Some Clusia flowers attract bees that collect resin from the flowers & inadvertently cause pollination. In Clusia grandiflora (📷: botanymiguelnino CCBYNC4), resin is produced from staminodia or anther connectives (in ♂) & carpels (in ♀). #Resin #Clusiaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Clusia major (Trinidad & Lesser Antilles) has dangling aerial roots that eventually touch the earth—not surprising for a hemiepiphyte that starts life in a tree (or, as here, on a cliff). What is surprising is that sometimes shoots grow from the roots. #Clusiaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Leaf gloss has not received much study from botanists. Why are some leaves glossy & others not? Does gloss have a function? Reflecting excess light? So many questions. An excellent example of ultra-glossy leaves is Garcinia aristata of Cuba & Hispaniola. #Clusiaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Clusia rosea has fruits of 7 united carpels that open when the outer wall of the fruit separates from the septa (walls) between the carpels. It’s a septifragal capsule. Each seed is covered with an orange-red, gooey aril that attracts bird dispersers. #Clusiaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana) is sometimes called the “Queen of Tropical Fruits.” The leathery reddish purple rind encloses sweet-tart, segmented, white flesh & a few seeds. Delicious! They are tropical fruit royalty & deservedly so. #Clusiaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Mamey (Mammea americana) has flowers fairly typical for the family. Large, showy, many stamens in fascicles, superior ovary with no style. This tree also produces an edible fruit, much prized in the Caribbean. Fruit 📷: Arria Belli CCBYSA2. #Clusiaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Clusiaceae have thick, opposite, simple leaves, and–very notably—colorful exudates (variously called resin or latex). 📷1: Trunk slash on Symphonia sp. in Madagascar. 📷2: Yellow exudate from the petiole of Clusia rosea. #Clusiaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

This week: Clusiaceae, a tropical family related to Hypericaceae. Clusia rosea occurs in the US, in southern FL, often as a hemiepiphyte, i.e., germinating as an epiphyte (often on Sabal palmetto) but eventually sending roots to the ground. #Clusiaceae #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

While looking at axillary buds, I noticed this strange phenomenon in Rhus glabra: The petiole base completely covers & conceals the axillary bud, which is revealed (and can grow) only when the leaf has fallen away. #Anacardiaceae #buds #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

In unbranched palms, the axillary buds are inflorescences. A few palms, like this Wettinia praemorsa, make serial inflorescences in each axil, but the buds are collateral (side by side), not superposed. Very unusual. 📷: ProAves Colombia CCBYNCSA2. #Arecaceae #buds #Botany #TropicalBotany 🌾🧪🌱

Here’s another plant that makes superposed axillary buds. This is Itea virginica. The axillary buds are pinkish, one stacked over the other. #Iteaceae #buds #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Shifting topics midweek. I have a few photos to share of an interesting phenomenon: multiplication of the axillary buds. This is a relatively uncommon morphological feature. In pecan (Carya illinoinensis), the buds are superposed, i.e., one stacked over the other. #Juglandaceae #buds #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

I was recently in the Peruvian Andes, where I ran into this plant, a species of Phenax (not sure which one). Note the smaller leaves above the stem & the larger leaves that hang below the stem. #anisophylly #Urticaceae #Botany #TropicalBotany 🌾🧪🌱

This is Anisophyllea disticha (#Anisophylleaceae), which is perfectly described by the scientific name. Note the larger distichous leaves & the tiny leaves appressed to the stems. This tree is from Malesia. 📷: Cerlin Ng CCBYNCSA2 #anisophylly #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Many species of Selaginella (#Selaginellaceae) have two kinds of leaves (microphylls): Spreading, distichously arranged leaves and a second kind of leaf appressed to the stem. This is Selaginella picta. Classic #anisophylly! #TropicalBotany #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Here’s another case of anisophylly that might be familiar to many of you: the unequal leaves in Tribulus cistoides, a common weed in warm climates. At each node, the leaves are unequal (& the larger leaf alternates sides at sequential nodes) #Zygophyllaceae #anisophylly #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Anisophylly means “unequal leaves” & refers to the production of unequal leaves continuously & concurrently (not a growth stage). Maples (this is Acer rubrum) produce a pair of leaves at each node, but one leaf has a longer stalk than the other. #Sapindaceae #anisophylly #Acer #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Nymphaea ‘Pamela’ is a Tropical Day-Blooming waterlily. Tropical waterlilies tend to be larger and more fragrant than their Hardy cousins, and they tend to bear their flowers well above the surface of the water (Hardy waterlilies usually sit right on the surface). #Nymphaeaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Euryale ferox has fantastic foliage—young leaves are all puckered and prickly. You can see why Victoria amazonica (which also has prickly leaves) was first classified as a species of Euryale. Both photos by wondoroo CCBYNCSA2 #Nymphaeaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Barclaya has 8 spp distributed across SE Asia and Malesia. The flowers aren’t as showy as those of their waterlily cousins. This is B. cf. motleyi from Malaysia. The fruits are capsules that open to release buoyant, white flesh with embedded seeds. Water dispersal. #Nymphaeaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

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Nuphar is a genus of 15 spp & natural hybrids distributed across the northern hemisphere. Nuphar advena is common in eastern N. America. The flowers are protogynous & require pollination (by flies, bees & beetles) to set seed. #Nymphaeaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Victoria cruziana, pictured, is also cultivated. It tends to have less colorful leaves with a slight outward curl to the upper rim. The hybrid (V. cruziana x V. amazonica), first made at Longwood Gardens in 1960, is even more popular, as it has hybrid vigor. #Nymphaeaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Victoria spp are waterlilies like no other. For years, 2 spp were known, but in 2022, Lucy T Smith et al. described a third species, V. boliviana. The amazing Victoria spp are popular in cultivation. 📷: V. amazonica cultivated in Thailand. #Nymphaeaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Nymphaea (65 spp) has a worldwide distribution. Hybridizers have developed lots of cultivars, so flowers come in just about every color. Growers recognize 3 groups: Hardy, Tropical Day-Blooming & Tropical Night-Blooming. This is ‘Wanvisa,’ a popular Hardy cultivar. #Nymphaeaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Nymphaeaceae comprise 5 genera of aquatic plants, typified by Nymphaea, the waterlily. It’s part of an early-diverging branch of the Angiosperms with distinctive anatomy & morphology. The flowers have many parts, in spirals (not whorls). 📷: Nymphaea odorata. #Nymphaeaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

The hemiparasitic nature of Rhinanthus minor (yellow rattle) is exploited by horticulturists wanting to create wildflower meadows. This annual species is a parasite of grasses and slows their too-vigorous growth, allowing wildflowers to thrive. #parasite #Orobanchaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Flowers of Pedicularis (680 spp across the N. Hemisphere) have a galea (a crazy, hood-shaped or tubular structure formed by the fused apices of the 2 upper petals). The flowers are mostly pollinated by bumblebees. 📷: Pedicularis davidii Ed Shaw CCBYNC2 #Orobanchaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Melampyrum pratense has a huge distribution across Europe to central Siberia thanks to ants. It has myrmecochorus seeds—seeds carried by ants—unlike most holo- and hemiparasitic species, which have wind-dispersed seeds. #parasite #Orobanchaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Orobanche cooperi is another holoparasitic Orobanchaceae from southwestern North America. Isn’t it fantastic? A bad-ass beauty! #parasite #Orobanchaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Holoparasites are those plants that take water (+ minerals) AND sugars from their hosts. These plants lack both roots and chlorophyll, so they are wholly dependent on their hosts. This is the magnificent Lathraea clandestina. #parasite #Orobanchaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Neobartsia mutica is another hemiparasite. It has a broad distribution across South America (I recently saw it in the Andes of Peru). Like so many of these hemiparasites, it has showy flowers. This one may be adapted to hummingbird pollination. #parasite #Orobanchaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Let’s look at some of the hemiparasites in the family. This is Seymeria pectinata. The leafy green shoots look like any regular plant. What we don’t see are the root haustorial connections by which it steals water & minerals from its hosts. #parasite #Orobanchaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Rehmannia (the only member of its tribe) & Lindenbergia (in another monotypic tribe) are NOT parasites. The rest of the family is hemiparasitic (=green & photosynthetic, but taking water & minerals from its host) or wholly parasitic. 📷: R. piasezkii #Orobanchaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Up this week: Orobanchaceae. This family was, until the 21st century, conflated with the Scrophulariaceae, which itself was a jumbled mess. There are, however, anatomical, morphological & molecular characteristics for the family. Members are mostly parasitic. 📷: Castilleja coccinea #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

It blows my mind that red-&-black fruits and seeds are attractive, but red-&-black insects are repellent (aposematic). In dispersal, as in life, context is everything! 📷1: Ripe fruits of Pinanga malaiana (#Arecaceae). 📷2: red-spotted stink bug, Jose Amorin CCBYNCSA2. #dispersal #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

White fruits are relatively rare in plants. Birds don’t detect them very well because they have low chromatic contrast with background vegetation. Mammals can more easily detect white fruits if they are aromatic, like this stinky Morinda citrifolia #dispersal #Rubiaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

The fleshy sarcotesta of Ginkgo biloba smells really nasty. Some biologists suggest that the stench evolved to attract scavenging dinosaurs (or ancient mammals), which dispersed the seeds. 🤷‍♂️ Maybe. If so, that vile smell is the aroma of Jurassic death. 💀 #dispersal #Ginkgoaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Another part of mammal dispersal may be ethanol. It’s repellent at high concentration but attractive at low concentration. Mammals may zero in on the aroma for efficient foraging. Genipa americana (📷: Cody Hinchliff CCBYNCSA2) ripe fruits have ca. 0.5% ethanol. #dispersal #Rubiaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Mammals tend not to have color vision, so plants advertise with aromas. The fruits tend to be green, brown or white & require manual or buccal processing to remove a husk or large seeds. A good example: pawpaw, Asimina triloba (#Annonaceae). #dispersal #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Stiles also hypothesized that a “preripening” fruit color is a signal that fruits will be ripe soon. Lots of fruits, like these Rubus sp., pass through a 2nd color as they ripen from green to their final color. The red color says, “Coming Soon.” #dispersal #Rubiaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

In the 1980s, E. Stiles hypothesized that plants advertise fruit with a contrasting foliar “flag.” I’ve seen this phenomenon in cultivated Berberis, like this B. aquifolium (📷: Alicia CCBYNC4). Some experiments support the hypothesis; some don’t. 🤷‍♂️ #dispersal #Berberidaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Helping animals find fruits: Plants advertise to bird dispersers via colorful fruit. Red fruits stand out in the visible spectrum, like these Ilex vomitoria fruits, but they may also contrast with the foliage in the UV spectrum, which birds can also see. #dispersal #Aquifoliaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Seed dispersal by animals swallowing the seeds is endozoochory. It’s fraught with difficulty. 1. Animals need to find the fruits. 2. Fruits should be taken only when ripe. 3. Taken only by the disperser (not by a seed predator). The results are worth the effort. #dispersal #Arecaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) originated in South America but was widely grown throughout Polynesia well before European contact. Many anthropologists cite the sweet potato as evidence that ancient Polynesians had contact with S. America. 📷: Scamperdale CCBYNC2 #Convolvulaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Let’s not forget the nectar-feeding bats! 🦇 Ipomoea ampullacea is a night-blooming, bat-pollinated species from western Mexico. 🦇 📷: Efraín Octavio Aguilar Pérez CCBYNC4 #Convolvulaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Here’s yet another kind of pollination in Ipomoea: pollination by hawkmoths. This is I. alba, a fragrant, night-blooming species with a long, narrow corolla tube. #teammoth #Sphingidae #Convolvulaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

"The greatest danger to our future is apathy. ... What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make." - Vale Jane Goodall (1934-2025).

Ipomoea microdactyla is another hummingbird-pollinated species, but this one is from the Antilles, Bahamas & the southernmost tip of Florida, where it is listed as Endangered. It is supremely garden-worthy. #Convolvulaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Ipomoea bracteata has colorful bracts (in addition to the magenta flowers) that attract hummingbirds in the desert/thorn scrub habitat in which it grows in Mexico. #Convolvulaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱