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Difficult Creek, Difficult Management Choices, W. John Hayden
Difficult Creek, Difficult Management Choices, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
Virginia is blessed with many botanical wonderlands; see Chapter 4 of the Flora of Virginia (Weakley et al. 2012) for thumbnail sketches describing 50 of these special places. One such treasure, Difficult Creek Natural Area Preserve, is home to a thriving population of the 2019 VNPS Wildflower of the year, Ceanothus americanus (New Jersey Tea). Paradoxically, however, our featured wildflower of last year is inextricably linked to a difficult conservation management decision.
Wildflower Of The Year—Cymes, Not Corymbs!, W. John Hayden
Wildflower Of The Year—Cymes, Not Corymbs!, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
I hit a snag while composing the text for this year’s wildflower of the year brochure on Wild Geranium, Geranium maculatum. The problem concerned the proper descriptive term for its inflorescence, i.e., the pattern in which its flowers are grouped. In more than one source, I read that, for the family Geraniaceae, inflorescences are cymes (Figures 1 and 2), but those same sources indicated that inflorescences of Geranium maculatum are corymbs (Figure 4). That conflict caused me to scratch my head because cymes and corymbs are fundamentally different kinds of inflorescences.
Wild Geranium, Geranium Maculatum, 2020 Virginia Wildflower Of The Year, W. John Hayden
Wild Geranium, Geranium Maculatum, 2020 Virginia Wildflower Of The Year, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
Geranium maculatum was named by Linnaeus in his monumental Species Plantarum, published in1753. Geranium has long served as the type genus of Geraniaceae. The genus and family name are derived from the Greek word geranos, crane, in reference to the elongate fruiting styles common throughout the family. English common names like Cranesbill and Storksbill for relatives of Wild Geranium similarly refer to their elongate fruiting-stage styles. The species portion of the binomial, maculatum, means spotted, perhaps a reference to slight irregularities in petal pigmentation sometimes observed in this species.
Celebrating Nj Tea’S Unspecialized Pollination, W. John Hayden
Celebrating Nj Tea’S Unspecialized Pollination, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
Specialized pollination systems are the source of some of the most compelling stories in natural history. There is something appealing to the human psyche about what seems to be a reciprocal agreement between a given plant and its dedicated pollinator: the plant attracts a pollinator and provides ample nectar and/or pollen as a reward for the pollinator’s service in moving pollen from anthers to stigmas while foraging for food. Of course, these organisms have neither signed agreements nor memos of understanding. Instead, it has merely proven to the benefit of the plant, over time, to form certain floral structures, and …
Nitrogen Fixation In Roots Of Ceanothus, W. John Hayden
Nitrogen Fixation In Roots Of Ceanothus, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
Roots are usually out of sight and, therefore, out of mind. But as any good gardener will tell you, it is of utmost importance to understand those unique plant organs, even if their essential functions occur hidden from cursory observation. The red roots of the 2019 VNPS Wildflower of the Year, Ceanothus americanus, are particularly important because they host symbiotic bacteria that perform the essential function of nitrogen fixation. These prominent, knobby, distinctively pigmented roots are also the inspiration for the common name Redroot, applied to many species in the genus.
Fungus Creates Zombie Insects On Dogwood, W. John Hayden
Fungus Creates Zombie Insects On Dogwood, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
I have something I need to get off my chest. I have an obsession with, of all things, a fungus! And not just any fungus, but a fungus that infects, I am embarrassed to admit, Flowering Dogwood, the VNPS Wildflower of the Year for 2018. Yes, maybe I’ve gone off my rocker. But this fungus is so cool, so devious, so elegantly convoluted and weird—in a creepy sort of way—that I find myself utterly enthralled. Perhaps sharing my obsession with this fungus will prove therapeutic and permit me to return to my more socially respectable obsessive fascination with plants.
Unique Features Of Caenothus Trace To Earliest Stages Of Flower Development, W. John Hayden
Unique Features Of Caenothus Trace To Earliest Stages Of Flower Development, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
The basics of flower structure are straightforward. A “typical” flower (Figure 1) has four whorls of floral organs arranged in stereotypical order: sepals (lowermost and outermost), petals, stamens, and, finally, one or more carpels (pistils) located in the innermost (or uppermost) position. This is not rocket science. Names of these floral organs and their relative placement within the flower can be grasped readily by schoolchildren. Also “typical” but seldom emphasized in elementary lessons is the fact that the organs of each successive whorl occupy alternate radii; i.e., petals are routinely positioned between sepals, and stamens (if only one whorl) are …
New Jersey Tea, Ceanothus Americanus, 2019 Virginia Wildlflower Of The Year, W. John Hayden
New Jersey Tea, Ceanothus Americanus, 2019 Virginia Wildlflower Of The Year, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
New Jersey Tea is a low shrub, generally less than 1 m tall and often profusely branched. Stems are finely hairy, but may become smooth with age. Vegetative stems are perennial, but flowering stems persist for just a single year.
Black Cohosh Seed Germination And Conservation, W. John Hayden
Black Cohosh Seed Germination And Conservation, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
Like many plant enthusiasts, I have spent a considerable amount of time planting seeds. Every year I grow many vegetables—my garden always includes some annual bedding plants—and I sow seeds of cover crops (winter wheat, winter rye, and buckwheat) by the tens of thousands. While I have committed vast numbers of propagules to moist soil, I cannot say that I have watched every single one sprout. Nevertheless, I certainly have observed the germination process many, many times for lots of different seeds. For these seeds of garden plants, germination is quite rapid, just a few days to maybe as much …
Flowering Dogwood Survives Exotic Attack, W. John Hayden
Flowering Dogwood Survives Exotic Attack, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
It has been said that loss of native biodiversity from the effects of invasive exotic species is second only to that caused by outright habitat destruction. In the world of plants, some of the worst offenders are exotic species that actively invade intact natural habitats and, by their aggressive tendencies, crowd out native species. Attack by lianas (woody climbing plants) such as Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) and Oriental Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) can include effects similar to strangulation, brought on by twining around their host plant’s stems. It is not always the host, however, for which the …
How Cornus Florida Got Its Name, W. John Hayden
How Cornus Florida Got Its Name, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
In 1753, Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus was the first to apply the scientific name Cornus florida to the plant we know as Flowering Dogwood. That simple and straightforward declarative sentence belies the complexity and obscurity of how Linnaeus named this and nearly 6,000 other plants in his seminal work, Species Plantarum. To understand what Linnaeus actually did requires a dive into the arcane world of 18th-century botany. And that is what this article endeavors to accomplish, to explain how Cornus florida, the 2018 VNPS Wildflower of the Year, got its name.
Flowering Dogwood, Cornus Florida, 2018 Virginia Wildflower Of The Year, W. John Hayden
Flowering Dogwood, Cornus Florida, 2018 Virginia Wildflower Of The Year, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
The Flowering Dogwood is a small understory forest tree attaining heights of 5–15 m. Bark of older trees forms a checkered pattern. Twigs are smooth and range from green to purplish-red. Leaves are opposite, mostly ovate to wide-elliptic, and 6–13 cm long; bases may be rounded or tapered, if the latter, often unequally so; apices are acute to acuminate; vein pattern is pinnate with 4–6 secondary veins on each side of the midvein; secondary veins approaching the leaf margin curve toward the apex; upper and lower leaf surfaces range from glabrous to finely pubescent.
Butterfly, Dogwood Linked In Circle Of Life, W. John Hayden, Nicky Staunton
Butterfly, Dogwood Linked In Circle Of Life, W. John Hayden, Nicky Staunton
Biology Faculty Publications
What would it be like to live on a diet of nothing but flowers? From the perspective of human nutrition, conventional wisdom suggests that it would be difficult to obtain a well-balanced diet from flowers alone. We do, however, have the legend of the lotus-eaters, people encountered by Odysseus and his crew on their epic return journey from Troy. As recounted in the Odyssey, lotus-eaters lived life in a perpetual stupor, and the two crew members who sampled lotus flowers immediately lost all interest in returning to their homes in Ithaca. Upon seeing the danger of consuming these flowers—the botanical …
Black Bugbane & The Blues: Interactions Between Our Wildflower Of The Year And The Insect World, W. John Hayden
Black Bugbane & The Blues: Interactions Between Our Wildflower Of The Year And The Insect World, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
No, this article has nothing to do with American Roots music. Black Bugbane is one of several common names for the 2017 VNPS Wildflower of the Year, Actaea racemosa. And Blues refers to a subfamily of lycaenid butterflies, commonly referred to as Blues or Azures. The interactions between Black Bugbane, a.k.a., Black Cohosh, Appalachian Azure butterflies (Celastrina neglectamajor), and ants was recently summarized by VNPS charter member and past president Nicky Staunton (2015). In brief, Black Bugbane is the sole food source for caterpillars of Appalachian Azure butterflies, a situation that, superficially, might seem like any other caterpillar and host …
Actaea Racemosa: The Slender Wands Of Flowering Common Black Cohosh Beckon Us To Explore Woodlands, W. John Hayden
Actaea Racemosa: The Slender Wands Of Flowering Common Black Cohosh Beckon Us To Explore Woodlands, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
Common Black Cohosh is a perennial rhizomatous forest herb. Its horizontal rhizomes bear numerous adventitious roots on the underside and aerial stems of annual duration on the upper side, along with knobby scars left from aerial stems of previous years. Leaves are alternate, twice or thrice compound in ternate or pinnate patterns, and large—up to 1 m long. Individual leaflet size and shape vary with position in the large compound leaves, with position of a leaf on the stem, and from population to population. Most often leaflets are coarsely serrate, lobed to deeply incised, with a truncate to cuneate base …
Sepals And Petals And Stamens—Oh, My! Or, A Brief Discourse On Putative Homologies Of Perianth Elements Of Common Black Cohosh, W. John Hayden
Sepals And Petals And Stamens—Oh, My! Or, A Brief Discourse On Putative Homologies Of Perianth Elements Of Common Black Cohosh, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
I encountered some contradictory information while preparing to write the 2017 Wildflower of the Year brochure: some sources describe flowers of Actaea racemosa, Common Black Cohosh, as having petals, while others say petals are absent. How can that be? How could there be such uncertainty about this common plant, one known to science since before the time of Linnaeus? After a little research, I decided to describe Black Cohosh flowers as having a series of organs interpretable either as staminodes (nonfunctional stamens) or as petals located between its sepals and stamens (Figure 1). Frankly, I waffled on the petal issue, …
On The Complexity Of Simples, Pharmacognosy, And Actaea Racemosa, W. John Hayden
On The Complexity Of Simples, Pharmacognosy, And Actaea Racemosa, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
Pharmacognosy, a discipline at the intersection of botany and medicine, deals with knowledge about medicines derived from plants (Youngken 1950). A central goal of pharmacognosy is the accurate and consistent taxonomic identification of medicinal plants and medicinal plant products. Unlike drugstore pill bottles, medicinal plants in nature do not come with labels. One aspect of pharmacognosy, then, is the identification of whole plants found in nature. Much as in field botany and plant systematics, this aspect of pharmacognosy involves learning to recognize species by overall appearance (gestalt), or by dichotomous keys, or both.
Endless Symbioses Most Intricate, W. John Hayden
Endless Symbioses Most Intricate, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
Orchids, such as our Wildflower of the Year for 2016, Downy Rattlesnake Plantain (Goodyera pubescens) (Fig. 1), exemplify the interconnectedness of life on Earth. As would be the case for many kinds of plants, pollination comes readily to mind as a prominent example of mutualistic symbiosis. Downy Rattlesnake Plantain is pollinated by bumblebees and other native bees. The bees gain nectar and the orchid gets an efficient means to move pollen from one flower to another; each organism gains benefit from the interaction, the very definition of mutualism. Pollination by bees is widespread among the orchids, but there …
Seed Dispersal: A Tale Of Two Species, W. John Hayden
Seed Dispersal: A Tale Of Two Species, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
Orchids have minute, dustlike seeds. In this respect, Goodyera pubescens (Downy Rattlesnake Plantain), the 2016 VNPS Wildflower of the Year, is a typical orchid. Like all other orchids, Goodyera seeds contain little more than a few embryonic cells enclosed in a thin seed coat. There are two advantages to small seed size in orchids: minute seeds can be produced in prodigious quantities, and they can disperse over great distances by wind.
Jewels Of The Orchidaceae, W. John Hayden
Jewels Of The Orchidaceae, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
To temperate-zone plant enthusiasts, the orchid family seems more than a little strange. On the one hand, native orchids grow wild without assistance from people, they are rooted in the soil, and they survive freezing cold winter temperatures. On the other hand, the tropical orchids that we encounter are ornamental plants, pampered by their human caregivers, cultured indoors in pots filled with fir bark or other media designed to mimic the plants’ natural epiphytic habit, and, as a group, these ornamental tropical orchids have essentially zero tolerance to frost. Of course, their flowers, fruits, and seeds define them all as …
2016 Virginia Wildflower Of The Year: Downy Rattlesnake Plantain, Goodyera Pubescens, W. John Hayden
2016 Virginia Wildflower Of The Year: Downy Rattlesnake Plantain, Goodyera Pubescens, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
Regardless of season, Downy Rattlesnake Plantain is a delight to encounter in the woods of Virginia. This evergreen orchid is a perennial rhizomatous herb of the forest floor. The horizontal rhizomes, usually covered lightly by leaf litter, bear roots at intervals and terminate in a rosette of leaves. Leaves are alternate, somewhat crowded together, and only slightly elevated above ground level. Leaf blades are ovate, 3–8 cm long, and 1.5–3 cm wide, often of varying size within a rosette. Leaves are present year-round, bluish-green, with prominent white veins; on each leaf, a broad midvein is flanked by two smaller veins …
There's Much Left To Learn: Clethra's Chromosomes, W. John Hayden
There's Much Left To Learn: Clethra's Chromosomes, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
Many would argue that chromosomes, genes, and DNA form the ineluctable essence of modern biology. Not only do these fundamental components of living cells provide moment-to-moment instructions by which cells carry out basic life processes, they also control inheritance of characteristics from one generation to the next. These essential functions of DNA stem from its repetitive structure. Hugely long DNA molecules are built from just four components, referenced by their singleletter abbreviations, A, C, G, and T. It is the specific sequence of these As, Cs, Gs, and Ts that constitutes the coded information of DNA. Moreover, molecular biologists have …
When It Comes To Clethra: Roots Matter, W. John Hayden
When It Comes To Clethra: Roots Matter, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
Roots, too often, are out of sight and out of mind, but they are critical for vigorous, healthy plant growth. All plant enthusiasts—including gardeners, farmers, foresters, and naturalists—should think about and appreciate roots if they wish to acquire a holistic understanding of plant biology. This article introduces readers to the mycorrhizal roots of the 2015 VNPS Wildflower of the Year, Clethra alnifolia (Sweet Pepperbush), and explores the diversity of mycorrhizae in a closely related family, Ericaceae.
Upside-Down Anthers Of Clethra Stand Out, W. John Hayden
Upside-Down Anthers Of Clethra Stand Out, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
For the most part, the flowers of the 2015 VNPS Wildflower of the Year, Clethra alnifolia (Sweet Pepperbush), are unremarkable. Five separate sepals, 5 sepa rate petals, 10 stamens in 2 whorls, and a 3-carpellate superior ovary—an organization that can only be considered prosaic among the dicots. One floral feature, however, stands out: the anthers in the open flowers are upside-down! (See Figure 1A.) Further, these upside-down anthers open by pores (Figures 1B, 1C) rather than longitudinal slits, as in most flowering plants. These pores initially form on what would normally be the lowermost extremity of the anther, the inversion …
Little Things Reveal The Big Picture, W. John Hayden
Little Things Reveal The Big Picture, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
As enthusiasts who enjoy native plants in natural habitats, we tend to focus on gross morphology— aspects of plant form that can be readily observed with the naked eye or with a hand lens. And there is plenty to see at the gross level. The Flora of Virginia contains 1,269 pages of keys and descriptions devoted to gross morphology of the commonwealth’s botanical treasures. Morphological diversity, however, does not stop at the magnifi cation limit of a hand lens. Light and electron microscopes open up whole new worlds of intricate structure for appreciation and study. And tiny structural details can …
Native Orchids In Winter?, W. John Hayden
Native Orchids In Winter?, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
A very special place in Southwest Virginia will soon expand its borders, thanks in part to the annual fundraising appeal by the Virginia Native Plant Society. The Cedars Natural Area Preserve supports ex ceptional natural communities including rocky, dry limestone glades and woodlands located across nearly 20 square miles in Lee County near the Powell River. The karst landscape, where thin soils develop over easily dissolved limestone bedrock, creates terrain that tends to be rolling, rocky, rugged, and full of sinkholes, caves, and sinking streams. The preserve is a haven for rare plants that have adapted to the mostly thin, …
2015 Virginia Wildflower Of The Year: Sweet Pepperbush, Clethra Alnifolia, W. John Hayden
2015 Virginia Wildflower Of The Year: Sweet Pepperbush, Clethra Alnifolia, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
Clethra alnifolia is a rhizomatous shrub with aerial stems from 1 to 3 m tall. Leaves are simple, alternate, and bear stellate hairs; petioles are short, 5–10 mm long; leaf blades are obovate to oblong, 5–10 cm long, with relatively blunt apices, cuneate (wedgelike) bases, and margins that are entire toward the base but finely serrate above the middle; venation is pinnate with secondary veins that extend to leaf margins. Stipules are lacking. Flowers are borne on erect terminal racemes that may be solitary or accompanied by additional racemes terminating few-leaved branches arising from upper nodes. Raceme axes and pedicels …
Oh No! Something Is Eating My Coral Honeysuckle!, W. John Hayden
Oh No! Something Is Eating My Coral Honeysuckle!, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
Let’s imagine a situation that could happen in your own backyard. Suppose you have a healthy specimen of 2014’s Virginia Native Plant Society Wildflower of the Year, coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens). Suppose further that this plant rewards you every spring with a flush of flashy red flowers that you treasure all the more because they consistently bring hummingbirds to your yard. Now imagine that one fine morning you notice some little green caterpillars voraciously eating the leaves of your beloved coral honeysuckle. What do you do?
Coral Honeysuckle Easy To Propagate With Cuttings, W. John Hayden
Coral Honeysuckle Easy To Propagate With Cuttings, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
One of my earliest botanical/horticultural memories involves time spent with my dad taking cuttings of ornamental plants. Every spring, he would start several dozen new chrysanthemums from carefully overwintered stock plants. He was also fond of long yew hedges that he developed by taking numerous cuttings from just a few original shrubs in our yard. And, from time to time, both my grandmothers would propagate, via cuttings, house plants like geraniums, African violets, and Christmas cacti. But I think it was my dad’s comparatively larger scale operation that fascinated me; with just a little effort, a single shrub could yield …
Humming Birds: Pollination Facts And Fancy, W. John Hayden
Humming Birds: Pollination Facts And Fancy, W. John Hayden
Biology Faculty Publications
Coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), the 2014 VNPS Wildflower of the Year, is a classic example of a hummingbird-pollinated flower: bright red petals, often with contrasting yellow tones in the corolla throat, provide visual attraction, drawing hummingbirds to the flowers, where they are rewarded with a rich supply of nectar. Whereas hummingbirds have good color vision, they have a poor sense of smell. So it is not surprising that coral honeysuckle flowers are nearly scentless, at least to the human nose; even modern analytical instruments detect only traces of volatile molecules emanating from them. And open coral honeysuckle flowers, …