[pbs] off-topic botanical question: Curious about shrubs as agardening term
Gerhard Stickroth
Ger.Stickroth at t-online.de
Mon Jan 7 10:08:00 EST 2008
Hey Roger Whitlock, where are you? Cottonwood trees aren't bulbs
either. Remember your nasty comment you wrote when I asked about
hepaticas on 4 Dec 2006.
Gerhard Stickroth
"Jim McKenney" <mailto:jimmckenney at jimmckenney.com> schrieb:
> John Grimshaw wrote: " There is of course a continuum between shrubs and
> trees in terms of
> growth form and the distinction is very artificial."
>
> Another example of just how artificial this distinction is became apparent
> to me from some recent reading. It seems that the cottonwood trees which
> cloak so many western North American mountainsides are, technically, not
> really trees. Or at least not all of them.
>
> Why? Because these cottonwood trees are said to spread by underground
> growths to form connected colonies. In effect, the tree we see is actually
> part of what is really a shrub, the diagnostic connecting parts being
> underground and not immediately apparent.
>
> This also reminded me of the structure of the flowering stems of Erythronium
> multiscapoideum: what appear to be multiple flowering stems are actually one
> stem which typically branches below ground to give the impression that there
> are several stems.
>
> John also mentioned the botanical term frutex. Derived from this is
> frutescens (becoming shrubby), which is sometimes used to translate
> subshrub. And this reminds me: I still have plants of Bulbine frutescens
> (the "subshrubby" Bulbine)if anyone would like a piece.
>
>
> Jim McKenney
> mailto:jimmckenney at jimmckenney.com
> Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where we are experiencing
> unseasonably mild weather - temperatures might reach 70 degrees F in this
> area this week.
> My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com
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>
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> Editor PVC Bulletin http://www.pvcnargs.org
>
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