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.

Actaea x ludovici

Last week’s ‘discovery’ after a random wander through some woods. I stumbled into an area with A. pachypoda fo. rubrocarpa, A. pachypoda and… another Actaea which was looking like A. rubra (growing nearby) but not quite. What then? Well, it was the rarely seen hybrid between A. pachypoda and A. rubra – Actaea x ludovici!

Actaea x ludovici

       Actaea x ludovici

Red fruits like A. rubra (not shiny) with bigger black dots; thicker pedicels than in A. rubra and the raceme is more open reminding of A. pachypoda.

The hybrid berries contained a few seeds! What would come out of them, I really can’t tell… Flora of Michigan presents a short description; in mature exemplars the thickness of the fruits stalks and colour are a very good indicator, although there are other more detailed differences.

Meet the parents:

Actaea pachypoda
Actaea pachypoda – Doll’s eyes (the pedicels will become red when the fruits mature)
Actaea rubra
Actaea rubra – Red Baneberry
The fruits have slender pedicels and smaller ‘dots’ (the eye formed by the persistent stigma. Also, worth noticing that the raceme is more compact and the fruits are shiny when mature.

It seems I have a particular relation with the baneberries. Last year I also found the very rare Actaea pachypoda fo. rubrocarpa (which the obviously outdated Flora of NA says that it may not exist!). I still have to stumble onto A. rubra fo. neglecta…

Actaea pachypoda fo. rubrocarpa
A. pachypoda fo. rubrocarpa 
Magenta coloured fruits with red pedicels as thick as the axis of the raceme and with a pronounced swollen base, like in A. pachypoda

And just a note for those not interested in the botanical aspect – these are all wonderful plants for the shade garden!

Wildflowers Tuesday – Limestone calamint

Observing plants growing in the wild has always been my greatest source of inspiration when it comes to growing species in the rock garden or other more specific situations (like a scree garden). Growing along the shores of lakes Michigan and Huron on rocky, calcareous substrate/alvars in full sun, there is this little mint scented plant, which seems perfect for the edge of the rockery, or as a groundcover along a patio or walkway. It will bring a much needed splash of colour in mid-summer, not to mention the refreshing spicy mint scent!

Clinopodium arkansanum flowers

Clinopodium arkansanum (limestone calamint)

Green-purple delicate stems with linear leaves and large, lavender flowers at peak flowering usually sometimes in July.

Another one that got into the ‘seeds to be collected’ list, which keeps getting longer and longer.

Clinopodium arkansanum