At First You Will Say

Ferraria ferraiola in the Iris family

that you have never seen anything like it. But after more reflection, you might say, but it reminds me a bit of an Iris or below maybe Muscari. And then you will be botanizing old school style before everything was named. The old botanists weren't always right about everything they labelled and sorted, but they were right enough of the time for anyone trying to learn about plants to consider looking at things the way they did. For example, looking for similarities that are visible to the eye when sorting out the world.

(My cellphone camera does not do the colors and the delicacy of these South African beauties justice. They are worth seeing in person over at the Warm Temperate Pavilion that Karla tends at Brooklyn Botanic. So many colors in that small space now.)

Lachenalia mutabilis in the Hyacinth family

All in the Family

Hardenbergia violacea flowers

When I saw the Hardengergia violacea blooming today in the Warm Temperate house at Brooklyn Botanic, it didn't immediately call to mind lilacs, (one of its common names is the Lilac Vine) but rather it immediately made me think of Apios americana (groundnut vine). I didn't know what plant I was looking at, but I had a feeling it shared a family with the pea, just as the native Apios americana does. When I realized I was right and indeed this was another plant in the Fabaceae family, I was pretty psyched because it means something is sinking in from looking at all these plants.


Apios americana flowers

These plants that come from different places are related (the Hardenbergia is Australian) and just like you can with some members in human families, you can see a resemblace right away. They are currently classified in the Fabaceae family, which is huge, just like the snow pea vines I grow in my vegetable garden. Of course, you can't assume plants are related just because they remind you of each other, but seeing similarities between species is a good enough start when you're trying to learn about plant families or just trying to ID something.





















Snow Pea flower

Lachenalia

Ever since the afternoon in fall when I was introduced to the Lachenalia in the potting room by Carla, I've been waiting to see it bloom and today was that lucky day. Brooklyn Botanic has more than a few species of Lachenalia in its collection, but I think the one pictured here is Lachenalia mutabilis, which has variable colors as it blooms. I was so excited to see it this afternoon in the Warm Temperate Pavilion that I forgot to look for a label. I only helped out with the repotting, but it's always exciting to see something bloom that you once held as a tiny bulb in your hands. It's also amazing to think about what it takes to get this species to bloom here in winter, so far from and in such a different climate than its native habitat in South Africa. You can only catch them blooming inside here in New York and if like me, you lack your own conservatory or enough light and space to grow things indoors, you'll appreciate seeing them at Brooklyn Botanic's.

Oxalis versicolor

The pictures will hardly do these tiny unfurling flower justice. This Oxalis versicolor just opening up in the Warm Temperate Pavilion at Brooklyn Botanic is daintiness personified, as my mom might say. Candy cane oxalis. Just in time for the season. I'm glad I wandered into this pavilion when picking up my last paycheck yesterday.

Almost Dusk, Almost the Desert

We're nearing the shortest day of the year, with a few weeks to go, but as far as the sunset time goes, the sun won't set much earlier than it did tonight. The sun went down right around 4:29 pm this afternoon. In the last 45 minutes it was up, I walked into the Desert Pavilion and was pretty knocked out. This pavilion is always kind of magical, and I think it's so even for people who don't necessarily spend a lot of time thinking about or studying plants. (I don't imagine there are that many people who aren't impressed with a cactus, particularly people from this part of the country where the climate and landscape is so different than New Mexico or Arizona.) But with the sun low in the sky right now, that last bit of almost-winter light is pretty amazing amidst the otherworldly plants of this conservatory. But you never know. Maybe I would have been just as stunned walking in there at noon.

Four minutes in the Warm Temperate Pavilion

Encephalartos altensteinii and its tremendous cone

















Euryops pectinatus

I'm not sure how much a flight would cost to South Africa, but a quick walk into the Warm Temperate Pavilion on the way out of work Friday afternoon was free and a chance to witness some beautiful plants I might not ever see growing outside in their native habitat. It was a nice way to end a workweek filled with projects and presentations and the final class in the Horticultural Certificate program.

Fleur-D'Amour

Tabernaemontana divaricata 'Flore Pleno', Tropical Pavilion

How can you not be wowed by a tree with such a pure white flower, beautiful glossy foliage and then, as if that wasn't good enough, this incredible muscular bark? I took these pictures back in June, but today it still has blooms and of course, year round that incredible bark. Watering in the tropical pavilion isn't a bad way to spend a cool windy day. It's not Hawai'i, but it's pretty lush.

Oxalis

When I hear the term Oxalis, I usually think of the pretty clover-like weed that I continually pull out of my vegetable beds, a type commonly called creeping woodsorrel or the showy purple shamrock Oxalis triangularis of Caleb's annual border this year. Today, the word means something different to me after seeing Carla's Oxalis collection in the warm temperate greenhouse. One pretty but very persistant weed had soured me (pun intended) on what is a large genus of pretty plants mostly from South Africa and South America, but including some North American woodland natives. I like how there are some without the characteristic clover-shaped foliage and always these beautiful dainty flowers. Seeing them today was a special treat.

Fancy plants

Cornus kousa 'Gold Star'
















Calathia bachemiana (Brazilian)

From the variegated leaves of the Cornus kousa and Calathia bachemania with their leaf-within-a-leaf patterns, to the fancy Zinnia in Susan's Asteraceae box at the children garden and on to the far out, day-glo pinks and oranges in the desert and tropical pavillions, it was a fancy plant day at BBG for me. And the Goldenrain, Lindens and native Catalpas are blooming. Not bad for a rainy day. Doing a little exploring definitely beats mulching all day.

























Euphorbia milii dwarf red form (aptly named Crown of Thorns)


















Aphelandra sinclairiana (Costa Rica, Panama, Nicauragua)


















Adenium obesum (and that's not supposed to be an insult)


















Clerodendrum speciosissimum (Verbena family, Java)

















Pavonia multiflora (Brazil)