Jepsonia parryi

Jepsonia parryi is an uncommon species of flowering plant in the saxifrage family known by the common names coast jepsonia and Parry's jepsonia.
It is native to the coast and inland hills chaparral of southern California and Baja California.

Jepsonia parryi is a small perennial herb producing usually only a single leaf from an unbranched caudex. The leaf is round or kidney-shaped and has a ruffled, lobed edge.
The plant flowers in fall, producing a naked brown peduncle holding a small inflorescence of fewer than four flowers. The tiny flower has purplish-veined petals each about half a centimeter long.
The fruit is a brown-striped green or tan capsule.

Jepsonia parryi (Saxifragaceae) has heterostylous flowers and is strongly self-incompatible. Pin flowers have long styles, large stigmas, short stamens, and numerous, small pollen grains with finely sculptured walls. Thrum flowers have short styles, small stigmas, long stamens, and fewer, larger pollen grains with coarsely sculptured walls. Pin plants and thrum plants occur in a 1:1 ratio in field populations. 

Although the insect pollinators of J. parryi transfer ample compatible pollen to pin and thrum stigmas to account for full seed production, much of the pollen deposited on stigmas is incompatible. Analysis of the pollen deposits on stigmas collected from field populations indicates that compatible "legitimate" pollination of pin and thrum flowers is essentially random and is not obviously aided by floral dimorphism. It is suggested that although heterostyly had a positive adaptive value in the past evolutionary history of Jepsonia it is no longer adaptive under the present pollination regime, although it is maintained because of its strong genetic fixity.

Ribes aureum

Ribes aureum, known commonly as the golden currant, is a species in the genus Ribes. It is native to Canada, most of the United States (except the southeast) and northern Mexico. The species Ribes odoratum is closely related, and sometimes named Ribes aureum var. villosum.

Description                                
Ribes aureum is a small to medium-sized deciduous shrub, 2–3 metres (6.6–9.8 ft) tall. Leaves are green, with 3 or 5 lobes, turning red in autumn.

The plant blooms in spring with racemes of conspicuous golden yellow flowers, often with a pronounced, spicy fragrance similar to that of cloves or vanilla. Flowers may also be shades of cream to reddish, and are borne in clusters of up to 15.

 The shrub produces berries about 1 centimeter (0.4 inch) in diameter from an early age. Ripe fruits, amber yellow to black, are edible raw, but very tart, and are usually cooked with sugar. The flowers are also edible.


Varieties                   

• Ribes aureum var. aureum (< 3,000 ft; western U.S.) 
• Ribes aureum var. gracillimum (< 3,000 ft; California coastal ranges) 
• Ribes aureum var. villosum — clove currant (syn: Ribes odoratum; west of Mississippi River) 

Cultivation                                                             

Ribes aureum is widely cultivated as an ornamental plant, in traditional, native plant, drought tolerant, and wildlife gardens, and natural landscaping projects. Unlike some other species of currants, Ribes aureum is in the remarkably drought-tolerant group of Ribes. Named cultivars have been introduced also.

This currant species is susceptible to white pine blister rust (Cronartium ribicola), a fungus which attacks and kills pines, so it is sometimes eradicated from forested areas where the fungus is active to prevent its spread.

Ribes divaricatum

Ribes divaricatum is a species of in the genus Ribes found in the forests, woodlands, and coastal scrub of western North America from British Columbia to California. The three accepted varieties have various common names which include the word "gooseberry".

Varieties
-Ribes divaricatum var. divaricatum, or spreading gooseberry is found in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.
-Ribes divaricatum var. parishii, called Parish's gooseberry, is found only in California.
-Ribes divaricatum var. pubiflorum, known as straggly gooseberry is native to both California and Oregon.

Ribes divaricatum is a shrub sometimes reaching 3 meters in height with woody branches with one to three thick brown thorns at leaf nodes. The leaves are generally palmate in shape and edged with teeth. The blades are up to 6 centimeters long and borne on petioles.


The inflorescence is a small cluster of hanging flowers, each with reflexed purple-tinted green sepals and smaller, lighter petals encircling long, protruding stamens. The fruit is a sweet-tasting berry up to a centimeter wide which is black when ripe. It is similar to Ribes lacustre and Ribes lobbii, but the former has smaller, reddish to maroon flowers and the latter has reddish flowers that resemble those of fuchsias and sticky leaves.

Ornithogalum narbonense

Ornithogalum narbonense, common names Narbonne star-of-Bethlehem, pyramidal star-of-Bethlehem and southern star-of-Bethlehem, is a herbaceous perennial flowering plant with underground bulbs, belonging to the genus Ornithogalum of the Asparagaceae family. The Latin name Ornithogalum of the Genus, meaning "bird's milk", derives from the Greek, while the species name narbonense refers to the French town of Narbonne.

Ornithogalum narbonense reaches on average 40–50 centimetres (16–20 in) of height, with a maximum of 70 centimetres (28 in). The bulbs are whitish and ovoid. The stems are erect and the long leaves are fleshy and lance-shaped, 8–15 millimetres (0.31–0.59 in) wide. The raceme is pyramidal, with 25-75 hermaphrodite flowers. Each flower has a long bract of 1–2 centimetres (0.39–0.79 in) and six star-shaped milky white petals bearing a pale green central vein, while the buds are oval, with longitudinal green and white stripes. 
The six stamens have a white filament holding yellow anthers of 4 millimetres (0.16 in). The flowers are pollinated by insects. The flowering period extends from May through June.


This species is present in the Mediterranean Basin, Turkey, Armenia and northwestern Iran.
This plant grows in fields and grassy and dry areas, in waste ground and in rocky terrains. In the south-east of its range it can be found at an altitude of 0–3,000 metres (0–9,843 ft) above sea level; in Crete at 0–1,150 metres (0–3,773 ft).

Chionodoxa luciliae

Chionodoxa luciliae (syn. C. gigantea) or Lucile's Glory-of-the-snow is a bulbous perennial from west Turkey flowering in early spring. After flowering, it goes into dormancy until the next spring. The Latin name is in honour of Lucile, the wife of the Swiss botanist Pierre Edmond Boissier.
Like all members of the genus Chionodoxa, the bases of the stamens are flattened and closely clustered in the middle of the flower. In the related genus Scilla, the stamens are not flattened or clustered together.The differences are not considered by some botanists as sufficient to create a separate genus, so they include this species in Scilla.

Each bulb produces two leaves, up to 8 cm long and 2 cm wide, and at most one flowering stem, up to 10 cm long. The flowers are produced in a loose pyramidal raceme, with 2-3 flowers per stem, which face upwards. Each flower is up to 3.5 cm across. 

The base of each tepal is white (as are the stamen filaments), producing a white 'eye'. The outer part of the tepals is violet-blue. The species can be distinguished from the commonest form grown in gardens, C. siehei, by the much smaller number of slightly larger flowers per stem.

Eucomis autumnalis

Eucomis autumnalis (autumn pineapple flower, autumn pineapple lily) is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae, native to South Africa. It is a summer flowering deciduous bulbous perennial. The flower stem to 40 cm (16 in) rises from a basal rosette of broad waxy leaves. The stalk (produced from mid to late summer) is tipped with a raceme of up to 125 flowers.

Description                                                           
The bulb of Eucomis autumnalis is up to 10 cm (4 in) across. The plant (including the inflorescence) can grow up to 60 cm (24 in) tall. The single inflorescence is a cylindrical raceme atop a stout stem, carrying more than 100 flowers, greenish-white in colour. The raceme is tipped with a tuft of leaf-like bracts, looking somewhat like the leaves on a pineapple top (the reason for the common name for this genus). When the flowers have been fertilised, the flowers turn green, making the inflorescence decorative while the trilocular (three-chambered) fruit ripens to produce shiny black round seeds.

Eucomis autumnalis makes a good horticultural specimen. Plant them in groups in the herbaceous border, in large pots, or in rockeries. The flowers last well, in the garden as well as the vase, and after flowering, the ripening fruit on the inflorescence are also decorative. Easy to grow, these bulbs should be planted with their tops at ground level.

They prefer a position of full sun (though they will tolerate partial shade), and prefer a rich and well composted soil. Adding well-rotted compost every spring and lots of water during the growing season will result in better flowering in the coming seasons. These plants are winter dormant, and frost hardy to Zone 9 (−7 °C / 20 °F).
This plant has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

A cultivar is available under the name E. autumnalis 'White Dwarf'. However, as of 2012, the RHS Plant Finder regards this as a variety of E. zambesiaca rather than E. autumnalis.

Propagate Eucomis autumnalis from seed sown in spring. Seedlings should emerge within 4–6 weeks. Seedlings should be protected for the first few years and are ready to be planted in the garden in their third year. Seedlings may take up to 5 seasons to bloom. The bulb also may produce offsets, which can be removed while the plant is dormant. The bulblets can then be planted the following spring. Leaf cuttings can be taken while the plant is in active growth. 

If sections of 5 cm each can be planted in sterilised and well-drained soil are kept is a humid environment, tiny bulbs should form within a few months. Sterilised bulb scales, leaf bases or flower stalks can be used in tissue culture.

Agave victoriae-reginae

Agave victoriae-reginae (Queen Victoria agave, royal agave) is found in the Chihuahuan Desert in the Mexican States of Coahuila, Durango and Nuevo León, with about a half-dozen subspecies  of small species of succulent flowering perennial plant. The situation is complicated by hybrids with a number of other agave species.
It is cold-hardy as agaves go, and thus finds favor as a small accent in many northerly gardens. However it is recommended in the UK that this plant be kept in heated conditions under glass during winter. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

This agave is highly variable in form, but in general the rosettes are small and compact, growing to 0.5m, composed of short, rigid, thick leaves that are green with a pattern of distinctive white markings. The markings are generally along leaf keels or margins, giving a sort of polyhedral appearance. Marginal teeth are usually lacking, while the terminus of the leaf may include 1 to 3 spines, each 1.5–3 cm in length. Cream coloured flowers are borne in erect racemes up to 4m in length.

Scilla bifolia

Scilla bifolia (alpine squill[1] or two-leaf squill) is a herbaceous perennial growing from an underground bulb, belonging to the genus Scilla of the Asparagaceae family.
The specific epithet bifolia means "twin leaved".

Scilla bifolia grows from a bulb 1–2 cm (0.4–0.8 in) across. There are two or rarely three lance-shaped, curved, fleshy and shiny leaves The bases of the leaves clasp up to about the half of the stem (amplexicaul).
The flowering stems are erect and unbranched, 10–20 cm (4–8 in) high. The raceme bears 6-10 flowers, each 1 cm (0.4 in) across.

The flowers of Scilla bifolia are upward-facing, unlike the nodding flowers of Scilla siberica (Siberian squill). They bloom from early to late spring. The six tepals are deep violet-blue, more rarely white, pink, or purple. The fruit is a capsule 6–8 mm (0.2–0.3 in) across.
S. bifolia has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.

Scilla bifolia is native to Europe and western Russia south through Turkey to Syria. The plant is found in shady places, woods of beech or deciduous trees, and mountain grasslands.It grows at an altitude of 100–2,000 m (330–6,560 ft) above sea level.

Ornithogalum umbellatum

Ornithogalum umbellatum (star-of-Bethlehem, grass lily, nap-at-noon, eleven-o'clock lady), is a perennial bulbous flowering plant, native throughout most of southern and central Europe, north-western Africa and south-western Asia.

Ornithogalum umbellatum requires considerable moisture during winter and spring, but can tolerate summer drought. It can be grown in a woodland garden as semi-shade is preferable. It is hardy to hardiness zone 5, and can become weedy. The plant is toxic. It is used in some herbal remedies.
Suitable for: light (sandy), medium (loamy) and heavy (clay) soils. Suitable pH: acid, neutral and basic (alkaline) soils. It can grow in semi-shade (light woodland) or no shade. It prefers moist soil.

This plant is perennial with bulbs below ground; the bulb is 15–25 millimetres (0.6–1.0 in) long and 18–32 mm (0.7–1.3 in) in diameter. It has 6–10 leaves, linear with a white line on the upper surface, up to 30 centimetres (12 in) long and 8 mm (0.3 in) broad, and a scape of 10–30 cm (4–12 in). The flowers group in a corymbose raceme with 6–20 flowers, and are white with a green stripe outside.

Seed - best sown as soon as it is ripe in a cold frame. Sow the seed thinly and leave the seedlings undisturbed in the pots for their first dormancy, but apply liquid feed at intervals, especially in their second year of growth. Divide the bulbs at the end of their second year of growth, putting 2 - 3 bulbs in each pot. Grow them on for one more year and them plant them out into their permanent positions whilst they are dormant. The seed can also be sown in a cold frame in early spring. Division of offsets in September/October. The larger bulbs can be replanted immediately into their permanent positions. It is best to pot up the smaller bulbs and grow them on for a year before planting them out when dormant in late summer.

Populus tremuloides

Populus tremuloides is a deciduous tree native to cooler areas of North America, one of several species referred to by the common name Aspen. It is commonly called quaking aspen, trembling aspen, American aspen, Quakies, mountain or golden aspen, trembling poplar, white poplar, popple, and even more names. The trees have tall trunks, up to 25 meters (82 feet) tall, with smooth pale bark, scarred with black. The glossy green leaves, dull beneath, become golden to yellow, rarely red, in autumn. The species often propagates through its roots to form large groves based on a single rhizome.

The Quaking Aspen is the most widely distributed tree in North America, being found from Canada to central Mexico. It is the defining species of the aspen parkland biome in the Prairie Provinces of Canada.

The quaking or trembling of the leaves that is referred to in the common names is due to the flexible flattened petioles. The specific epithet, tremuloides, means similar to Populus tremula, the European aspen. Some species of Populus have petioles flattened partially along their length, while the aspens and some other poplars have them flattened from side to side along the entire length of the petiole.

A tall, fast growing tree, usually 20–25 m (66–82 ft) at maturity, with a trunk 20–80 cm (0.66–2.62 ft) in diameter; records are 36.5 m (120 ft) in height and 1.37 m (4.5 ft) in diameter.
The bark is relatively smooth, colored greenish-white to gray, and is marked by thick black horizontal scars and prominent black knots. Parallel vertical scars are tell-tale signs of elk, which strip off aspen bark with their front teeth.

The leaves on mature trees are nearly round, 4–8 centimeters (1.6–3.1 in) in diameter with small rounded teeth, and a 3–7 centimeters (1.2–2.8 in) long, flattened petiole. Young trees (including root sprouts) have much larger—10–20 centimeters (3.9–7.9 in) long—nearly triangular leaves.
The flowers are catkins 4–6 centimeters (1.6–2.4 in) long, produced in early spring before the leaves; it is dioecious, with male and female catkins on different trees. The fruit is a 10-centimeter-long (3.9 in) pendulous string of 6-millimeter (0.24 in) capsules, each capsule containing about ten minute seeds embedded in cottony fluff, which aids wind dispersal of the seeds when they are mature in early summer.

The quaking aspen is the State Tree of Utah.

Hesperoyucca whipplei

Hesperoyucca whipplei (syn. Yucca whipplei ) (chaparral yucca, our Lord's candle, Spanish bayonet, Quixote yucca or foothill yucca 
is a species of flowering plant closely related to, and formerly usually included in, the genus Yucca. It is native to southern California, United States and Baja California, Mexico, where it occurs mainly in chaparral, coastal sage scrub, and oak woodland plant communities at altitudes of 0–2500 m.

It produces a stemless cluster of long, rigid leaves which end in a sharp point. The leaves are 20–90 cm (rarely to 125 cm) long and 0.7–2 cm wide, and gray-green in color. The leaf edges are finely saw-toothed.
The single inflorescence grows extremely fast, and reaches 0.9–3 m tall, bearing hundreds of elliptical (bell shaped) white to purplish flowers 3 cm diameter on a densely branched panicle up to 70 cm broad, covering the upper half of the inflorescence. The fruit is a dry winged capsule, which splits open at maturity to release the seeds.
The plant takes several (usually 5+) years to reach maturity and flower, at which point it usually dies. Most subspecies produce offshoots from the base, so that although the parent plant flowers and dies, a cluster of clones around its base continue to grow and reproduce. It may also grow back from its base after much of its foliage has been scorched off by the wildfires that frequent its range.

It is pollinated by the California yucca moth (Tegeticula maculata), a relationship which has become a classic example of symbiosis. Working at night, the female yucca moth collects up to a dozen sacks of pollen grains called pollinia and forms them into a massive ball. She then flies to another plant and lands on the ovary of a flower. 

Standing with her head near the stigma, she inserts her ovipositor into the ovary wall and lays a single egg. She then rubs her pollen mass against the central stigmatic depression, ensuring pollination. The pollinated ovary will now produce many seeds, ensuring an ample food supply for the larva. Although many associations of Yucca and yucca moth exist, Tegeticula muculata and Hesperoyucca whipplei form an exclusive relationship.

Hydnora triceps

Hydnora triceps's fruits in half

Hydnora triceps is a holoparasitic flowering plant native to Africa that grows on the roots of Euphorbia dregeana. Completely lacking in chlorophyll, it depends on its host for water and nutrients. The plant structure is composed of only specialized stems, buds, and haustoria lacking any leaf-like structures entirely. It spends its life underground and only emerges to flower.

German botanist Johann Franz Drège described Hydnora triceps in 1830 after collecting it from the Northwestern Cape. It was then thought extinct for many years until rediscovered by botanist Johann Visser in 1988. It is one of four species of parasitic underground plants in the genus Hydnora.[1] Their family, the Hydnoraceae, is the only angiosperm family totally lacking leaves or scales.

Hydnora triceps is found only in the northwestern Cape and southern Namibia. Additionally, since it is entirely dependent on Euphorbia dregeana, which also seems to be its exclusive host, it is only found with a Euphorbia dregeana plant. About 10% of all the Euphorbia dregeana plants found in the regions where Hydnora triceps occurs, were parasitized.

The dominant climate where Hydnora triceps is found is semi-arid. Temperatures can range from 20 to 35 °C during the day, but can reach highs of over 40 °C. The average rainfall is 350 to 700mm (14 – 28 in).[3] The soil is extremely dry and lacking in nutrients. The major vegetation found in this area is scattered patches of grass and shrubs. Hydnora triceps is a perennial plant, and will always be associated with a Euphorbia dregeana plant.

Flowers of Hydnora triceps have chambers. The androecium consists of an antheral ring, leading down a tube, to a cushion-like stigma. The length of the sub-antheral chamber varies from 2 to 10 cm (0.8 to 4 in) in length. In an immature flower, the antheral ring is open, and pollen develops on ridges along the outside. Then as it matures, the antheral ring closes creating "pollen platforms" within. There is an osmophore, a scent producing structure, in the folds of each lobe which is heart shaped and white. The flower is rarely seen above ground, and if it is, only the very tip of it is seen protruding from the surface. Typically, it is found up to 5 cm (2 in) below the surface, and can be found by the cracks in the soil above it.

The ovary is located below the sub-antheral chamber and produces the fruits. The fruits have a tough, dark brown pericarp, which is anywhere from 1 to 10 mm thick, surrounding a white fleshy interior through which are threaded strands of minute brown seeds. The fruits can weigh anywhere from 225 to 275 g, and are 3 to 10 cm (1.2–4 in) in diameter. They taste and smell faintly of coconut, with a texture (when ripe) like a mealy apple. The fruit, technically a berry, may split at maturity. Sometimes, however, the mammals simply create a hole themselves and eat the pulp. It is not known exactly which mammals eat the fruit, or what attracts them.