Another spectacularly ornamental tree is Cochlospermum vitifolium. This is the double-flowered cultivar. It makes these enormous flowers right before the leaves appear in the spring. It's protoanthous. #Bixaceae #protoanthy #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

In the tropics & subtropics, drought-deciduous flowering trees are especially showy because they flower before the leaves emerge, i.e., they are protoanthous. Here’s Jacaranda mimosifolia. 📷: John CCBYSA2 #protoanthy #Bignoniaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Sassafras albidum is a spring-flowering tree that flowers before the tree’s leaves emerge; ergo, it’s protoanthous. Their tiny, yellow flowers are a welcome sight in the spring (for both winter-weary humans and pollinators). #protoanthy #Lauraceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

The decoupling of leaves and flowers is common where there is a strong reason for dormancy: cold or drought. Forsythia is famous for flowering early in the spring, before the leaves emerge, sometimes even before the snow melts. #protoanthy #Oleaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Leaf & flower synchrony can be variable within a genus. Some Cyclamen species are described as hysteranthous. In Cyclamen graecum, flowers are produced before the leaves emerge. 📷: Chad Wilhite CCBY4 #hysteranthy #Primulaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱 1/2

Let’s take a look at leaf & flower timing. Synanthy (adj.: synanthous) is when flowers and leaves occur together at the same time. There are lots of good examples of this, as it’s very common. Here’s an example: Magnolia virginiana. #Magnoliaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱 1/4

Limosella aquatica grows in temperate regions worldwide, except Australia. (What happened, Oz?) It’s an annual of mudflats & vernal pools. Star-shaped flowers are very un-Scroph, but much of the time they’re cleistogamous & never open. 📷: Eva the Weaver CCBYNCSA2 #Scrophulariaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Verbascum is a genus of biennials and perennials that are fantastic for pollinators and add a vertical element to a composition. Their hairy filaments are interesting. I wonder if they are part of the attraction to pollinators. #Scrophulariaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Tribe Limoselleae includes Selago (191 spp), Jamesbrittenia (84), Manulea (71), Zaluzianskya (57), Chaenostoma (46), & a few smaller genera. Most of these are from southern Africa, where the tribe has radiated. 📷: Manulea cheiranthus by Gigi Laidler CCBYNC4. #Scrophulariaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Leucophyllum (“white leaf”; tribe Leucophylleae) has 17 Mexico & adjacent USA. Three spp occur in the USA, including L. frutescens of s. & w. Texas. This species is widely used as an ornamental shrub in warm parts of the USA, from California to Florida. #Scrophulariaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Torenia fournieri is native to India, SE Asia & China, but cultivars of it are used as bedding annuals worldwide. It is called wishbone flower because of the two stamens joined by their anthers, which is a defining feature of the family. #Scrophulariaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Exciting news for bryophyte enthusiasts! Volume 29, the third bryophyte volume of Flora of North America, publishes by end of 2026, with just four taxonomic volumes left in this landmark 30-volume series. 🌵 Learn more: floranorthamerica.org Find FNA next week at Booth #202 at #Botany2026!

This is Bontia daphnoides, a Caribbean & S. Florida species in a primarily Australian group. It used to be in the Myoporaceae, but that family is now reduced to the tribe Myoporeae within the Scrophulariaceae. This species has corky, water-dispersed fruits. #Scrophulariaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Capraria biflora is widespread in Latin America (& just gets into the USA in southern FL). Its family placement has been debated for many years, but it now resides in the tribe Leucophylleae of the Scrophs. #Scrophulariaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Reassignment of genera started with “The disintegration of the Scrophulariaceae” by Olmstead et al. (2001) & continued with “Further disintegration of the Scrophulariaceae” by Oxelman et al. (2005). But lots of cool plants are still in the #Scrophulariaceae, e.g, Russelia cf. polyedra #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

This week is devoted to #Scrophulariaceae, a family that has changed dramatically since I first learned it. Things previously called Scrophs are now in Plantagin., Orobanch., Phrym. and other families. Has any other family changed as much? Scrophularia marilandica Debbie Roos CCBY2 #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

I came this close [finger & thumb 5 mm apart] from posting about Dendrophylax lindenii. There's a fab video about a team of photogs trying to get video of the moths in action. #TeamMoth #PollinatorWeek #Orchidaceae #pollination youtu.be/B9IIrpOLJ14?...

Rare Ghost Orchid Has Multiple Pollinators | Short Film Showcase

YouTube video by National Geographic

youtu.be

Wikidgarden@wikidgarden.bsky.social · 2w ago

In the past, mystery surrounded pollination of South Florida’s Ghost Orchid as well. Large moths are doing crucial work: goorchids.northamericanorchidcenter.org/species/dend...

I’ll end Moth Week with the most famous case of moth pollination: the #orchid Angraecum sesquipedale, in habitat in Madagascar. Dawin predicted that a moth must exist with a proboscis long enough to reach the nectar deep in the spur. He was right! #pollination #MothWeek #TeamMoth #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

I'll say it again: Not every visitor is a pollinator! This Saliunca styx visiting the flower of Murraya paniculata may or may not be transporting pollen as it feeds on nectar. We can’t tell from this photo. 📷: Adedotun Ajibade CCBYNC4 #pollination #MothWeek #TeamMoth #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Micropterix calthella adults feed on pollen, including that of their namesake Caltha palustris, transporting pollen in the process. They are not the sole pollinators of this plant, but they are part of a network of floral visitors. 📷: Julie CCBYNCSA2. #pollination #MothWeek #TeamMoth #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

We mustn’t overlook the little guys, the microlepidoptera. These are settling moths that land on the flower to feed. They are hugely important pollinators. 📷: Scoparia biplagialis on Solidago sp. by Jeanette Jaskula CCBYNC4. #pollination #MothWeek #TeamMoth #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Yucca Moths are amazing pollinators. They gather pollen & intentionally place it on the stigma! Their larvae eat some of the resulting seeds. This is Hesperoyucca whipplei with a California yucca moth (Tegeticula maculata). #pollination #MothWeek #TeamMoth #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Not every visit by a moth will result in pollination. This African Hummingbird Hawkmoth is visiting a cultivated Salvia, a species from the Americas adapted to hummingbird pollination. The moth is stealing nectar & can’t affect pollination. 📷: tjeerddw CCBYNC4 #MothWeek #TeamMoth #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

This Giant Sphinx (Cocytius antaeus) is visiting a Hymenocallis sp. Notice the exserted stamens. They are out where they can deposit pollen on the moth. The stigma is exserted, too. Pollen will be transported on the moth’s wings. 📷: Standa Pavouk CCBYNC4 #MothWeek #TeamMoth #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

In this amazing photo by Máté Menyhárt (CCBY2), you can see the pollen covering the proboscis. That’s why these moths are so important: They are very good at transporting pollen. They’re strong fliers, so they can move pollen over long distances. #pollination #MothWeek #TeamMoth #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

To celebrate Moth Week, I’m posting all week about the importance of moths as pollinators. Let’s start with the big, flashy, hovering moths, the hawkmoths or sphinx moths, Sphingidae. Hemaris thysbe is one I often see because it’s diurnal, like me! #pollination #MothWeek #TeamMoth #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Oxalis debilis 'Aureoreticulata' is infected with a begomovirus that gives it the gold venation. It’s one of the rare cases in which a viral infection increases the aesthetic value of a plant (cf. Tulip breaking virus). #Oxalidaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Some species of Oxalis have callosities on the leaflet margin, in the apical notch of the underside or scattered over the underside. These are clusters of cells filled with calcium oxalate. What is their function? Anti-herbivory? Calcium storage? Nobody knows. 📷: O. violacea. #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Oxalis noctiflora blooms at night with fragrant, white flowers. It surely must be pollinated by moths. It’s from South Africa. 📷: Brian du Preez CCBYSA4 #Botany 🌾🧪🌱

Oxalis simplicifolia was described in 2019. It is a subshrub endemic to the Marquesas Islands, where it grows on cliffs & is Critically Endangered. It is unusual in having unifoliolate leaves, i.e., compound leaves, each with only one leaflet. 📷: Kenneth R. Wood CCBYNC4. #Oxalidaceae #Botany 🌾🧪🌱