New territory – Pedicularis

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More seed adventures as I enter a new territory – that of the hemi-parasitic plants. Many beautiful and garden desirable species belong to this category, some not impossible to grow from seeds, most notably Castilleja spp. and Pedicularis spp. (Orobanchaceae, formerly Scrophulariaceae).
By coincidence, just after I collected a few Castilleja coccinea seeds, someone asked me if I would be interested in hemi-parasitic plants. And so, I got the chance to exchange it for Pedicularis oederi seeds ;)

Pedicularis oederi, Oeder’s lousewort, is an alpine species found in China, Japan, Russia, C and N. Europe (very rare in the Carpathian Mts.), and North America. Like many other Pedicularis spp., it has beautiful ferny looking foliage and it flowers for a very long time, producing yellow/crimson tipped flowers.

Pedicularis oederi

Pedicularis oederi – growing in the Carpathian Mts. at aprox. 2000 m alt.

Another Pedicularis that I am dreaming to grow one day is Pedicularis verticillata – whorled lousewort or Bumblebee flower, with whorled inflorescences of rich, purple-pink flowers. It grows in alpine tundra turf and rocky slopes from Japan, Russia, arctic C, N, and S Europe to NW America.

Pedicularis verticillata

Pedicularis verticillata with Bistorta vivipara in the Carpathian Mts.

An alpine meadow with Pedicularis verticillata in flower it is a sight to behold.

Pedicularis verticillata2

The good news is that most hemi-parasitic plants have a wide range of hosts and have been shown to germinate even without their presence. Various Pedicularis are parasitic on species of Poaceae, Ericaceae, Salix, Aster; but many others species have been also cited as hosts. Most notably, a study done on Bartsia alpina and Pedicularis lapponica found that both would form haustorial connections with Pinguicula vulgaris (Lentibulariaceae).

One method that is working somehow for these plants, involves the direct sowing outdoors – if you have something looking like a natural meadow, which I don’t. For my experiment, I split the P. oederi seeds in 4 portions. Even if I am not successful, I am sure I will learn something from it.

– Seeds sown by a gardening friend outdoors in the vicinity of an Erica plant.
– Seeds sown at our place, outdoors in the vicinity of Polygonum affine and Deschampsia caespitosa.
– Seeds sown together with Pinguicula vulgaris in a pot that will undergo cold/stratification outside over the winter.
– Few remaining seeds will be sown together with Carex grayi (a nice NA native sedge that can grow in full sun).

But there are many other wonderful Pedicularis out there! The excitement of a new territory…

Update 2016: I wasn’t succesful with any of the above,yet. Sometimes it takes 2 years for seeds to germinate so the ones in pots are not a lost cause. The ones sown in situ probably have been disturbed by the squirrels. More sowings have been done, this time only in pots in pieces of turf. One has to persevere :)

Seed adventures

Being seed adventurous doesn’t mean only going into the woods and climbing mountains in search of plant seeds. It also means, trying new species from seeds and looking to improve or find new methods of sowing/germination. Wanting to avoid having to handle too many small pots, last week I sowed in the same container a few species with similar requirements (germination/growing conditions) in rectangular wood-fiber container, which was ‘planted’ in the ground in a shaded location (but it could also be kept like other pots outdoors and planted in an appropriate place only in the spring).

Species with hydrophilic seeds sown together

Container with Trillium sp., Uvularia grandiflora, Clintonia borealis…Anti-squirrel mesh and owl for good luck :)

Ready for planting in a shaded location
More protection...

I planted a second container with Caulophyllum thalictroides in combination with Medeola virginiana. But, one could also use individual biodegradable pots if the mixing of species is not desired.

By the time the plants will be big enough to be moved/spaced out (if necessary), the container will be decomposed. This way the seeds and seedlings will have the advantage of a good water retentive sowing mix; of course, not all of them will survive, but this is how it also goes in a natural setting. This may be turn out to be a very good method for growing those species that need two years (or more) to complete germination and have similar growing requirements, like Trillium, Uvularia, Maianthemum racemosum, Polygonatum…and also for those species that have very tiny seedlings and don’t require transplanting until the second or third year.

And to give one more idea, the featured image shows Caulophyllum thalictroides seeds sowed directed on the woodland garden floor – but this will be a whole story for later…

 

The warrior Corydalis lutea

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C. lutea - November

Only a short note for this month’s end because I think Corydalis lutea (syn. Pseudofumaria lutea) deserves a special mention.
Transplanted during the summer in a crowded container where it lived for quite a while, made the trip to a new place, was dug & planted in the ground, not only it flowered continuously and provided food for pollinators and quite a few seeds, but it is still in flower today (featured image), after the last weekend’s temperature low of -9˚C (with snow cover).

It has shown up from seeds by itself in the spring, like it often happens, but I think it is a bit special. More of its seeds have been spread around today, so the ‘blood’ of this warrior’ will perpetuate in the new garden :)

C. lutea -July

Corydalis lutea in container, July

mid November

In the garden last week…

Warm & Cold Games

Part I

Suddenly it got cold and we have had the first snow; not unexpected for this time of year. Not the same I can say about the Hepatica americana seeds I found germinated, with their radicles quite extended! This is most interesting because Hepatica species have immature embryos at the time of collecting (May-June) and need periods of warm and then cold for embryo development before germinating.

Hepatica americana - germinated seeds without cold period

Hepatica americana – germinated seeds without cold period

This year I have been careful to collect and keep separate a few Hepaticas forms that I am personally interested in. All the germinated seeds belong to a collection made in 30 May from a plant with intermediate characters between americana and acutiloba (although the saying goes hybrids do not exist between these two). None of the other Hepatica collections are germinating and I sowed quite a few already.

Speaking of which, this is an excellent time to start sowing many species that need to undergo a cold/moist period to germinate, ideally outdoors – in our climate, the natural temperature fluctuations are the best to break the dormancy of many species.
If someone needs a bit of help, here’s what I do, plain and simple:

  • Have ready a few pots; sowing mix, labels; fill the pots 3/4, tap the mix lightly. Sow, label, top up with grit, small gravel or vermiculite (I used vermiculite only because I have a gigantic bag of it).

  • Place the pots in a shallow container and add water so they’ll absorb water through capillarity.

  • If you have only few pots, enclose them in a Ziploc bag and ‘hide’ it in a shaded position; you don’t really need a shed or frame; cover with leaves or a piece of cloth, and then the snow will act as insulation. A garden bench/chair can be easily used as ‘pots keeping’ location.

  • If you went all the way and have a whole tray, no worry- wrap it up in a sheet plastic/garbage bag, and ‘hide it’ as well in a shaded position. Early spring, start checking inside the Ziplocs/unwrap the plastic, and move the pots in a half sun location; eventually add a mesh on top to protect from critters.

  • Don’t forget to watch for the first signs of germination!!!

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I’ll be back as more warm/cold games and sowing practices unfold…

Out in the woods – Moss pets & Hepatica revisited

Last weekend we went back in the woods; late fall is strangely similar with the month of April. If you ignore a few remnant fruits, all that is green on the woodland floor is represented by Hepaticas and mosses. Having had a very wet fall, there were quite a few of them, like green pets erupting from underneath the leaf carpet, asking to have their green fur stroked. Many others were on rocks, rotten logs…

Moss in the woods

Most Hepaticas grown underneath deciduous trees (ie. that get a fair amount of sun in early spring and fall), develop an interesting marbled foliage by late fall. In areas with large populations it is easy to observe variations not only in the flowers but also in foliage colouration. Like last year, we went scouting for interesting forms and the same plants I had admired for their marbled foliage last year, presented now the exact colouration pattern.
So, I maintain my opinion that a genetic component might be involved in the foliage colouration, which may be also true about the amount of leaf hairiness (actually Hepatica leaves are described as villous = with soft, long hairs).

Hepatica americana fall-winter foliage

Hepatica americana fall-winter foliage

Hepatica americana fall-winter foliage1

Hepatica americana fall-winter foliage2

In the featured image – backlit leaves of a Hepatica acutiloba in the garden. This is one of the most villous (long, soft hairs) H. acutiloba I have ever seen, with a delightful foliage from early spring to fall! Usually it’s not that shaggy looking, but it’s been through rough times over the last couple of years.

False assurance – Linnaea borealis

I had in mind to collect twinflower seeds this year but somehow I missed the right moment. Everyone likes the twinflower and probably would like to have it in their garden; even because it bears Linnaeus name is reason enough :) But, although widespread across its main circumboreal range, it is in fact a plant with a ‘little’ problem (well, not really little).
Linnaea borealis is a self-incompatible species which requires cross-pollination to produce viable seeds (or to produce seeds at all).

Linnaea borealis

Linnaea borealis

Wonderful, large patches can be encountered in the woods but they are mostly clonal (they are identical genetically) and they don’t produce viable seeds. In one research done in Scotland, among all the populations studied, 37% consisted of a single genotype! Such species that reproduce vegetatively but don’t produce viable seeds give us a false assurance. Small populations that disappear from various reasons cannot be reintroduced in old habitats and adaptations to future climate changes would be non-existent because it’s usually from seeds that species adapt and evolve into new, more resistant genotypes.

At a superficial glance, all seems to be fine. The flowering is spectacular and there are fruits. But it’s not… After patiently opening the dry fruits, one will find many of them empty. Luckily, I got some seeds and I can demonstrate. From a significant number of small fruits (about 400), I ended up with +/-75 seeds, so you do the math!

Linnaea borealis fruits and seeds

Linnaea borealis fruits and seeds

Of course, no one bothers to open the dry achenes (not that many people get them), but you see, there is another aspect – sowing such fruits (which contain no seeds) would make some conclude that Linnaea is either a difficult to germinate species (like the saying went about the Syneilesis) or that it has a very low germination %. Actually, I found someone stating that “germination rate is about one in thirty”. Most probably, there was only 1 fruit that contained a seed!!!

It’s not rare for dry fruits, especially achenes, to be mistaken for ‘seeds’. Many times things are not what they seem to be….

The magic trick – Paris quadrifolia

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Herb Paris, True lover’s Knot, Devil-in-a-bush

Renown of being hard to germinate because it requires several warm/cold cycles to break dormancy, Paris is often avoided by many people when it comes to growing it from seeds. A couple of days ago, during a check-up of the moist stored seeds, I had a big surprise. Almost all the garden collected seeds (in late summer) were already germinated! These seeds were cleaned and placed in moist vermiculite right away – an advantage of the garden collecting. Seeds that I collected in the wild and couldn’t place right away in moist storage look good but still haven’t decided to germinate.

Unless a magic trick is involved (not unusual at this time of year), cleaning the seeds after the berries are ripen and putting them right away in a bag with slightly moist vermiculite, which is the same as sowing them fresh, works very well for Paris quadrifolia.

Paris quadrifolia germinated seeds

Paris quadrifolia germinated seeds

Paris quadrifolia is a Trillium relative from moist deciduous forests of Europe and W. Asia, with a symmetric ‘constitution’ (Paris from Latin pars – equal). The four whorled leaves are topped up in early spring by a solitary, interesting flower with thread-like petals and a crown of golden stamens, followed by a deep blue berry (poisonous).

Paris quadrifolia

Paris quadrifolia

In medieval times this particular symmetry had Paris quadrifolia considered the ‘herb of equality’ and it was used in marriage rituals and as a guard against witches. It was also associated with medicine in medieval English tradition, being mentioned in Gerard’s Herbal as an antidote to toxic substances like arsenic and mercury.

According to other herbalists of the time, the black berries were also effective as a remedy for those who had lost their minds through bewitchment, or as an antidote for mental confusion due to supernatural causes :) (today it remains employed only in homeopathy).

In conclusion, for now we are safe from witches but if in the future we are to get confused, we shall use a few Paris berries…(which need “ to be administered in unequal numbers” :)))

Harvest

Fall means harvest but not only of fruits and seeds. Because of lack of space for pots, unwillingly, last spring I kept some T. erectum seeds in their Ziploc storage bag. I said, I’ll see how it goes…I like to experiment and I didn’t want to lose one season. We need Trilliums for our new garden!

For weeks on end I forgot about them, but once in a while I added just a drop of water to the mix. Now it’s time to harvest :) They will be planted into pots to get established until the winter arrives. Coming spring, the first leaves will be ready to emerge.

Trillium erectum seedling

Trillium erectum seedling: rhizomes and first roots formed in slightly moist vermiculite/bags. Not that I recommend the method, but if one momentarily lacks the space for pots, why not?

Necessity is for sure the mother of invention. This is what I am aiming for; it seems I need to do some work on Erythronium, Sanguinaria and so on…

Trillium erectum in wild habitat

Trillium erectum in wild habitat

 

Gone with the wind – Indian paintbrush

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Still flowering at this time of year, the flamboyant Indian paintbrush, Castilleja coccinea (also seeds can be collected) has one of the best common names given to a wildflower – someone must have watched the colourful leafy bracts reflecting red-orange paint strokes over the blue sky!

Castilleja coccinea

Castilleja coccinea – Indian paintbrush

Many species with seeds adapted for wind dispersal have various helping ‘devices’ (wings, hairs…). In the case of Castilleja, the seeds have a honeycomb outerlayer – nature’s design for helping with the process. The honeycomb pattern is produced by dead, air-filled cells of the single-layered seed coat.

Castilleja coccinea seedsCastilleja coccinea seeds (This is as close I could get with my camera and please ignore the debris)

Castilleja and few other Orobanchaceae present the most impressive variation of honeycomb-patterned seed coat, where both the outer and inner tangential walls are dissolved and all that remains is a loose honeycomb ‘cage’. 

About the germination:
I intend to include Castilleja in a small flower meadow, so I gather info and I shall experiment. The difficulty is to start a small population because like other hemiparasitic plants it needs its host plants to help it grow. Mostly behaves as a biennial, and in most cases if successful, it will reseed around.

Various studies had shown that C. coccinea will establish connections with the roots of a wide range of host species. It will germinate by itself but it won’t establish and grow well without a host. The best method is to sow it outdoors in the fall or spring in an area where few preferred plant host are growing (most common: little bluestem, prairie smoke, grama grass…) or in pots in combination with seeds/young seedlings of the host plants (use peat or coco-fiber pots as it dislikes transplanting).
Also, other essentials factors for good germination and survival are good moisture and surface sowing (light sensitive).

I showed at some point another beautiful Castilleja, C. applegatei var. viscida in a mountain meadow from the Wasatch Mountains.

Update after quite a few years: I once managed to have seeds germinated in a container outdoors, but the seedlings perished, in part to the squirrels digging them up.
Second attempt: a bunch of seedlings showed up after I spread a large amount of seeds into the ground (2022). I will watch with interest what happens in 2023!

 

 

Castilleja coccinea seedlings, direct sowing on the ground in late fall

And success in 2023!!!

 

Other Castilleja species I managed to germinate is Castilleja applegatei, sowed in late fall and provided cold/moist stratification outdoors. The seedlings vanished at some point; it may have been too much or not enough watering, hard to say. So, unfortunately I cannot add more about seedlings development.
There are also seedlings of Castilleja miniata, also germinated after cold/moist stratification.

I am sure this story will have other developments in the next years!

Wildflowers Tuesday – American Spikenard

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Maybe the title should read from now on – Wildfruits instead of flowers, although there are quite a few species still flowering. But September is announced in the woods by a multitude of coloured fruits and suddenly previously ‘invisible’ plants are suddenly highlighted, revealing their most ornamental feature. Our fall gardens would also be so poor without these colourful displays!

Aralia racemosa fruits

Aralia racemosa in wild habitat, in early September

Aralia racemosa – American spikenard is a shrubby-looking perennial which grows in moist rich woods. Cultivated, but not too often, in the past it has had various other uses (the roots): for flavoring teas, as an ingredient in root beer and medicinal. Native Americans considered the root to be a blood purifying spring tonic, and called the plant Life-of- Man; it makes sense as it belongs to the ginseng family.

Aralia racemosa foliage

Aralia racemosa in late August, cultivated

Wildflowers Wednesday – Medeola virginiana

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I don’t really know why but I got really excited when stumbling for the first time upon Medeola virginiana. As a result, the pictures don’t show its whole splendour revealed under the dappled shade in a moist woodsy area. Named after the sorceress Medea, there are few theories as to why Linnaeus kept this name (given to it by Gronovius) but there is no doubt that there must be sorcery involved in the way a fruiting Medeola looks.

Medeola virginiana

Medeola virginiana

The contrast made by the dark purple fruits with the red petioles and red tinged leaves (at the base) is striking and considered its most ornamental feature. Young plants resemble a bit with a Trientalis for me, or a Large leaved pogonia (Isotria verticillata) to others (I have never seen this one). Mature flowering individuals are very particular though, showing the two-tiered whorls of leaves. I think the flowers are pretty cool too, as seen in the featured image (not my picture in fact, but coming spring I know where to go now).

And the trivial: the common name, Indian cucumber-root, alludes to the fact that rhizomes have a cucumber taste/odor and were used by the Natives Americans; the plant was also supposedly used medicinally. In Canada apparently we don’t have problems with it but in the U.S.A., according to NatureServe, Medeola is listed as critically imperilled in Florida, Louisiana, and Illinois.

Either way, I think there are enough cucumbers on the market today, there is no need to dig up Medeola, which is vulnerable to harvesting and slow to propagate.

Medeola non-flowering plant
Medeola virginiana fruits and seeds

Wildflower Tuesday – Apios americana

Apios americana – Indian potato, wild bean or American groundnut is a twining vine with deep purple, fragrant flowers in late summer. Its small but nutritious tubers were a staple of the Native Americans diet but because of their size and 2-year growth cycle, they have not been adopted with much enthusiasm by the European settlers. Yet, Indian potatoes have a nutty flavour, and they contain roughly 3 times more proteins and a higher content of calcium and iron than potatoes. They also contain isoflavones which are known to have anti-carcinogenic action.

Apios americana

Apios americana – just starting to flower last week. I hope for a long fall…

An interesting fact related to seeds is that although usually diploid, Apios americana also has triploids forms. These latter forms will flower but not produce seeds.

You can read a lot more about this interesting North American plant, follow the links please:

Apios americana – wiki
Domestication of Apios americana
Stalking the wild groundnut

 

Wildflower Sunday – Calla palustris

On the aesthetics of processing seeds

The water arum is a plant with lots of qualities: shiny, healthy heart-shaped foliage, white swirled flowers, red fruits, AND something else you get to see only if you look for seeds: amber coloured, trembling, translucent jellyfish-like insides, protecting the slick & spotted seeds.

Nature’s art…no Photoshop involved.

Calla palustris fruits

Calla palustris fruits remains after extracting the seeds

Calla palustris

Calla palustris

 

C-section – Roscoea tibetica

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Update: I have serious doubts now that this is R. tibetica (or bhutanica) and although I had intentions I won’t add to the general confusion by offering seeds. I am waiting for other opinions regarding its identity (maybe R. australis?)…..probably it will be a looong wait.

Yesterday morning I had the wonderful surprise to find Roscoea (tibetica) in ‘labour’. The capsule was just starting to split open showing the seeds. The smallest of the genus, R. tibetica has a particular way of developing the capsule at soil level (easy to miss it), inside the stem actually, and I thought it would be interesting to show it, especially because this is also the final confirmation of its identity.

Roscoea tibetica capsule

Roscoea (tibetica) showing split capsule

Roscoea species have arilate seeds, so if ants are around (or earwigs) it’s wise not to miss the ‘delivery’. A bit of help is needed to extract the seeds without the stem being destroyed – a clean, small cut, followed by a bandage application (cheesecloth works perfectly) to secure the leftover seeds (the flowers open in succession so not all the seeds mature at the same time).

Size, shape and arils are good characters for Roscoea ID, especially considering that there is quite a bit of confusion going around – R. tibetica has seeds with deeply lacerate arils.

Roscoea tibetica split capsule with exposed seeds
Roscoea tibetica - more seeds remain inside

I presented Roscoea tibetica in the Little plants series; this year grew better in part-shade, sharing a container with A. fargesii seedlings. This is a great little Roscoea for the rock garden. Easy to grow from seeds, it can be quite variable; the form shown in the featured image has small purple flowers barely showing from among the stems, so one cannot really call it a showy plant. More than this, it starts growing sometimes in June, it flowers in late June, and by mid-August the seeds are ripen – ‘living in the fast lane’!

Roscoea tibetica foliage
Roscoea tibetica seeds with lacerate arils
Roscoea tibetica seedlings

One for collectors and people in love with ‘little plants’ :)

Good read on Roscoea: The Genus Roscoea – Jill Cowley, RBG Kew, 2007. Speaking of which, reading again about R. tibetica and R. bhutanica, it seems that my plant fits more likely with the later: “Leaf blades usually 2-6 at flowering time, slightly auriculate… Inflorescence enclosed in leaf sheats. Flowers opening just above leaves, one open at a time…..Seed aril shallowly lacerate.”

Happy to hear other opinion…

Eating our way into the ‘future’ – Allium tricoccum

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Allium tricoccum (wild garlic, ramps)

Allium tricoccum is one of the first species to appear in early spring in the woodlands of North America. After a long winter, the onion-garlic scented, fleshy leaves look very delicious; actually they contain lots of vitamins and minerals. Leaves will completely disappear being replaced in the summer by flowering stems bearing a single inflorescence with white flowers, followed by capsules with black seeds (3 in each fruit – tricoccum). The bulbs and leaves of A. tricoccum have been traditionally used by the Native Americans, then by the European settlers and all the following generations.

Allium tricoccum spring rosette

Allium tricoccum foliage in early spring – easy to spot and smell!

Last year I didn’t collect seeds because I thought this is such a common plant around here. But I had forgotten to check the facts – it turns out that we are continuing to eat our way into the ‘future’, and what was once a very common spring sight in most North American woodlands is now rapidly fading away! Since they become more popular, with ramps festivals held annually and served in fancy restaurants as ‘local and organic’ food, they have become over-harvested everywhere.

In Quebec, wild harvesting of Allium tricoccum is currently prohibited, and in a few of the U.S.A. states it has become a ‘special concern’ species!

Allium tricoccum colony

Allium tricoccum (ramps) colony – a common spring sight (for how long?)

As it happened with other species, the regeneration doesn’t occur fast enough to keep up with the unsustainable harvesting and entire populations may disappear from one year to another.

Allium tricoccum starting to flower

Allium tricoccum flowering stems

Another notorious example of woodland species that we have managed to erase almost entirely from our woodlands through overharvesting is Hydrastis canadensis (goldenseal), and there are signs in some areas that mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) may follow it in the near future.

Uvularia al dente

Chasing bees and butterflies is great fun but there is work to do and besides seeds I also have an overdue mea culpa note on Thalictrum isopyroides – read it here if interested.

Talking about seeds, last week I collected some of Uvularia grandiflora. I will keep writing about this wonderful but under-used woodland plant until more people start growing it! It is hard to estimate when the seeds are ripen, so for those who want to collect their own seeds here’s a tip I learned the hard way: the capsules will get from green to greenish-white to white (but still remain firm and crispy) before splitting to release the seeds. The seeds are equipped with elaiosomes and ants will carry them away quickly.

Uvularia grandiflora capsules

Uvularia grandiflora capsules – ‘al dente’

It is a gradual transition, easy to over-wait thinking they are not ripened yet. Just like when boiling pasta al dente; you think it’s not quite there and a few seconds later it’s already overdone.

Uvularia grandiflora split capsule

‘Over cooked’ Uvularia grandiflora capsule

Note: I assume that everyone reading this enjoys pasta, at least eating it if not cooking.