A seasonal guide to the" " Flowering Plants of the Kamloops area "

Transcription

1 A seasonal guide to the" " Flowering Plants of the Kamloops area " Paul Handford,

2 Introduction to this guide; to the local flora; and to plant taxonomy," classification," and evolutionary relationships," The guide is now broken up into four parts: this introductory sec8on, and three further segments, each showing species typical of succeeding seasons: 1. Early Spring; 2. Late Spring & Early Summer, and 3. Mid-summer to Fall 2

3 I had originally thought to call this album Wildflowers of the Kamloops area, but wildflower is a very elastic term, with no precise meaning: for some it is restricted to herbaceous plants; others would include woody shrubs; still others would also include flowering trees if perhaps only the smaller ones. So I wanted a more inclusive name to cover all of these. But, though this album is entitled Flowering Plants of the Kamloops area, that too is a problematic term, because Flowering Plants corresponds to the technical term Angiosperms, which includes all plants with true flowers, yet this album excludes many flowering plants: the sedges, grasses and rushes, as well as most broadleaf trees. In the end I realized there was no easy way to avoid the naming problem, so be aware that this is simply a collection of plants united only by having, in the main, attractive flowers. This guide is based in non-systematic investigations of flowering activity in the local flora. The meaning of local is indicated by the map on the next page. 3

4 Paul Lake Du Bois-Tranqille Kenna-Cartwright main areas of ac,vity Dallas- Barnhartvale Lafarge PraL Rd. Barnes Lake Buse Hill yellow stars show secondary loca8ons Stake/McConnell Lakes 4 4

5 New features of this 5 th edition As in prior versions, species are arranged according to the 8ming of their local onset of flowering, from early spring, when Sagebrush BuLercup appears, to early fall, when Rabbit-brush blooms. In this new edi8on, fuller informa8on is provided on the extent of species flowering seasons, and the whole collec8on is now separated into three seasons. Species don t replace one another in strict blooming sequence, of course; rather, there will owen be substan8al overlap among them, and this is now made explicit in a new chart. Many species begin flowering at more or less the same 8me; some have short, but others prolonged, blooming periods; some bloom more than once, some8mes repeatedly; and flowering always depends on the local condi8ons of individual plants & the rate of advance of a given year s temperatures. But bearing these complica8ons in mind, species may s8ll be arranged prely reliably by their probable flowering onset, even if they might differ greatly in how long they each linger thereawer. AWer five seasons, I have felt able to draw up a new chart indica8ng the flowering extent of each species. This chart appears in the following pages; it provides my es8mate of each species local flowering peak, plus an indica8on of when early individuals and late stragglers might be found. The chart also shows published species flowering limits, taken from sources such as the Flora of North America, the Burke Museum & the Jepson Herbarium websites. Using this flowering season chart, I have broken up the total of 322 species into three +/- equal-sized groups: 1. Species that start flowering BEFORE the end of April; 2. Species that start AFTER the end of April; and 3. Species that start AFTER the end of May These three calendar-based groups now are in separate files, making for quicker downloading. Please bear in mind that species occurring near the end or beginning of a given group might appear in adjacent calendar periods, depending on how quickly or slowly the environment warms up in a given year Finally, this edi8on includes further notes on plant taxonomy, scien8fic classifica8on, and evolu8onary rela8onships. 5

6 the new species in this edition Acrop4lon repens Ajuga reptans Aralia nudicaulis Artemisia absinthum Asperugo procumbens Camelina microcarpa Centaurea cyanus Chorispora tenella Clintonia unifora Convolvulus arvensis Corallorhiza maculata Cypripedium montanum Daphne mezereum Erigeron lonchophyllus Erigeron strigosus Erysimum inconspicuum Hieracium caespitosum Iris missouriensis Lappula occidentalis Lonicera ciliosa Muscari botryoides Plantago lanceolata Ranunculus acris Ranunculus cymbalaria Ranunculus parviflorus Rhus glabra Trifolium hybridum Veronica serpyllifolia 6

7 Group 1: start flowering BEFORE end-april. 98 species Page 1 peak flowering early & late flowering published monthly flowering limits 7

8 Group 1: start flowering BEFORE end-april. Page 2 8

9 Group 1: start flowering BEFORE end-april. Page 3

10 Group 1: start flowering BEFORE end-april. Page 4

11 Group 2: start flowering AFTER end-april. 91 species Page 1

12 Group 2: start flowering AFTER end-april. Page 2

13 Group 2: start flowering AFTER end-april. Page 3

14 Group 2: start flowering AFTER end-april. Page 4 14

15 Group 3: start flowering AFTER end-may. 133 species Page 1 15

16 Group 3: start flowering AFTER end-may. Page 2 16

17 Group 3: start flowering AFTER end-may. Page 3 17

18 Group 3: start flowering AFTER end-may. Page 4 18

19 Group 3: start flowering AFTER end-may. Page 5 19

20 Group 3: start flowering AFTER end-may. Page 6 20

21 322 species from 58 families are recorded in Parts 2, 3 & 4 of this 2018 edition of the album. Those native to BC are named on their respective pages in in green (229 spp. 71%); non-native (a.k.a. alien or exotic) species are named in orange (93 spp. 29%). This status follows that given in e-flora (ibis.geog.ubc.ca/biodiversity/eflora/), but authorities occasionally differ on status (and on species names too so beware!) This album is far from complete! I hope to add further species in years to come. Some errors in previous editions are corrected; the experts have changed the names of some species, and have allocated some species to other genera and / or families; new species are added. = Known to be present in the Dallas-Barnhartvale Park and/or Blackwell and/or Barnes Lake Trails areas see map on an earlier page On each species page, in each group file, primary habitats are indicated by symbols, as follows: shores, riverbanks, moist areas in other habitats e.g. seeps, springs, pools; grasslands &/or scrublands &/or rocky slopes in other general habitats; open dry parklands with grasses, shrubs and scalered trees; open pine douglas-fir mixed woodlands; douglas-fir or mixed forest; can be dry to moist, open to closed; disturbed areas, roadsides, pastures, farmlands, etc. (NB: invasive exo8cs are owen found scalered in many other habitats where the na8ve vegeta8on has been disturbed) 21

22 Previous edi8ons of this guide arranged species into monthly groups Such an arrangement permits this sort of figure, giving a crude picture of the 8me-course of appearance of species and families in the local flora May is clearly the best 8me to be out hun8ng new plants 22

23 Family affiliation of the 322 species This diagram shows the number of species (red) and genera (blue) in each of the 55 families appearing in this album. It is obvious that the Asteraceae (daisy-sunflower family) strongly dominates, contribu8ng almost one quarter of all species About half of all species are in the top 6 families; only 8 families have more than 10 species each; half of the families have only 1 or 2 species each. A similar plot** of the 74 families listed for the Kamloops Forest District shows this same shape, with the Asteraceae domina8ng (20%); half of all species are in the top 7 families; and with the same six top families: Asteraceae, Fabaceae, Brassicaceae, Rosaceae, Ranunculaceae, Caryophyllaceae. **see next page 23

24 Family affiliation of the 700+ species" recorded in Kamloops Forest District for this plot, I took the species list for the Kamloops Forest District** then stripped out the plant groups that I exclude from my album (grasses, sedges, rushes, most trees, ferns, etc.) so as to make the two lists refer to the same kind of plants (no alempt was made to adjust for higher eleva8ons or other ecological differences). The similarity to this profile to that of my 322 species sample of our local floraon the previous page is obvious, with the same families domina8ng the sample. This offers confidence that the album provides a reasonably unbiased reflec8on of the flora of the region as a whole. **<hop://linnet.geog.ubc.ca/db_query/regionalresults.aspx?list=mofr_dist& region=kamloops%20forest%20district&vascular=1>

25 the folks at The Biota of North America (they have a Facebook page) have devised an excellent way to display the composi8on of a given flora. Here is their diagram for the en8re flora of Washington State; BC is probably similar. Each rectangle s area is propor8onal to the frac8on of the en8re flora comprised by that group. This album includes only those groups enclosed by the red border, excluding grasses, sedges, rushes (yellow, top right), and non-flowering plants, such as conifers, ferns etc. (bolom right corner).

26 Changes in Names & Arrangement As the evolutionary relationships among plant species and lineages become further clarified, much through the analysis of DNA-sequence data, it is sometimes necessary to make changes to their naming and their arrangement into a classification this is because the naming & classification system is intended to be a precise representation of our best understanding of the evolutionary (genetic, historical, genealogical) affinities among species that is, the closeness of descent relationship among species and species groups, or lineages. Today s generally accepted plant classification is that of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, first published in 1998; its most recent version is known as APG IV (2016); see following pages and for details. Here are a few examples of some of the changes made in this album over the years in following advances in our understanding of evolutionary relationships:! Disporum hookeri is now moved to a different genus, as Prosartes hookeri! Smilacina species are now shifted into Maianthemum.! Several species of Arabis have been moved into the genus Boechera.! Some genera (Collinsia, Penstemon) have been moved from Orobanchaceae (Broomrapes) into Plantaginaceae (Plantains).! Though opinion is split on this matter, e-flora has opted to separate Phacelia from the Boraginaceae (Borages, Forget-me-nots) into the Hydrophyllaceae (Waterleaf, Scorpionweed).! All genera but Portulaca have been moved out of family Portulacaceae to other families; in our flora, Montia has been moved to Montiaceae.! The Liliaceae has been broken into several families: Amaryllidaceae (Allium), Asparagaceae (Asparagus, Maianthemum, Muscari), Iridaceae (Iris), Melanthiaceae (Toxicoscordion, a.k.a. Zigadenus), and Liliaceae (Calochortus, Clintonia, Fritillaria, Lilium, Prosartes, Streptopus). 26

27 Evolutionary Relationships of Plants Mosses & Liverworts Ferns Seed Plants water lilies etc Gymnosperms: cone-bearers Angiosperms: flowering plants magnolias etc basal dicot lineages fir, spruce, larch, pine, hemlock cedar, cypress, juniper, redwood this is a much simplified diagram, with only the main groups of local plants included based on poster1.pdf monocots (lilies, orchids, grasses, sedges etc.) basal eudicots (buttercups, poppies, barberry etc) see next page for a little more detail on plant groups and families rosids: core eudicots asterids: saxifrage, spurge, flax, violet, pea, lupine, clover, rose, geranium, stonecrop, cabbage etc, mustard, cress, daisy, sunflower, heather, blueberry, primrose, carrot, borage, mint, figwort, gentian, milkweed, nightshade, cactus, honeysuckle, plantain, buckwheat 27

28 As mentioned above, our understanding of the evolutionary relationships of Angiosperm plants and their corresponding arrangement in their classification has changed substantially in the last 25 years or so. Before that, flowering plants were seen as comprising two clearly distinct lineages monocots & dicots based on many physical characters, including flower and leaf structure (while the relationships among their constituent families were often poorly understood.) From the study of DNA-sequence data, we now know that the monocots are actually nested among several lineages of dicot plants, meaning that some dicots are more closely related to the monocots in evolutionary terms than they are to other dicots, despite their morphological similarities, as shown in the preceding tree diagram. The standard modern picture of evolutionary relationships among plant groups is that provided by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG IV, 2016; see next page), followed here and in UBC s e-flora water lily group: Nymphaeaceae magnolia group: Magnoliaceae monocots: basal eudicots: core eudicots: a full picture of the evolu8onary classifica8on of families in this album is on the next page and in the accompanying document Kamloops plantsphylo.pdf Liliaceae, Orchidaceae, Poaceae, Cyperaceae, Juncaceae Ranunculaceae, Berberidaceae, Papaveraceae rosids et al: Saxifragaceae fabids: Euphorbiaceae, Linaceae, Violaceae, Fabaceae, Elaeagnaceae, Rosaceae core eudicots basal dicots malvids: Geraniaceae, Onagraceae, Brassicaceae asterids et al: Santalaceae, Cactaceae, Caryophyllaceae, Montiaceae, Polygonaceae, Ericaceae, Primulaceae lamiids: Boraginaceae, Apocynaceae, Asclepiadaceae, Gentianaceae, Rubiaceae, Orobanchaceae, Solanaceae Planataginaceae, Scrophulariaceae campanulids: Asteraceae, Apiaceae, Caprifoliaceae, Campanulaceae 28

29 the most recent APG-IV (2016) classification of the families of flowering plants found in our area EUDICOTS only families appearing in this photo-guide are shown here SUPER-ASTERIDS other dicot angiosperm lineages (e.g. magnolia, waterlily) branch off before the monocots, as shown on previous pages see hops:// en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/apg_iv_system for the full picture 29

30 Why use scientific ( Latin ) names? or: What s wrong with common names? there are two primary reasons why it is more useful to use scien8fic names in biology: " common names are not unique or standardized; rather they vary and overlap; but scien8fic (systema8c) names are unique, precise & universal " common (vernacular, vulgar) names are simply labels (albeit some8mes descrip8ve); but but scien8fic names carry informa8on about evolu4onary rela4onships. as an example, take the vernacular name robin. what kind of bird is being referred to? depending on where you are, you might be poin8ng to quite different, unrelated birds; all they have in common is some red, or reddish, feathers on their chests. Robin really says lille to nothing about who or what these three birds really are; but their scien8fic names do. Erithacus rubecula, the original robin is a member of the large family of Old World flycatchers, the Muscicapidae Turdus migratorius, the American robin is actually a thrush in the wide-ranging family Turdidae, which is fairly closely related to Muscicapidae Petroica goodenovii, the Australian Red-capped robin, is in the strictly Australasian family Petroicidae, only distantly related to the other two here

31 the same confusion of vernacular names applies even more severely to plants, where the same species might be known by several very different names in different places or even in the same place! Further, the very same name might be applied to quite different species. These vernacular names rarely give any clear indica8on of rela8onships lemonweed, puccoon, western stone-seed, Columbia gromwell, western gromwell, Columbia puccoon Lithospermum ruderale genus species narrowleaf stoneseed, yellow gromwell, fringed gromwell, narrowleaf puccoon, plains stone-seed Lithospermum incisum corn gromwell, field gromwell, bastard alkanet Lithospermum arvense this example refers to three closely related species, well known in our area. their most frequent vernacular names (around here at least) are given in this colour; those names provide no hint that the species might be closely related white text provides alterna8ve vernacular names, providing for the possibility of much further confusion on the other hand, the unique scien8fic names, in yellow, unambiguously refer to one species only, and show these species close rela8onship though their being in the same genus; the uniqueness of the names leaves no room for ambiguity over what plant is being referred to.

32 About the scientific naming system its founda4ons were laid in the mid-eighteenth century, based in careful observa4on of the details of anatomy, ini4ally of plants! systema8c naming of species began with Linnaeus ( ), a Swedish physician, botanist and zoologist, following his extensive fieldwork in Lapland! he saw a natural order in the degrees of resemblance shown by organisms! his hierarchical grouping & naming system alempted to reflect this order dressed for fieldwork! his classifica8on system of species, nested successively within genera, within families, within orders, classes, phyla & kingdoms, is based on the degree of sharing of similar structure in flowers & fruits! species are more structurally similar to members of their own group than they are to members of any other groups! as we have seen, all species have a two-part name: genus + species! species within a given genus are the most similar of all! La8n was the universal language of scien8sts (but they also used Greek terms; now we use words from many languages) dressed for marriage but Linnaeus was not an evolu4onist; he offered no explana4on for why the paoerns he described existed

33 Why is there a hierarchy of similarity? this was the primary ques4on addressed by the theory of evolu4onary change! Linnaeus saw the palern of similarity but didn t know WHY it was there! like other natural philosophers, he saw it as expressive of Divine Providence! this changed drama8cally with Darwin; he developed a natural explana4on for the hierarchy of structural resemblance among organisms! he proposed that all life is related by descent; that close similarity reflects close descent from a recent common ancestor! the branching structure of descent thus explains the hierarchical, tree-like, palern of similarity among organisms: closer rela8ves are more similar to one another than they are to more distant rela8ves! we have seen that all species have a two-part name: genus + species! species within any given genus are thus each other s closest rela8ves through evolu8onary descent ! so scien8fic names are unique, universal, AND directly informa8ve of evolu8onary rela8onships at lee, we see, from booom to top, images of Charles Darwin in his early 20s, as he set off on the Beagle voyage; at 50, when The Origin was published; and as the venerable patriarch, in his 70s.

34 Revisions to the Tree of Life! similarity of morphological characters can reflect both close evolu8onary descent rela8onship (recent common ancestry) and adapta8on to similar condi8ons, producing evolu4onary convergence of form. At lew is a striking example of convergence in structure between two unrelated groups of plants in response to the exigencies of life in very arid desert environments: cac8 in the New World, spurges in the Old World. Cactaceae New World cac8! sor8ng out the meaning of characters can therefore be very tricky even with the floral characters that Linnaeus used! analysis of DNA has been very helpful in sor8ng out this maler, and it has given us new pictures some8mes strikingly dis8nct ones of life s tree! these new pictures of descent rela8onships have required revisions in both naming and in grouping to the ques8on of who belongs with whom?! thus, many species have been moved to other genera Euphorbiaceae Old World spurges! many genera have been moved to other families! and so on, up the hierarchy of life s tree Descent with Modifica4on was Darwin s answer to the structure of organismal diversity; Natural Selec4on was his answer to the close fit of organisms to condi4ons 34

35 Changing Neighbours the Scrophulariaceae the figwort family used to embrace many local species: Cas4lleja Euphrasia Linaria Penstemon Rhinanthus * * * * * but recent DNA work has shown that most of our members of this family properly belong with (are more closely related to) two other families *Orobanchaceae & *Plantaginaceae leaving one species in the Scrophulariaceae Verbascum thapsus,, mullein.