Jessica’s aster is endemic to the Palouse region of southeastern Washington and west-central Idaho. Historically, it probably occurred on drier stream terraces and at the transition between prairie grasslands and ponderosa pine forests. Over the past 150 years most of its habitat has been converted to farm fields, but small remnant populations persist along roadsides […]
Some flowers slowly rotate to track the sun, while others may close and reopen overnight. But the Arctic gentian has derived a neat trick to close its flowers ahead of summer rain showers. The plant is able to detect sudden drops in the temperature of its tubular corolla caused by clouds or cooling air temperatures […]
How many flowers do you see on each of these branches of Pacific dogwood? If you answered “one” on each stem, don’t feel too bad. Most people would agree with you. Of course, you would all be wrong. The correct answer, to use the technical botanical term, is “lots”. Each dogwood flower is actually a […]
Sometimes insects make pretty good taxonomists. At least that is what entomologist Wayne Whaley discovered when examining the favorite host plants of Indra swallowtail butterfly caterpillars. Across the western US, Whaley observed Papilo indra caterpillars feeding on some, but not all, populations of the widespread umbel species, Gray’s biscuitroot (Lomatium grayii). Systematist Jason Alexander of […]
The genus Datura contains about 25 species found worldwide in tropical and warm temperate areas, including North America. Like many members of the nightshade family (Solanaceae), Datura species are deadly poisonous, though they were used (carefully) by indigenous cultures as a narcotic and to induce hallucinations. All parts of the plant (leaves, stems, fruits, flowers, […]
On the morning of August 9, 1909, pioneer Washington botanist Wilhelm Suksdorf set out from his usual camp on the southeast slopes of Mount Paddo (now Mount Adams) to collect samples of the local flora for his personal herbarium and to sell to herbaria elsewhere in Europe and North America. On the talus slopes above […]
