My Bit of Heaven - by Kristl Walek

[Maggi Young]

Misunderstanding here, I think.......I believe Rogan was meaning that he kept thinking his unknown plant was familiar for some reason.... then realised it was because it reminded him of Houstonia caerulea... he states he doesn't know what  the cute little plant from the Kurroo is ..... but that it is similar in some ways to the Houstonia....

[TheOnionMan]

Misunderstanding here, I think.......I believe Rogan was meaning that he kept thinking his unknown plant was familiar for some reason.... then realised it was because it reminded him of Houstonia caerulea... he states he doesn't know what  the cute little plant from the Kurroo is ..... but that it is similar in some ways to the Houstonia....

I get it now.... speed reading again and missing the finer points.  I'll slow down a bit   Rogan, we're still interested in knowing what your little blue-flowered beauty is.

[Maggi Young]

Rogan, we're still interested in knowing what your little blue-flowered beauty is.

Yes, indeed we are.... the flower has a real look of a Junellia about it, but it cannot be that for those are only South American and woody ........

[Kristl Walek]

When cleaning Trillium grandiflorum, every once in a while the contents of the berry come out intact---
the internal seed arrangement is not seen often.

[TheOnionMan]

Cool seed viewing!  Just look at all that Trillium seed.  These types of photos, of freshly harvested seed, are important to show.  Received some fresh Trillium seed in the mail (seed still partially in-pod), and sowed it two days ago... didn't think to photograph them, one was T. grandiflorum roseum.

[Kristl Walek]

Mark....just a comment, if you (or others) are particularly interested in seed portraits or collection/cleaning/storing/germination information of native plants, my 2008 Ontario Thread of the same name "My Bit Of Heaven" particularly concentrated on these issues in some depth. I have hesitated repeating these portraits here, except when there is new information to share on the species that were native to both Ontario and Nova Scotia.

[Kristl Walek]

Collected last week: Amelanchier arborea and laevis, Corema conradii, Houstonia caerulea.

And all ripe on the same day and collected two days ago:

Aralia nudicaulis --- the red-coloured juice and wonderfully delicious-smelling post-berry-squishing mush discloses flat seeds that are relatively straightforward to clean from the berry stage by mashing and washing.

Clintonia borealis---the woods here are absolutely full of the beautiful blue berries; many of which had already fallen/been taken/nibbled by wildlife. Because I was custom collecting this time for a large European seedhouse as well as native plant nurseries; the collecting took many, many hours and the cleaning will continue all weekend. These seeds are a bit more time consuming to deal with: first, all stalks and debri is removed from the berries; then dealing with the berry itself: underneath the blue exterior is another glutinous membrance encasing the seed, which must be broken and the seeds unstuck and separated. Most of the seed required for my order were stipulated to be dried. For my own sales stock, I moist pack them; as germination after one season of cold, aster this stretch at moist/warm brings easy/reliable results.

Trientalis borealis seed is a SMALL dry capsule, colored grey when fully ripe. The picture of quantity in my bowl is deceptive in terms of the size of the seed receptacle, and I post a picture of the leaf for perspective.  These are simply dried and rubbed, then sieved/blown to disclose even tinier (Heuchera sized) black seed. It is very labour intensive to collect because of its small size and simply adjusting eyes in wild spaces to see it in the first place.

[Kristl Walek]

I think you will find it amusing to see a picture of the hotel I use when I am gone on overnight botanizing or seed collecting trips. This simple arrangement has made trips into the wild much easier.

I have just gotten good use from the arrangment as the past 2 days have taken me all over Nova Scotia locating (still elusive) species for my book as well as collecting seed and fern spores. This trip was entirely too intense and labour intensive for me to spend time photographing, but I do have a few visuals to share with you.

Last fall I showed you pictures of my first outing to the botanic and geologically fantastic Polly's Cove, near Halifax. These coastal barrens are rather uncommon in Nova Scotia (concentrated in the Chebucto Peninsula and Canso area). They are much more abundant in Newfoundland, and cover large areas there. Like heathland habitants in northern Europe, or tundra, they are relatively unproductive, have poorly developed organic soils and are dominated by plants in the Ericaceae. It is an environment where I particuarly feel at home.

[Kristl Walek]

Late last August when I was there for the first time, I was searching for Empetrum seed, but it was too late in the season to find more than a few berries. My timing was better yesterday; but still not ideal, considering the very early spring this year. Many of the berries had already fallen and were lying underneath the plants.

In any event, Empetrum eamsii, by the show of berries, obviously had a good year---the berries are not really red, as they might appear in some of the pictures; but a pretty transluscent pink, which shows up much better contrasted against the very low foliage than the dark berries of Empetrum nigrum. The particular clone I photographed is one that I had earmarked last year as being particularly productive; as even in late September it was the only plant I found that still had a few berries. I was pleased to find it again---and my theory about it appears to hold---there was no other plant I found that had anywhere near this abundance of berries. Certainly worthy of closer (horticultural) attention.

[Kristl Walek]

It was a busy two days for collecting fern spores, driving from site to site for one or the other. Polystichum acrostichoides is always the first fern collected---and this was nearly a month ago. It is fairly common in Nova Scotia and I run into it often. When the light is right---the foliage simply shimmers---almost has a metallic quality. The fertile top of the leaves are narrow, dark where the spore sacks formed; the spores which have been released by now, have left behind only the spore sacks.

A few pictures of some of the ferns I collected today. Dryopteris marginalis gets its name from the fact that the sori are arranged right along ther margins of the leaf--a good identification trick.

And the common Lady's fern: Athyrium felix-femina.

[Kristl Walek]

Of the plants I was looking for, I was successful with one. Sanguisorba canadensis is mostly to be found further north in Nova Scotia, in Cape Breton. But I received a lead on one location near Cape Split, and indeed, it was still here. It is quite common in Newfoundland, where, like in Quebec, it lines the sides of highways.

[fleurbleue]

Amazing landscape Kristl... and interesting plants ! Your "hotel" reminds me of some trips whith our young children  Many years ago 

[Ragged Robin]

Your mobile hotel looks so snug Kristi -  better than a tent!  Your seed collection is fascinating and I'm really interested in the fern spore collection - I'm going to try to collect some - do you sow on the surface?

[TheOnionMan]

Kristl, I've said it before, but I'll say it again, your informative posts and detailed photographs of seed collecting, harvesting, and cleaning, is a total learning experience for me and I appreciate your meticulous efforts immensely.

[Kristl Walek]

Your mobile hotel looks so snug Kristi -  better than a tent!  Your seed collection is fascinating and I'm really interested in the fern spore collection - I'm going to try to collect some - do you sow on the surface?

I do find it better than a tent---little to no setup, and none of those annoying distractions from insects or larger beasties 

You might want to look at an old post of mine dealing with some of the basics of spore collection/cleaning. With seed collecting, many folks tends to err on the side of "too early", with spores most tend to collect too late (when most of the spores have already been released, and what you are seeing is mostly chaff (the remnants of the spore sack). I do sprinkle the spores on the surface of my medium (mediums have varied over the years).

http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=1699.msg49957;topicseen#msg49957