California Poppy

 California poppy

California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) is the state flower of California. It has bright orange flowers and it is actually encountered in the wild a lot: you'll see it in meadows, as well as in lawns and flower beds.

California poppy

Poppy belongs to poppy family (Papaveraceae). Other members of the family include Matilija or tree poppy (Romneya) and opium poppy (Papaver somniferum). The latter is also the one that produces poppy seeds that we use in baking.

 Matilija poppy

Matilija poppy

Polygonum hydropiperoides

Polygonum hydropiperoides is another polygonum that can be seen at the marshes and swamps. The name means "looks like water pepper". Sometimes they can even grow partially submerged in water. This plant is much smaller than Polygonum cuspidatum discussed in previous post. It is just a regular plant with small white flowers.

In the picture below notice the distinct joint. This plant grew in water or at least very close to water as I could not get too close to it.

Polygonum hydropiperoides

And here is a view of close-up of the flowers. Notice the red stem.

Polygonum hydropiperoides flowers

Polygonum cuspidatum

Polygonum cuspidatum bush

Knotweeds, also known as polygonums (or polygoni?) belong to knotweed family (Polygonaceae), a characterristic feature of this family being that lots of plant have swollen  or at least dictinct joints. That is well reflected in the Latin name of the family: poly means "many" and goni means "knee" or "joint". As a typical representative of the family, polygonum is a classic example.

There are a whole lots of polygonum species. Some grow in or near the water and some on high ground. I found one specie growing on high ground right here in the town where I live. An interesting thing is that it seems to grow at just one particular location as I've never seen it anywhere else. It is probably Polygonum cuspidatum but the species are hard to tell apart.

And here is a close-up of the branch where you can see these swollen joints.

Polygonum cuspidatum joint

The stems are red or reddish. The leaves are big, nicely shaped and symmetrical.

Polygonum cuspidatum branch

The flowers are small, formed in spikes. In this particular species the flowers are white but some species have pink flowers. They are shaped the same though.

Polygonum cuspidatum branch

And here is a nice picture of close-up of the flowers Notice the black anthers.

Polygonum cuspidatum flowers

And while we are at it I have another picture of different polygonum species.

How to identify plants

In this blog I will post an example of identifying the plant. It constantly amazes me to see books on plants where the plants are subdivided into groups based on the colour of the flower. Yes, I know it might be easier for the novice but chances for the novice to identify a plant is pretty small. Most common reason being that the plant is usually not in the book. Anyway, the proper way to subdivide plants should be by families as plants of the same family share certain structural resemblance that allow for identification with much greater degree of certainty. We all know Aster family and immediately see resemblance between, say, sunflowers and daisies. It's not always that easy but it is much better than just enlisting all blue or all yellow flowers. The nice thing about division by families is that you don't have to be a botanist to start noticing family resemblance.

Anyway, in this article we are going to identify a plant that took me a while to identify. It grows at the marsh right next to the waterline so here we immediately see the habitat: salt marshes and brackish marshes. Here is the picture of our subject:

Unidentified plant

So I am not going to give away the name yet. I have another picture, so let's look at it from a slightly different angle:

Unidentified plant

So, what can we see about this plant? We already determined the habitat: it's useful when we try to pin the plant down to the species but first let's decide on the family.

I have list of the plant that are supposed to grow at this particular marsh but the list has been compiles 10 or so year ago and by now is hopelessly obsolete. Anyway, none of the plants on the list fitted. Okay, we don't really need a list.

What does it look like? Actually this plant resembles the one that lots of people know as it grows everywhere, namely lamb's quarters. The same reddish and striped stem and even the shape of the leaves is similar but the leaves of our plant look bigger. So let's check it out.

The Latin name for lamb's quarters is Chenopodium album and it belong to Amaranth family (Amaranthaceae) so let's check if if it fits the Chenopodium genus. It can be done with the internet or books. It does not always work but it sure beats trying to identify a plant randomly without having the slightest idea. Anyway after some research I decided that it was not a Chenopodium genus after all. But I still think it belongs to Amaranthaceae family. After checking more I found out that it resembles the genus orache, in Latin Atriplex. The leaves look really close. So it's probably some kind of atriplex. Let's see if we can pin it down to the species. After another check we find out that the plant it resembles the closest is Atriplex prostrata or hastate-leaved orache. So we identified our plant.

Hastate-leaved orache (Atriplex prostrata)
Family: Amaranthaceae

Not all the cases are that clear-cut, lots of time you'll be lucky to pin it to the genus but anyway it shows the importance to look for structural similarities. Right now I am writing a book on the plants of the marsh and I subdivide plants by families. I think it makes more sense than doing it by color of the flower. Notice that in our example we don't even have a flower, we only have leaves and stem.

Now go and identify some plants!

Plantain

 Plantago lanceolata (British plantain)

Plantain (Plantago) is a common plant that grows pretty much everywhere. It is as familiar as dandelion. Plantain usually catches everyone's attention. The most common varieties are broadleaf plantain (Plantago major) and narrowleaf plantain, also known as English plantain (Plantago lanceolata).

Plantain flower

The leaves grow in rosette and the stems are leafless bearing a compact narrow head of tiny flowers. I have read somewhere that plantain is supposed to be edible but I found it too fibrous and therefore don't recommend it.

Plantago lanceolata at the Arcata marsh

Plantain is a typical representative of the plantain family (Plantaginaceae) after which the family is named. Recently there has been some shuffling of the plants in and out of the families based on phylogenetic studies, the plantain family being especially affected.

Broadleaf plantain (Plantago major) at the Arcata Redwood forest

Indians used to call plantain "white man's foot" meaning that the plant spread with the white people's invasion into their land, reflecting in the language the introduced nature of the species.

Pandorea jasminoides

I don't know if it's a wild plant but it attracted my attention by its unusual flowers. I only saw it once in Southern California and it makes a good decorative plant in spite of its weird looks. The flowers are supposed to smell like jasmine but I haven't sniffed them. (It's just I often observed that when so-and-so plant is supposed to smell like this or that it's hardly ever a case.) The flowers are rather big, white with a dark purple middle. The leaves are smooth. This plant is related to trumpet-vine.

Pandorea jasminoides bush

Pandorea jasminoides flowers