Download Some botanical highlights in the Gardens May 2016

Some botanical highlights in the Gardens
May 2016
The numbers refer to the gardens as shown on your map.
The Garden is full of colour at the moment. Here are just a few of the more interesting plants.
A star plant this month is the Madeira
Cranesbill, Geranium maderense. You will
find it growing en masse along the roadside
bordering the Garden and in sheltered spots
within the Garden. This magnificent, tender
perennial is the largest and most spectacular of
the Geranium species. It is a native of Madeira
where it is an understorey plant of the native
laurel forests, which at one time covered most
of the island. What remains today is protected
but, despite this, the Madeira Cranesbill is
rarely seen in the wild. As the plants age, the
older leaves begin to die and bend downwards.
These fleshy leaf stalks return their water to the growing portion of the plant and they serve to
prop up the rather top-heavy plants. Sadly, they will die once they have flowered.
The South African Terrace (3) is now full of colour. Amongst the more familiar, showy plants,
look out, immediately on your right, for a clump of sword-leaved orange flowering plants somewhat
reminiscent of Montbretia.
This is the African Flag, Chasmanthe
floribunda. It is endemic to Cape province, South
Africa, where it is pollinated by Sunbirds. The
curious twisting of the lower part of the floral tube
may serve to prevent the sharp beak of the
sunbird from piecing through the base of the
flower and injuring the unfertilised seeds.
If you walk to the commemorative seating area, you will find an unusual shrub in flower at the far
end, bearing yellow pom-pom flowers. This one is not a South African plant but a native of Chile. It
is known there as Mitique, Podanthes ovatifolius. It is a shrubby member of the daisy family. It
has traditional medicinal uses amongst which, apparently, it was used for the treatment of
gonorrhoea and urinary tract infections. This plant is very rarely grown in this country but a good
plant of it can be seen in Chelsea Physic Garden in London.
As you walk through the South African terrace, you will notice the bushes of African Hemp or
Sparmannia africana bearing white flowers. These plants have been in flower all winter here but they
are too tender to grow outdoors in most parts of the country.
Notice also, on the right of the path, a bush with rounded, greyish leaves and unusual but attractive
orange-brown flowers. This is the Beach Salvia, Salvia africana-lutea, a native of the Cape
Region of South Africa, particularly in coastal areas. The aromatic leaves are used to make tea for
treating coughs, colds and bronchitis.
In the Australian Garden (4) several showy wattles or Acacias are coming into flower. The one
to your right by the path with spiky leaves in whorls and short, creamy yellow flowers is known in
Australia as Prickly Moses, Acacia verticillata (right below). It comes from damp places in southeastern Australia and Tasmania. This wattle was named by Sir Joseph Hooker, the second director
of Kew Gardens and good friend of Charles Darwin. A different acacia, with wide flattened ‘leaves’
and long, rather slender flower spikes, can be found by following the upper path around the
Australian Garden which looks back into the tree fern dell. This is the Sydney Coast Wattle,
Acacia longifolia, (left below)a native of coastal Australia including Tasmania. It is distinctive in
having wide, flattened ‘leaves’ (they are actually flattened stems or phyllodes) and long, rather
slender, flower spikes. It is usually grown under glass in this country, but it thrives in some Cornish
coastal gardens. It grows rapidly and has become a nuisance invasive plant in South Africa, where an
Australian wasp which galls the flowers and prevents them from setting seed, has been introduced
in an effort to control it. This has proved to be quite successful.
Elsewhere in the Australian garden, red, pink and white flowered Leptospermum bushes are coming
into flower.
In the New Zealand Garden (6), two species of a shrub or tree bearing yellow pea flowers are
now in bloom. As you enter the garden, you will be struck by a bush on your right bearing clusters
of yellow flowers on bare branches. This is Sophora microphylla. It is widespread in New Zealand
where it known by its Maori name, Kowhai which means yellow. The larger tree bearing similar
flowers half way into the garden is Sophora tetraptera.
Another small tree coming into flower
in the New Zealand garden is the
Wineberry, Aristotelia serrata, with
pinkish young foliage and rose
coloured flowers. It is a rapidly
growing a colonist of cleared ground
and forest margins. European settlers
burnt to the young straight shoots to
produce charcoal for the production
of gun powder.
Growing alongside of the Campsis Arbour you will
notice a fine display of a blue flowered bulb, known
as Quamash, Camassia leichtlinii. Quamash is
the North American Indian name for the plant. The
edible bulbs were an important food source for
Native Americans. They can grow in great quantity
in damp meadows in western USA.
In the Palm Garden (7) you will notice
white flowered wands of the New Zealand
Satin Flower, Libertia grandiflora. The
plant has characteristic strap shaped leaves
and tall flower stems with white, there
petalled flowers, indicating that it is a
member of the Iris family. They will flower
for many months and, in you will find plants
in many parts of the Garden as it spreads
quite vigorously with us. This is a native of
New Zealand, found along streamside and
within forests, principally in the North Island.
There is a fascinating plant growing in the Long Border (13) to look for this month, the Dragon
Arum, Dranunculus vulgaris. It produces upright clumps of foliage with leaf stems blotched with
purple and very distinctive leaves. From them emerges a rather sinister flower comprising a large
purple spathe wrapped around an upright purple spadix. When the flower is ready for pollination, it
emits an unpleasant smell, reminiscent of rotting meat, to attract flies. Any flies that land on the
flower, slip down into it and are only released when flower withers. This is the most spectacular of
the European arums. It is a native of the eastern Mediterranean where it can be found in olive
groves and on waste land. In Greece, this plant is known as drakondia, the long spadix being
viewed as a small dragon hiding in its spathe. You can also find this plants growing in the
Mediterranean Garden (11).
There are currently many interesting plants in the Mediterranean Garden (11). This is the time
of year that the Mediterranean is most colourful with wild flowers. Sun roses (Cistus), Spurges
(Euphorbia) and Rosemary (Rosmarinus) are all looking their best and the Giant Echiums are just
starting to come into flower. If you search carefully, there are many other interesting, if less showy,
flowers here at present.
In the Walled Garden (13 ), look for a large
evergreen bush growing against the west facing wall
and covered in small clusters of brownish flowers.
This is Melicytus chathamicus, a small tree with
toothed leaves which hails from the Chatham
Islands, an island group which lies some 680km
southeast of New Zealand. There, it is a major
component of dwindling coastal forests. There are
separate male and female plants; ours is a female.
The yellowish flowers in clusters seem to give no
indication that this is, in fact, a member of the
violet family.
Another interesting and rarely seen bush in the Walled Garden has stems which are currently
covered with clusters of small, pinkish flowers.
This is Wild Rhea Debregaesia
longifolia, a member of the Nettle family
but with attractive slender, lance-shaped
non stinging leaves. It is a native of
Eastern Asia and China through to to the
Himalayas The plant is gathered from the
wild mainly for the high quality strong
fibre obtained from the stem bark. In the
autumn, it bears clusters of attractive
orange berries but for this to happen,
both sexes need to be planted. Our plant
is a male and it dates from one of the
original Hillier plantings in the 1970s.
In the Arid Garden (16) look for the distinctive
Mexican Lily, Beschorneria septentrionalis with its
long red flowering stems. This is the most northerly
occurring of the seven species, native to dry
woodland in the mountains of north-east Mexico
where it is attractive to hummingbirds. Elsewhere in
the Garden, you will find the related and more
commonly grown Beschorneria yuccoides which has
grey green Yucca like leaves and long flowering stems
held at a jaunty angle.
There are many interesting plants in flower around
the Top Lawn. One of these is Rough Guinea
Flower, Hibbertia aspera a low growing,
spreading shrub native to Australia where it grows
on sandy soils in open forest and heath in
Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria.
We hope you have enjoyed looking at some of the special plants
which make Ventnor Botanic Garden unique.
There is always something new to see here throughout the year
and every visit will bring new botanical surprises.