Image of the day - 2012

[Lori S.]

Yes, Castilleja.  Interesting, I've only seen the orange-red flowered ones below the subalpine in this area (and further east in the parkland and boreal forest).

[cohan]

It was suggested to me last year by a Castilleja guy from the U.S., on flickr, that these populations (there was someone else who'd photographed similar, I forget the spot now, but I'd say Sundre-ish) were likely hybrid populations, possibly between C miniata and -I forge- lutescens? which is interesting, since in my area there are only miniata and the 'hybrids' no other stands of another clear species; however, miniata is also supposed to have colour variations, and from palest salmon through scarlet are very common here, and creamy colours are not at all unusual. I'm not sure where the boundary of miniata ends and the 'hybrids' start, since the colours I mention above I've seen in a number of places, and then just the one colony I've shown before with the wild mixed bi/tri colour plants  which I've shown here in the Castilleja thread(I'm sure its not the only colony, just the only one I've seen-- hundreds of miles of back roads and farmland, I just happen to have passed that site).
Here's the old thread, which I added some more images to just now, and a couple pics from there as a teaser...
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=592.msg19524#msg19524

There is another varied population close to me, but not as varied as that one, I'll try to add some pics of that later..

 

Just found an album of the second colony I mentioned, this one is right up the road from me...
https://picasaweb.google.com/111492944361897930115/July102011Castilleja

[Hoy]

It seems to be two or more pairs of genes controlling the production of red pigment in those plants.

[cohan]

Something interesting going on, though I don't know what it is There are a couple of yellow-ish flowered species that I have not seen in my area but by the map are not that far away, so miniata could have mixed with one of them..

I should point out that in some of the pics it may look like two differently coloured flowers- eg pale and orange- are on the same plant, they aren't, there are just a lot of plants growing very close at times..

[Hoy]

Last week we visited a friend's garden. This lily was impressive! 2 m tall and 1m wide (started with one bulb some years ago). No name though.

[cohan]

Impressive for sure! 

A different kind of impressive- near the Athabasca Glacier, Columbia Icefields, swathes of Dryas, Arctostaphylos and Arctous..

[Hoy]

A magnificent view! It begs for a hike

[Lori S.]

Really interesting to see the Castilleja in your area, Cohan.  The leaves on some of the light coloured ones in your album look very distinctly different (broad and rounded)... I'm surprised that they would not be a different species?

Fabulous lily, Trond!  With the continuing onslaught from lily beetles here (it seems they are able to get through at least 2 cycles, or at least were able to in this warm summer), I'm starting to consider getting rid of mine... not that I ever grew any so well as that anyway!

Great view, Cohan. 

[cohan]

I really don't know more about the Castilleja, Lori, I was hoping for more input from the guy in the U.S., but he probably forgot and I haven't got around to pestering him..lol. There is a lot of variety in those populations, and I haven't actually tried to group other characters with flower colours. It doesn't seem the pale ones could be a distinct species, since they only occur (that I've seen) in these mixed populations. When I see scattered plants or small groups of plants, they tend to look like plain miniata. Perhaps, if they are hybrid, the leaf character goes along with flower (bract) colour.. checking now, miniata leaves are said to be 'narrowly lanceolate to ovate, 3-nerved, usually glabrous or sparingly pubescent, entire or sometimes shallowly 3-lobed above' lots of room for variation in that!
Looking now at C occidentalis, it seems a likely candidate in the hybrid- pale yellow bracts, often with purplish bases, as in my mixed plants; 'leaves linear to lanceolate, entire or sometimes with 1-2 linear lobes' . this species appears on the map farther to the west of me, but I have never seen a population of all yellow plants. It is said to intergrade with rhexifolia (also a range of colours including possible bi-colours, varying leaves and hairiness), which also intergrades with miniata and hispida!
Interestingly, Flora of Alberta says occidentalis' relationship to elegans (not described for Alberta) remains to be established- images on Google show some bi-coloured bracts also, though mostly they are much to red-violet for anything here..

Also interesting, hispida (rather scarce on the map, and farther southwest of me) shows quite a range of colours; bracts typically more cleft, but it is supposed to intergrade with rhexifolia which intergrades with miniata and occidentalis...

So I'm not really any farther ahead...lol While miniata is the only species clearly in my area according to the range maps, occidentalis, lutescens, hispida, rhexifolia and sessiliflora are all no farther away than other plants that I have definitely found... Of those, occidentalis and rhexifolia at least look like possibilities in the mix.. I guess next year I have to measure flower parts, and pay closer attention to amount/type of hairiness..

[Hoy]

You know, Cohan, the different forms could have had overlapping distributions earlier.

[cohan]

Yes, exactly- the distribution maps are only as complete as the groundwork- just in my small area there are roads every 2 miles north/south and 1 mile east/west and I've travelled many but not all of them around here, and find different things in many places, besides which its all private land, and no idea at all what grows away from the roadsides! I have no idea what botanising the maps are based on, no doubt pieced together from many different people's work. I've found a number of plants in my area not showing right here on the map, and the situation is changing over time: before european settlement, the natives burned the forest here to draw in grazing herds, obviously encouraging a flora suited to that pattern, later farmers and oil work create another patchwork of vegetation types, and it seems some plants follow the roadways in from the foothills and prairies in what would otherwise be mostly boreal forest..
All of which is a longwinded way of saying- other species could have been here before, and both species and hybrid populations are still on the move.. I'm pretty sure these hybrid plants are  derived from other hybrid plants rather than directly from the parents, - I imagine the 2 or more species coming together in the foothills and their hybrid progeny spreading from there, but it's only speculation on my part..

[Todd Boland]

That Lily is spectacular!

Todays image is a Rhododendron at our Botanical garden.  It is an unregistered hybrid we called Frilled Ivory.  Currently, the plant has nearly 30 trusses open!  Almost as many as it did last May.  Bizarre!

[RickR]

So Frilled Ivory saves some flower buds for spring bloom, or is it just weird this year?

[Spiegel]

Everything seems to be weird this year.  Any number of plants have been blooming at the wrong time.  Do you think this will spoil the spring bloom on the rhododendron, Todd?

[Spiegel]

Blooming now and label gone.  Can anyone i.d. this for me?