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S’more Spores

| Flower Roberts

It’s the time of year when plants get ready to go dormant here in North Carolina.

This means in addition to losing leaves, plants set seed or form spores.  This hopefully ensures another generation of plants.

This November is a little unusual because it has been so warm that we still have flowers blooming and bees buzzing.  I have even had second generation seeds germinate and flower this season.

I will take you on a tour of s’more spores.  Seeds will follow in another post.

Sensitive fern/Onoclea sensibilis sends up its own spores on a stick.  These are referred to as beads.

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Its fronds are sterile, i.e. do not produce spores.

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Chain fern/ Woodwardia areolata has a separate spore bearing structure, also.

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Its fronds do not produce spores either.

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The Japanese Holly fern/Cyrtomium falcatum has a sporadic spore arrangement.  No pun intended.

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Its fronds are evergreen.

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Here is one sorus from the Japanese Holly fern under the microscope.

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Stay tuned for seeds.

FLOWER

Spore Surprise

| Flower Roberts

Well, I intended to do a post on fern spores later, but the spores had other ideas.

I picked a frond off my Autumn ferns to bring in to my work space yesterday evening.

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I took photos of the lovely sori lined up two-by-two down the leaflets.

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I meant to take the frond back outside to the compost pile when I finished.

Over night, the frond dried up and shot spores all over the table.

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I was amazed at the range the tiny sporangia catapults had.

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While we are on the subject of spores, may I remind you that they are NOT seeds.

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Sporangium(catapult) heads slung with spores from a dried up sorus.

Each spore germinates into a tiny gametophyte that allows an egg and sperm join

then germination takes place and a new sporophyte/fern plant grows.

The tiny green structures (pin-head sized) in this jar are gametophytes grown from Dragon’s Tail fern spores.

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If my snacked on baby fern (‘Disappearing Fern’ post) doesn’t survive, maybe its progeny will.  Sniff, sniff.

Ferns come, ferns go, ferns come again.

FERN MAMA/FLOWER

 

A Trip Back in Time

| Flower Roberts

Middleton Place is located along the Ashley River near Charleston, South Carolina.

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There are many separate gardens with each its own special features.

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There is a large camellia garden and a formal rose garden and many water features and statuary.

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I especially enjoyed the area that is the working part of the plantation.

There are carriages and display shops of blacksmiths, coopers, carpenters and candle-makers.

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The icing on the cake is the barnyard and barns with animals.

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I made friends with a one-horned Water Buffalo

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and a horse, of course.

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Both beautiful and fascinating.

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Middleton is marvelous.

FLOWER

An Orange and a Rose

| Flower Roberts

I found two treasures while touring Magnolia Plantation in Charleston, South Carolina.

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The first is a hardy orange tree called Chinese Bitter Orange.  Its scientific name is Poncirus trifoliata.

It has long, tough thorns.

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The fruit is not edible alone, but may be used in marmalade or condiments.

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The second is called Confederate Rose. It is a tree hibiscus also called Giant Rose Mallow.

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Its scientific name is Hibiscus mutabilis.

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There were thousands of plants on this lovely plantation.

These two were my favorites.

FLOWER

 

The Magical Magnolia Plantation

| Flower Roberts

It was my great joy to attend a wedding at this lovely setting over the weekend.

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Magnolia Plantation has belonged to the Drayton family since 1676.

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It is located near the city of Charleston, South Carolina along the Ashley River.

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The house has a lovely wrap-around porch for entertaining and viewing the property.

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The house walls are covered with a stucco-like composite called pebbledash.

This is a combination of phosphate, lime and river mud. It has a rough texture due to shells and pebbles in the mix.

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Pebbledash wall behind the beautiful bride and bridesmaid.

The Bald Cypress trees hung with Spanish moss surround various sizes of ponds and seemed to make little dams with their knees.

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Several lovely bridges allow you pause and peer into the waters.

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There are many camellias and azaleas on the grounds.

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I will share two unusual plants from Magnolia Plantation in my next post.

Stay tuned.

FLOWER

 

 

Whose Clothes are These?

| Flower Roberts

Fall is here in North Carolina.

In addition to moving tender plants in,

I am also tackling the task of switching out summer for fall clothes in my closet.

What an eye-opener this has been.

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You see, I buy clothes for the person I WANT to be.

I do not wear them because I am NOT that person.

It looks like at my age I would be over this,

but it seems to be worse than ever.

I found many items that I have never worn. Some even had tags attached.

I sat and stared at this strange assortment and realized I am further away

from the intended wearer of these clothes than I have ever been.

I am not sure I can get there from here.

FLOWER

Herb Vinegars

| Flower Roberts

 I wish I could send all these lovely aromas through the internet.

It has been a long time since I have made herb vinegars.

These are experiments.  If you want a tried-and-true recipe, there are many on the internet.

I chose to make my own recipes using my nose.

First I clipped various herbs from the bunny yard/herb garden.

I placed these in labeled, separate bags.

They were then washed and patted dry.

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I clipped pieces and placed them in a dish to check out the aromas of the combos.

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I then placed these combinations in heat-treated bottles.  I used a chop stick to push pieces into the bottom of the bottles.

I heated (not boiled) the chosen vinegar.

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The recipe for each bottle was written on a sticker and put on the bottom of the bottle.

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Since these were experiments, I did not fill the whole bottles.

I used white wine vinegar, rice wine vinegar and apple cider vinegar.

Strain the apple cider vinegar because it has debris in it.

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This would make your vinegar ugly.

I will allow these bottles to steep for a few weeks and then taste test.

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Do not put these in a sunny location. They will fade and heat up.

I will let you know if I have a winning combination.

FLOWER

Gifts from my Lumberjack

| Flower Roberts

Halloween is quickly approaching,

so it is fitting the Mr. Flower brought home a witch’s broom.

That is a nickname for a clump of mistletoe, a semi-parasitic plant that grows on trees.

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No, not a sprig folks. He brought me the whole clump still attached to the branch,

He had been cutting firewood. The tree just happened to have some mistletoe on it.

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There were two rather large stow-aways in part of the trunk.

Giant beetle larvae/grubworms.

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These are the gifts my man brings home.

No fighting ladies. He’s ALL mine.

FLOWER

 

 

A Conk On An Oak

| Flower Roberts

This is a rather large and lovely fruiting body of a fungus.

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Although I was happy to find it, it is a bad sign for the oak on which it resides.

It is also referred to as root rot or butt rot.

This part of the fungi is called a basidocarp. These can get several feet wide and over half a foot tall.

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The top is a mixture of oranges, browns and whites. The top is hard and leathery or rubbery.   The underside is white with tiny pores.

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These two were found around the base of my neighbors’ oak.  This is twice as bad as finding one because it means the decay is more severe. (Sorry M & N.)

I also spotted the one below downtown, which I plan to report to our local arborist.

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The Conk is lovely but a deadly delight.

FLOWER