thebashfulbotanist - Tumblr blog

[thebashfulbotanist]

There are actually four species of Arundinaria now, all native to the US: hill cane, river cane, switch cane, and Tallapoosa cane (this one was just described in 2023!).

I study bamboo, and my go-to way to distinguish between Arundinaria and invasive Phyllostachys is Phyllostachys usually produces two branches at each node that stick straight out from the stem. Arundinaria varies in number of branches it produces (1-3), but they're strongly "ascending", meaning they're held really tight against the culm and basically stick straight up.

One of the great tragedies of the destruction of native canebrakes was the extinction of the Bachman's warbler. This bird was likely a bamboo specialist, and when the bamboo was killed, the birds were put under huge pressure, almost certainly contributing to their extinction.

y'all ever reach the end of google

[thebashfulbotanist]

One of the weirdest plants I've ever seen is Corynaea crassa, which a colleague found when we were on a trip to Cerro de la Muerte in Costa Rica. It's a parasitic plant with a large underground structure and these weird flowering structures aboveground, with no photosynthetic leaves or stems. In the Andes, this plant is sometimes used as a male aphrodisiac (supposedly it doesn't work for women). It seems to like high elevations, but has multiple hosts it can parasitize.

[thebashfulbotanist]

Can we get uhhhh the bg3 blog pretty please 👀

I'm sorry, man, there is no bg3 blog.

[thebashfulbotanist]

Epidendrum lacustre is an interesting species of Central and South American orchid. It's found in the mountains at elevations of 1,200 to 2,500 meters. It's typically found growing on trees or rocks (as an epiphyte or lithophyte), although I found this one growing on the ground beneath a wind turbine. The scientific name gives it the common name "lake orchid", and refers to the fact that the type was found on a half-submerged log. They do tend to prefer wet, cloud forest environments, although this one was nowhere near a lake.

[thebashfulbotanist]

Sorry about that, I did NOT mean to reblog a baroque-style digital painting of Wyll Ravenguard from Baldur's Gate 3 to the botany blog. Tumblr just automatically reblogs things to whatever blog I reblogged to last

[thebashfulbotanist]

Honestly the best thing for wildlife is to learn to appreciate the beauty of last years dead stems and leaves in their own right. But if you MUST clean up your garden, wait until cherries pears and apples are done blooming and temperatures are not in danger of dipping below 50 degrees. Cut old stems to 12", leave leaves or rake them into beds where they can mulch naturally!

[thebashfulbotanist]

This cute little plant is Turnera callosa, an endemic of Mexico. It's found in seasonally dry tropical habitats, and, accordingly, has some fairly large underground structures to survive these conditions. Although it doesn't look like the Passiflora we're probably all most familiar with, it's actually in the passionflower family, Passifloraceae!

[thebashfulbotanist]

I love weird fungi, and these fungi, Cookeina tricholoma, are pretty weird. They're often called bristly tropical cups or hongo de copa rosada in Spanish, which is the name you'd probably hear where I found these, in Jalisco, Mexico. They were more orange than pink, though!

[thebashfulbotanist]

When I think of plants in the gentian family, I usually think of small, low-growing wildflowers. Not Frasera fastigiata! Clustered Green Gentian, can get to be quite tall. It's not a terribly common wildflower, either, in part because it likes meadows and clearings in forests in areas that have mostly been converted for agriculture and rangeland. We found this on in the Blue Mountains in Washington State - with some cattle keenly keeping an eye out for tasty forbs nearby.

[thebashfulbotanist]

Here we go again, Pacific Northwesterners! It's that time of the year! If you have a garden, for vegetables or ornamentals, now's the time to look for these. We've been removing shotweed (Caradmine hirsuta), Stinky Bob (Geranium robertianum), and creeping buttercup (Ranunculus repens) from our allotment.

But just wait - in another month, we'll have the first trilliums to look forward to as our reward.

A “weed” in this case is defined as a plant that causes ecological harm by out-competing native plants.

[thebashfulbotanist]

I certainly don't want to use our blog as a platform for discourse, but I think it's important to bear in mind that every place is different. Dandelions don't just invade disturbed areas, although that may be the case where you live. I appreciate that @plantanarchy mentioned this.

In many places, dandelions may not be problematic. In others, they are problematic, but are so widespread they will never be eradicated. They're excellent at drifting to remote boreal forests where they're some of the only nonnative species. They're particularly a problem around Alaska and northern Canada, in parks like Kenai Fjords and Denali, and sensitive subalpine zones, like Mount Washington in New Hampshire. Removal efforts are important in areas like those.

They're a plant 1600s European colonists loved and deliberately spread in North America, but that doesn't necessarily make them bad, either. The Europeans didn't do this maliciously. The dandelions did their job - they spread rapidly, outcompeted native "weeds" in flower beds, and survived tough conditions (we found a 1672 mention of how within just 40 years, they were established growing feral). They're definitely not the worst plant spread by 1600s Europeans. Lots of people (including First Nations and Native American people - thanks to the folks who pointed that out!) still use them today!

I think what's most troublesome for me is the idea that dandelions are a scrappy, unappreciated underdog. They're just a plant.

[thebashfulbotanist]

Posting this here because: This is highly misleading! Dandelions can be weeds, since a weed is a plant anywhere you don't want it. That word has no immutable botanical meaning.

Asteraceae, the sunflower family, contains many invasive noxious weeds. It just depends where they're growing. A bull thistle - also in Asteraceae - is a beautiful, culturally meaningful plant in Scotland, and a horrible weed in Washington State, for example.

In places where they compete with fragile native wildflowers, dandelions are absolutely terrible weeds! In some municipalities, they're legally defined as noxious weeds because of their ability to take over and outcompete both native plants and other food crops. We always, always recommend native plants before we would a nonnative, but especially when the nonnative is as hardy as a dandelion.

Plus: dandelions have a problematic history in the United States, because they were spread by European colonists, sometimes out of ignorance, and sometimes to deliberately outcompete native plants that First Nations and Native American people used.

Where they're native, though, go nuts. Love them!

[thebashfulbotanist]

Hoodia gordonii in flower in the Tanqua Karoo.

[thebashfulbotanist]

Flat-Lays of Halved Walnuts and Other Shells Study the Diversity of the Botanical Fruits

[thebashfulbotanist]

Oxalis loricata, Patagonia, Chile

Photograph by Martin Sheader

[thebashfulbotanist]

Splitgill mushroom, Schizophyllum commune, is a very interesting little mushroom. They're found all over the world and, despite their tough texture, are sometimes eaten in tropical areas, especially in parts of Mexico. Despite their pretty appearance and edibility, they're also one of the more dangerous mushrooms in an unexpected way: They can infect human bodies, especially the lungs. Although there are fungal spores everywhere and breathing some is unavoidable, it's best not to bring these too close to your face (unless well cooked) to avoid breathing their spores as much as possible. I'd personally avoid collecting them, just to be careful!