October 2010 in the Northern Hemisphere

[cohan]

nothing happening up till now in the north? if i missed the existing topic, i will just beg maggi to rejoin the two  

anyway, we went for a short jaunt into the mountains the other day, i'll post more on my alberta thread, and picasa, but for now, here is the highlight of the day--- i had never seen this plant before, in spite of two visits to the location, nor have i run into it elsewhere.. thought it would be a nice way to start the month..
luckily i found one in flower, which confirmed it as
Eriogonum sp (possibly lanceolatum androsaceum according to my reference..)
the little pink mounds were (almost) bright against the grey stone (dolomite?) and i found 5 plants over the small area (several hundred metres at most)..
any thoughts on id are welcome..sadly, no seeds to be found...
note the variation in leaf shape, even among these few plants; the one in flower had the widest leaves, others were all narrower..



Edit by maggi:
Now determined to be Eriogonum androsaceum see http://www.srgc.org.uk/smf/index.php?topic=5641.msg173849#msg173849 frof comments from Dr. James L. Reveal, Ph.D, Professor Emeritus, University of Maryland and noted authority on the genus Eriogonum

[cohan]

a couple of views of the setting, which is a small area carved off from a mountain slope on the high side by the highway (not the road you see in the second shot, that's just an access road to this small area), and sloping down to Abraham Lake on the other....part of the area is exposed rock mixed with gravel, part is deeper sandy/clayey soil with grasses and trees in some spots (Gaillardia, Linum etc); well below tree line, but the exposed rock areas  are very exposed, featuring Dryas integrifolia etc..

[Lesley Cox]

The eriogonums are very nice and would look great in that landscape. They are incredibly tough in a garden situation bearing drought and heat as well as snow and frost. I like them a lot and it is a shame that they seem, to me, to be under-rated. Ron Ratko does a good seed list selection.

[TheOnionMan]

Fantastic buckwheat Cohan, particularly the first leaf form.... love the gray & pink coloration, worth growing these for the cushions alone, as well as the fall foliage color which is dramatic in some species.

[cohan]

thanks, lesley and mark--i like the eriogonums tremendously as well--alplains lists a number, as does beavercreek; i have a couple of tiny seedlings from alplains seed this spring, hope they make the winter..they are hinting at similar colours to this...

this find was one of my biggest thrills of all the native plants i have seen/photographed--the only other eriogonum i have seen in person was E flavum in southern alberta- that is a great plant, but much larger and looser in form than this, and the colours on these plants are just crazy! it always amazes me that one can visit the same site a number of times at slightly/different seasons and find new things all the time (of course even more so when visits are rather hurried, although i look very closely, there just isn't enough time to do a careful grid search)...

[Lori S.]

I think you might mean Eriogonum ovalifolium, Cohan.

[cohan]

I think you might mean Eriogonum ovalifolium, Cohan.

actually i'm not at all sure about what it is, since i still have only a poor reference (i bought seeds in the spring instead of the flora  )
but i actually meant to say E androsaceum (i'll go back and fix that, thanks, lori), which royer and dickinson mention as having narrower leaves--they describe ovalifolium as having oval to round leaves which these absolutely did not have; i imagine it (ovalifolium) is variable over its considerable range, though, so i don't know if that really rules it out..
i didn't find any online images in a quick search that really helped, neither did the distribution maps in royer and dickinson--- ovalifolium only shows 2 tiny specks on the alberta map, neither of which really matches where i was (i know that's no guarantee, i think often the areas i am in have not been checked that much) and they don't give a map for androsaceum...

[Lori S.]

I haven't managed yet to find anything in this area that I could convince myself was E. androsaceum, but it was formerly said to be a subspecies of E. flavum and similar to it (though found in the high alpine, unlike your plant).  I don't see that the inflorescence on your plant has a subtending circle of bracts, as on E. flavum.  This description (http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=250060170)  does say, however, that the subtending bracts on E. androsaceum are "often" absent...  but I have never, ever seen subtending bracts on the plant you show (and it is common in some alpine areas here).

I'd still say your plant is E. ovalifolium...  but it would be great if someone who has more knowledge of North American eriogonums would jump in, as I have puzzled over "E. androsaceum" frequently also!

Your plant is the same one that occurs commonly above treeline in dry scree in this area (and less commonly in wetter alpine areas) - this link shows some photos of it (and also of E. umbellatum in different habitat in the same area).
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=343.45

Here's the description of E. ovalifolium, which indicates leaf shape as quite variable:  "blade oblanceolate to elliptic or spatulate to rounded".  (The one that occurs in Alberta, BTW, is var. ovalifolium).
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=250060437

The Royer and Dickinson book (which I also have) is useful and a cut above many others (mainly as it contains more species), but like other books of its kind, I find it sometimes tries to simplify things overly much (compared to more in-depth references), which can also be a bit misleading at times.

[Hans A.]

Some actual pictures,
a tiny Sternbergia sicula from Crete,
Nymphaea x daubenyana, a light blue Nymphaeahybrid,
Merendera montana with 5 petals, as every year,
a tiny beauty is Muscari parviflorum, received this autumn from Jenny Archibald,
not large but more floriferous Cyclamen cilicium,
Narcissus elegans - also very floriferous (a pic for Maggi  )
Arbutus unedo fruits - beautyful, but not very tasty
and a single leaf of a Cyclamen graecum

[cohan]

thanks, lori--i'll take your word that its ovalifolium--i knew from seed lists that the species should be quite variable, but clearly this plant does not have round or oval leaves as in royer/dickinson, so that threw me off..
it certainly can't be anything rare, as i found 5 plants in this small area, which is essentially the lowest slope of  a 'small mountain'; the pattern of bare rock alternating with patches of woods and other vegetation continues up from this site, after the unnatural (but probably not a barrier to at least windblown seed) divide of the highway carved through..
likely the distribution map in the same book needs to be filled in more!
i didn't see the ovalifolium at first in your nargs link, but went back a page and found it... very different looking in green summer colours...
i assumed you must be posting there, but i haven't bothered visiting much since i can't post...lol

[TheOnionMan]

Hans, Narcissus elegans is awesome!  Love it

Now some actual discussion on the challenging cushion plants, the North American buckwheats or Eriogonum. It seems that the species E. androsaceum is one that "falls through the cracks", a legitimate species but one that does not show up much when doing a google search, and almost no reliable photos seem to be available.  I checked the pages of James Reveal, the father of Eriogonum, at: http://www.plantsystematics.org/reveal/ 
but in the photo galleries there are no photos of E. androsaceum, although he has an entry for it being a legit species.

http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=ERAN5

I went searching the references, and found an article entitled "Some Elegant Eriogonums" by Roy Davidson, Bulletin of the American Rock Garden Society, Vol.34, Fall 1976, No.4, which reports: "a congested bun, forming a domed, rosy-tinted mound with brown-marcescent leaves below, the fresh ones pallid green cobwebbed with hairs, turning pretty pinkish and then to a soft brown-rose. Above this the flowers are a strong yellow, of mustard richness, and also with a rosy glow, topping off short stalks with a midway interruption of small leafy bracts.  This might be sometimes listed as a taxonomic ally of E. flavum, from which it is said to differ markely in its compact habit and consequent greater appeal to the gardener; certainly it is rich reward in itself, a fairly glowing polster."

From Cohan's photos, I can't make out whether there are some cauline leafy bracts on the flowering stems, and Lori as you point out, the floras report that this characteristic (mid stem bracts) is not necessarily consistent, although from what I can see in my research, E. flavum has such intermediate stem bracts, whereas E. androsaceum does not. Maybe Mr. Reveal could offer an opinion, his email is available on the link I provide.

[Mark Griffiths]

a few from me, Viola hederacea (isn't that now something else, not even a viola?) allium callimishon (is that spelt right, I couldn't find it on google), oxalis lobata 9that now has a new name now maybe).

 

[TheOnionMan]

a few from me, Viola hederacea (isn't that now something else, not even a viola?) allium callimishon (is that spelt right, I couldn't find it on google), oxalis lobata 9that now has a new name now maybe).

Mark, a very fine pot full of Allium callimischon ssp. haemostictum!

[Maggi Young]

a few from me, Viola hederacea (isn't that now something else, not even a viola?) allium callimishon (is that spelt right, I couldn't find it on google), oxalis lobata that now has a new name now maybe).

 

it's Allium callimischon, Mark. and with the red spots,Allium callimischon ssp. haemostictum , if I follow McMark aright!

[TheOnionMan]

 it's Allium callimischon, Mark. and with the red spots,Allium callimischon ssp. haemostictum , if I follow McMark aright!

Correct