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Tasmania, Australia
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Frodsley, Tasmania, Australia
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Aquilegia nigricans cf. Baumg., syn: Aquilegia haenkeana Koch, Aquilegia ullepitschii Pax, Aquilegia vulgaris subsp. nigricans (Baumg.) Domin, Aquilegia vulgaris var. nigricans (Baumg.) SchurFamily: RanunculaceaeEN: Bulgarian columbine, DE: Drsige Akelei Slo: velecvetna orlicaDat.: June 3. 2019 and June 6. 2019Lat.: 46.357076 Long.: 13.701260Code: Bot_1206/2019_DSC07479 and Bot_1208/2019_DSC07589Habitat: grassland, under a canopy of a Salix eleagnos; river bank; locally flat terrain; partly in shade; alluvial, calcareous ground; elevation 530 m; average precipitations about 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 7-9 deg C; alpine phytogeographical region.Substratum: soil.Place: Lower Trenta valley, between villages Soa and Trenta, left bank of river Soa, about 80 m upstream from the bridge to the farmhouse Matev, Trenta 1; East Julian Alps, Posoje, Slovenia EC.Comments: Genus Aquilegia is one of the most beautiful of all known to me. All wild species in Slovenia have quite large and, before all, imagination full shape of the flowers. No wonder, there are many cultivars in use in gardens all over the world. In Slovenia there grow five species. Two of them are endemic: Aquilegia einseleana and Aquilegia iulia. The first one is limited to South-East Alps. The second one had been long time known as Aquilegia bertolonii Schott. & Verh.. It was only recently recognized as a separate species, which is endemic almost exclusively to the territory of Slovenia.Other three, that is Aquilegia vulgaris, Aquilegia nigricans and Aquilegia atrata are all +/- common plants, but frequently quite a hard nut to be properly separated. All of them are more of less of the same height, all of them have similar flowers and they all are very variable in shape and color of their flowers. Often intermediary forms are found and hybrids are also frequent. Ambiguities exist also in the literature. For example: if one looks at the distribution map of Aquilegia nigricans in the Euro+Med Plantbase (Ref.: 6) and in GBIF (the Global Biodiversity Information Facility) (Ref.: 7), one gets two completely different pictures. The firs source claims the species is absent from Austria and Slovenia, the second source claims that far the most observations come from these two countries. Also the information about hairiness of the plants, for example, differ in literature. The plants on my pictures have short but distinctive glandular hairs on their flower petioles. Hence they can't belong to Aquilegia vulgaris (Ref.: 1 and 2), which has no glandular hairs. Other traits point to somewhere in between both remaining alternatives. The color of flowers seems to me closer to 'violet-brown' than to 'deep-blue to violet-blue' (Ref.1) hence Aquilegia atrata; the leaflets of the second order are clearly cuneate (wedge-shaped) at the base - hence Aquilegia nigricans; stamens are protruding way out of the corolla hence Aquilegia atrata; bracts are very narrow (length/width = 3.5 -8.5(12) (Ref.: 1) hence Aquilegia nigricans; the size of the flowers fits somewhere in between both species. Based on quite regularly cuneate leaflets I decided that the plant are closer to Aquilegia nigricans. Ref:(1) M.A. Fischer, W. Adler, K. Oswald, Exkursionsflora fr sterreich, Liechtenstein und Sdtirol, LO Landesmuseen, Linz, Austria (2005), p 267.(2) A. Martini et all., Mala Flora Slovenije (Flora of Slovenia - Key) (in Slovenian), Tehnina Zaloba Slovenije (2007), p 147. (3) D. Aeschimann, K. Lauber, D.M. Moser, J.P. Theurillat, Flora Alpina, Vol. 1., Haupt (2004), p 186.(4) K. Lauber and G. Wagner, Flora Helvetica, 5. Auflage, Haupt (2012), p 142.(5) H. Haeupler, T. Muer, Bildatlas der Farn- und Bluetenpflazen Deutschlands, Ulmer (2000), p 57.(6)
euromed.luomus.fi/euromed_map.php?taxon=347328&size=m... (accessed Jan.28. 2020)(7)
www.gbif.org/species/3930143/metrics (accessed Jan.28. 2020)
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Photo taken at the 2013 Hong Kong Flower Show.
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St.-Martin-Vesubie, Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur, France
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Arow, Jammu and Kashmir, India
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Lonavala, Maharashtra, India
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Helleborus odorusFragnant HelleboreSlo.: blagodiei telohDat.: March 17, 2015Lat.: 45.76234 Long.: 14.22001Code: Bot_856/2015_DSC5285Habitat: Broad leaved forest, no Fagus sylvatica, next to a dirt road, semiruderal place, southwest oriented moderately inclined mountain slop, apparently dry and warm place, partly protected from direct rain by tree canopies, average precipitations ~ 1.800-2.000 mm/year, average temperature 8-10 deg C, elevation 560 m (1850 feet), Dinaric phytogeographical region. Substratum: soil.Place: East of Postojna Animal Hospital, between freeway and railroad, Notranjska, Slovenia EC.Comment: Hellebores are very beautiful. It is interesting that what one would consider as petals are actually sepals, which are taking over the role of petals. Between them and numerous stamens there are tubular nectaries producing nectar and attracting pollinators.As easy as it is to properly determine white flowering Helleborus niger and purple red flowering Helleborus atrorubens, so it is difficult to correctly determine green flowering Helleborus species of Slovenia (grouped in the section Helleborastrum). Helleborus dumentorum, Helleborus odorus and Helleborus multifidus subsp. istiacus all of them with green flowers, are extremely variable plants and again and again one finds plants, which seem to have characters, which are in between of traits of these (three?) four species. It appears that Helleborus odorus slowly changes to Helleborus multifidus subsp. istiacus and this one to Helleborus multifidus subsp. multifidus going from west Slovenia to east into Croatia. At least what one has to do for the best possible determination is to examine several flowering plants and perform 'averaging' in his head. Based on the length of bracts (not or not much longer than 'petals', actually sepals), diameter of flowers (more than 5 cm) and very distinctive odor I decided for Helleborus odorus.Growing in groups of many plants. Note unusual blackish purple lines of spots on the internal side of 'petals'. Plants have strong odor on flowers of Sambucu nigra. Stalks are branched (2, 2, 3AVG=2.3 branches/SD=0.6/n=3) with several flowers on each (7, 4, 3 flowers). Average flowers' diameter is over 5 cm (totally open) (AVG=5.1/ SD=0.5/ n=10). Bracts are divided into several subsections (AVG=3.8/ SD=1.1/ n=18) and are as long or somewhat longer than 'petals'. 'Petals' overlap up to 3 mm maximum on 40 - 60% of their side edge. No ground leaves present yet. Protected according to 'Uredba o zavarovanih prostoiveih rastlinskih vrstah'Url. RS, t. 46/2004 (Regulation of protection of wild growing plants, Official Gazette of Republic Slovenia, No.: 46/2004), marked by code O0 (collecting underground parts and seeds of the plant is prohibited).Ref.:(1) A. Martini et all., Mala Flora Slovenije, Tehnina Zaloba Slovenije (2007) (in Slovenian), p 127. (2) P. Skoberne, Zavarovane rastline Slovenije (Protected Plants of Slovenia) (in Slovenian) Mladinska Knjiga Zaloba (2007), p 103.(3) J. Bavcon, K. Eler, A.uel, Helleborus (Helleborus L.) in Slovenia (bilingual Slovenian/English edition), University Botanic Gardens, Ljubljana, JAK Slovenian Book Agency (2012)
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Clematis ligusticifoliawestern virgin's bower. Difficult to separate this species from C. lasiantha by photos alone. My standard for identification in this case is the blooming season, which happens to be later for C. ligusticifolia. Photographed in a private garden in Berkeley, CA
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Aconitum lamarckii (Rchb.), syn.: Aconitum lycoctonum ssp. ranunculifolium (Rchb.) Schinz & Keller, several othersSlo.:ozkoeladasta preobjeda, zlatina preobjedaDat.: Aug. 22. 2013Lat.: 46.44202 Long.: 13.64486Code: Bot_745/2013_DSC7600Habitat: stony alpine grassland in a large snow valley, almost flat terrain; calcareous ground with some acid rock; open place, full sun, moist place; exposed to direct rain, average precipitations ~ 3.000 mm/year, average temperature 0-2 deg C,elevation 1970 m (6.500 feet), alpine phytogeographical region. Substratum: soil among rocks.Place: Mt. Mangart's flats region, in the largest snow valley west of the top of Mt. Mangart, 2.679 m (8.787 feet), East Julian Alps, Posoje, Slovenia EC.Comment: The plants of the genus Aconitum (all of them are very poisonous) growing in Slovenia are tall and very beautiful. When in bloom, it is impossible to overlook their inflorescences in various shades of yellow, blue and violet. But, determination to species level is not always simple, particularly not among yellow ones. The plants growing on Mangart flats are taxonomically very interesting. Aconitum lamarckii is a species name around which there are several ambiguities. Flora Alpina (Ref.:(2)) considers A. lamarckii a synonym of A. lycoctonum ssp. neapolitanum, A. ranunculifolium and two other names. Flora Helvetica (Ref.:(3)) considers it as a valid name and adds the synonym name A. pyrenaicum. Ref.:(4) (with probably the most elaborated taxonomy description in my reach) states in addition the name A. lycoctonum ssp. ranunculifolium. Unfortunately, the plants growing on Mangart flats do not correspond well to the descriptions behind these names. The ground leaf segments should be linear and very narrow. It is evidently from the pictures that they are not. Also the plants photographed almost never have branched inflorescences. In addition, the inflorescences are much denser than expected. The Ref.:(1) therefore rightly states: " ...the systematics of yellow blooming Aconitum species is still very unclear ...".Growing in a large group of more than hundred flowering plants.Ref.:(1) T. Wraber, 2 x Sto alpskih rastlin na Slovenskem, (Two times of hundred alpine plants of Slovenia), Preernova druba (2006) (in Slovene), p 39.(2) D. Aeschimann, K. Lauber, D.M. Moser, J.P. Theurillat, Flora Alpina, Vol. 1., Haupt (2004), p 130.(3) K. Lauber and G. Wagner, Flora Helvetica, 5. Auflage, Haupt (2012), p 108.(4) M.A. Fischer, W. Adler, K. Oswald, Exkursionsflora sterreich Liechtenstein, Sdtirol, LO Landesmuseen, Linz, Austria (2005), p 271.(5) A. Martini et all., Mala Flora Slovenije, Tehnina Zaloba Slovenije (2007) (in Slovene), p 127.
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Ranunculus gunnianus (tufted buttercup) going to seed on the edge of a Dracophyllum minimum cushion. Hill 3, Moonlight Ridge, Southwest National Park, Tasmania.
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Red Lodge, Montana, United States
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Aquilegia atrata Koch, syn.: Aquilegia vulgaris subsp. atrata (W. D. J. Koch) Nyman, Aquilegia vulgaris var. atroviolacea Av-Lall.Family: RanunculaceaeEN: Columbine, Granny's Bonnet, Lions Herb, DE: Schwartzviolette Akelei, Dunkle AkeleiSlo.: rnikastovijolina orlica Dat.: April 27. 2007Lat.: 46.25557 Long.: 13.46723Code: Bot_0182/2007_DSC6748Habitat: overgrown former grassland among bushes and scattered trees; moderately inclined mountain slope, south aspect; partly in shade; elevation 490 m (1.600 feet); average precipitations 2.600-3.000 mm/year, average temperature 9-10 deg C, alpine phytogeographical region. Substratum: soil.Place: 'Breginski kot' valley, above the main road from town Kobarid to Breginj, between villages Borjana and Stanovie, East Julian Alps, Posoje, Slovenia EC.Comment: As explained in my post about Aquilegia nigricans, the determination of species within Aquilegia vulgaris / atrata / nigricans group is not an easy task in many cases. Intermediate forms are very common. With this find short glandular hairs on flower petioles, narrow bracts and quite dark color of the flowers, which doesn't show bluish tint but rather brown ones speak in favor of Aquilegia atrata. The shape of the second order leaflets appears mostly ovate (inverse egg-shaped), however, many seem also cuneate (with wedge-shaped basis), which pertains to Aquilegia nigricans. Therefore, my determination may not be completely accurate.Ref.:(1) M.A. Fischer, W. Adler, K. Oswald, Exkursionsflora fr sterreich, Liechtenstein und Sdtirol, LO Landesmuseen, Linz, Austria (2005), p 267.(2) A. Martini et all., Mala Flora Slovenije (Flora of Slovenia - Key) (in Slovenian), Tehnina Zaloba Slovenije (2007), p 147. (3) D. Aeschimann, K. Lauber, D.M. Moser, J.P. Theurillat, Flora Alpina, Vol. 1,2., Haupt (2004), p 186.(4) K. Lauber and G. Wagner, Flora Helvetica, 5. Auflage, Haupt (2012), p 142.
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Ranunculus acris L.RanunculaceaeVall del riu Duran, Meranges, Baixa Cerdanya, Catalunya28-VI-10Prado higrfilo
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Image of a plant in cultivation