The season of ten thousand flowers has surely begun! More to follow…
Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.
If your mind isn’t clouded by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.
– Wumen
Anemone acutiloba (DC.) Laws (Flora of N. America)
IN REVISION WORK ….April 6, 2018
April begins here with a joke, weather wise – we are expecting snow (2016)! Thus, it is a good moment to gather and publish my notes on Hepatica acutiloba (Sharp-lobed hepatica) before it gets busy.The seeds are also starting to germinate, so it cannot be too long till flowering begins.
Funny, today on April 6, 2018 when I’m working revising this, it snowed :)
Hepatica acutiloba is easily distinguished from the only other N American species, H. americana, by having the leaf lobes acute or acuminate, with the middle lobe 70-90% of total blade length; involucral bracts +/- acute (FNA). Sometimes when the lobes are acute it’s a bit more difficult to distinguish it; when in doubt, see the footnote about how to measure the leaves (1).
It is usually found in deciduous beech-maple forests (oaks & other species possible), on rich soils; rarely in mixed deciduous and coniferous forests. In comparison to H. americana, it is usually found in locations that tend to be slightly wet, at least temporarily. Therefore for cultivation it is a better choice if someone really wants to grow a Hepatica in a moist location.
This may be the reason why in the wild it is not often to find the 2 species growing together.
The new foliage can be reddish- bronze when emerging, but not always; villous in various degrees (with long, soft hairs). I would grow this species even if just for the foliage, which besides the flowers, constitutes its most notable ornamental quality.
About fragrance
I read about this for the first time in the excellent article published in AGS Journal (vol. 83 No.3) by Michael Meyers; he writes “some plants have a strong fragrance”. After sniffing every H. acutiloba I encountered in the last years, I can say is true that some forms of H. acutiloba are fragrant; some more than others, some not at all.
A while ago there were 5 recognized forms for H. acutiloba (2). From a taxonomic point of view they are obsolete nowadays, but I think from an ornamental point of view they are important and could be used in breeding since the progeny resulted from seed propagation is uniform. Therefore, the seeds will be offered marked as such.
Flora of NA states that the regular form of Hepatica acutiloba is blue flowered (H. acutiloba fo. acutiloba).
Hepatica acutiloba blue flowers
However, it seems though that at least in Southwestern Ontario, the white flowered form is predominant for H. acutiloba.
Hepatica acutiloba fo. albiflora Ralph Hoffm. – the leaves can be variable and the flowers white; it is usually quite vigorous in habit. Notice in the gallery second image how large the involucral bracts are – they seem to be green ‘flowers’.
The picture with fruits belongs to the form offered as: H. acutiloba – white/ fragrant, being the most fragrant form from all; the flowers actually have a sheer pink overlay when newly opened.
Hepatica acutiloba – white/fragrant
Hepatica acutiloba fo. rosea Ralph Hoffm. – has pink flowers in various shades, and the leaves can exhibit very nice veined markings.
I don’t know if specimens with pink blushed flowers should be included in fo. rosea but I like them very much. Some are light-pink, others have white flowers with just a dab of pink mixed in. Probably an acquired taste…
Hepatica acutiloba fo. diversiloba Raymond – leaves with 5-7 lobes instead of the usual 3, hence the name. The character is not always consistent and often on the same plant both 3-lobed and 5-7-lobed leaves are present. Young seedlings may not display the character for 1-2 years.
For few years I only saw this form with white flowers. The leaves can also develop beautiful veined markings. In the first image of a cultivated plant, the foliage is interestingly marbled instead of having marked veins.
Then, one nice clump was found with blue flowers. The leaves are in that borderline area between acutiloba/americana (read more about intermediate forms). Also, some of the flowers seem to be sterile, so it may belong one of those intermediate forms.
The last form is Hepatica acutiloba fo. plena Fernald; I know it is somewhere out there in the woods, quietly waiting to be found…
It is not very often that they are found growing together, but when they are, things became complicated; better said wonderfully complicated.
Quote from Flora of Michigan: “When the two hepaticas do grow together, intermediate leaf shapes are only rarely found, although what they mean has not been fully investigated”.
I only agree with the last part; it hasn’t been investigated and hybrids are not recognized at the moment. As for the statement “intermediate leaf shapes are only rarely found” – well, anyone spending more time in the woods would disagree with it.
I will include here the form offered last year as Hepatica acutiloba – lavender. The leaves are borderline between acutiloba/americana; however, they tend more towards the first one so it is offered as such.
Hepatica acutiloba- lavender
(1) For the ID of H. acutiloba using measurements of the leaves follow this guideline: “Proportions given in the key for the middle lobe of the leaf are calculated by measuring the lobe (from the apex to a line connecting the bases of the sinuses on each side) and the total length of the blade (apex to the summit of the unexpanded petiole). In the case of ambiguous measurements, check more than one leaf on a plant” – Flora of Michigan.
(2) Tropicos – see references for the publications of the H. acutiloba forms.
Typical leaves of Hepatica acutiloba
Named varieties
The time has come to name few of the selected forms I have, even if just for the easiness of keeping records.
I may also decide to share few divisions at some point, so they need to have a name of their own.
H. acutiloba ‘Rabbit’s foot’
I have this Hepatica for a very long time, don’t even remember the provenience. I grew it in a pot many years; now in the ground it seems to grow better of course. Last year it struck me that the new growth resemble a rabbit’s foot, so “Rabbit’s foot’ it is.
A typical H. acutiloba with sharped lobed leaves, which emerges very early in the spring with super fuzzy, specific shoots. The new growth is reddish/bronze and the flowers white and somewhat insignificant. The foliage becomes colourful towards the fall and remains like that over the winter in a very specific way. Click to open the gallery.
I am known to be on the lookout for promising ballerinas (see Arisaema and Primula –rina)… This year my eyes were drawn by the Carolina allspice seedlings. Surely there is great promise; I just don’t know if in the ballet because after the first stage the twirled cotyledons have rapidly put on some weight ;) but there are other genres to try out…
The belle of the ball in the germinatrix: Calycanthus floridus seedlings with convoluted cotyledons (which are rarely seen in other species):
Calycanthus floridus convoluted cotyledons
Calycanthus floridus seedlings with the first true leaves
This is an excerpt from the shop about Carolina allspice and I have nothing else to add:
“Calycanthus floridus is a deciduous shrub with glossy, aromatic foliage that can grow to about 3-4 m high, and the same or more in width. Remarkable when in flower; it has fragrant, red-wine coloured, and many petaled flowers that look a bit like Magnolia flowers; very attractive for pollinators too.
It is a very adaptable shrub that can grow from sun to shade, in almost any type of soil, and is very resistant to pests. A really trouble-free shrub for any garden; on my list of ‘to do it for myself”…
Done!
Calycanthus floridus seeds – nicked and soaked prior to sowing
Part 2
For May and June I had to do a shortlist to keep it short. Most notable was the finding of unusual forms of green Trilliums, as well as many pink forms. The reddish flower in the pictures is a fading pink form (T. grandiflorum fo. roseum Farwell).
And not just the colour variation was remarkable but also the variation in petals shape and size! A form with particularly narrow, long pointed petals attracted my attention, as did a truly gigantesque white specimen.
A most beautiful form of Hepatica americana with extra petals also made the shortlist:
From the cultivated plants: the first flower of Gentiana clusii var. rochelii, seen above in the featured image, and the flowering of the neglected Dactylorhiza alpestris, from my Little plants series.
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…
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
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.
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
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
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….
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.
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
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 – 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 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!
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 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 in late August, cultivated
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
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.
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 – 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
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 remains after extracting the seeds
Calla palustris
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 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 (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 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.
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 – ‘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.
‘Over cooked’ Uvularia grandiflora capsule
Note: I assume that everyone reading this enjoys pasta, at least eating it if not cooking.
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!
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:
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…
And just a note for those not interested in the botanical aspect – these are all wonderful plants for the shade garden!
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!
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.
