professors – a group of academic colleagues who educate and entertain through their blog and Facebook pages. Linda’s contribution to gardeners was recognized in 2017 by the Association for Garden Communicators as the first recipient of their Cynthia Westcott Scientific Writing Award.
"The Garden Professors" Facebook page - www.facebook.com/TheGardenProfessors
"The Garden Professors" Facebook group - www.facebook.com/groups/GardenProfessors
Books: http://www.sustainablelandscapesandgardens.com
View all posts by Linda Chalker-Scott
It’s a Puya…maybe alpestris? I always assumed the green horizontal structures were the stalks where buds would open later, but now I’m wondering if it might be a perch. Cool pics. Dang west coast people and their super cool funky plants! Jealousy overwhelms me.
Puya indeed! But I don’t know what species. The green spikey thingies are for the birds that pollinate them to sit on while they do their job getting the flowers knocked up.
Puya alpestris! I know that because Annie’s Annuals sent out an email recently with a picture and I was smitten – until I read about the spines.
Yup! Puya alpestris. There’s one blooming in the SF Botanical Garden right now, too: http://flic.kr/p/9DpgNp