Got it! Formerly in Trilliaceae.
Also just an FYI but family names are not usually italicized.
Got it! Formerly in Trilliaceae.
Also just an FYI but family names are not usually italicized.
I unfortunately take Pyrola for granted.
Convolvulaceae. The bindweed family.
Most of them are twirling vines with big bright colourful flowers - in the UK Calystegia silvatica is probably our largest wildflower in terms of “single” flower (the carrot family cheats with big umbels made of hundreds of flowers, I swear!).
Occasionally you get annual herbs (Convolvulus tricolor, with it’s ridiculous flower colour combination of blue, white and yellow, because one wasn’t enough), woody shrubs (Convolvulus cneorum, with silver linear leaves, or Convolvulus floridus from the Canary Islands with ridiculously large panicles, Ipomoea arborescens from Mexico which is a full on tree) but it also includes bizarre parasites like Cuscuta with vestigial cotyledons - it has them, but it doesn’t use them. It just grows against a nearby plant and taps into that. Some of them don’t even bother photosynthesising. If they don’t find a host within a few days of germination, they just die.
What do I dislike about it? Well they’re notoriously weedy, especially in warmer climates. The ones we get in the UK are gorgeous, and the native field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) and hedge bindweed (Calystegia sepium) would probably be ridiculously popular for hanging baskets and trellises respectively if they came from somewhere off in the tropics - huge flowers, pretty heart or arrowhead shaped foliage, flowers for months, what’s not to love? Well, they both have roots can go metres down, spread laterally very aggressively, seed bank for decades, and will happily regenerate from the slightest fragment left in the soil - and once they’re established in a garden, are almost impossible to get rid of with a (perhaps incorrect, given they both have herbaceous stems) reputation for strangling whatever they’re climbing.
How dare they be so beautiful and yet too much of a menace to plant. At least they can still ramble along the hedgerows and field margins where nobody minds them too much.
Rosaceae
Many delicious fruits in both Amygdaloideae and Rosoideae, interesting even if very complicated taxonomy. Even an amateur can bring some useful results.
On the other hand, some genuses are really extremely complicated and one con concentrate only on some of them. And one needs to go out with experts to learn and it will take a lot of time to get to some half-decent state of knowledge (not there yet, but trying when I have time).
I could say the same thing about the ornamental red form of Imperata cylindrica.
Yeah, read more about it. It seems it does not really harm the host plant, and it does provide lots of ecological benefits.
I was stunned when I learned that starfruits (Averrhoa) are in Oxalidaceae! It’s a small family but it packs a punch
Both Convolvulus arvensis and Calystegia sepium are invasive in North America for the exact reasons you mentioned ![]()
That is good to know since I assumed all taxonomic names had to be italicized. Oops for all the times I’ve done it. Since all taxonomic names start with a capital letters regardless of rank, I assumed other rules could be generalized
Maybe - I can’t remember!
wait WHAT?
I have thought for five years now that Oxalis is monotypic in Oxalidaceae! Crazy.
Melanthiaceae is the family for trilliums. Also in that family is Veratrum, Melanthium, Paris, and Xerophyllum. Lots of poisonous plants(Toxicoscordion/Zigadenus/Stenanthium), and the rare Helonias bullata.
It’s a small family per genera.
Also, how did no one mention Corsiaceae(Arachnitis) yet?
I like Nepenthaceae– their pitchers are just so cool! Also very fun to grow. Not a huge fan that they sometimes eat lizards, but that’s how nature is. I also love asteraceae, they are so diverse and beautiful, and always bring me a smile. Like many plant families, they do have genera that are harder to ID.
That was my second choice. Amazing family
Cool plants! The family does not photosynthesize and isn’t green either. Gotta admit, never heard of them until now.
Just listened to podcast of IDOP which talked abut the microbiomes and other organisms that live in the pitchers. Fascinating.
Grow? What do you mean grow? I only know how to kill them…
Probably not as bad an “oops” moment as capitalizing the specific epithet in the binomial, which I did when I was a kid.
Apocynaceae! With a particular emphasis on Gonolobinae a.k.a Gonolobus & Matelea s.s. (the many, MANY genera split from them, see Lachnostoma, Peruviasclepias…). Gorgeous flower structures. Some species have ocelli in their corolla lobes, function as of yet unknown (More reflectance and thus more visibility I presume?).
However there are plenty of cryptic species in this group and online descriptions are few and far between…
Milkweeds and anglepods are fun. So many rare and exotic species in that tribe.