62. Rubiaceae

Rubiaceae is one of the largest families with around 13,000 species in over 600 genera. While most of these plants are not household words, at least two of them are, and one is among the best known of all -- coffee. Most of the world's coffee is Coffea arabica, seen here growing on the slopes of Costa Rica. When ripe, the bright red berries taste a little bit bitter and a little bit sweet. It was great after a lifetime of drinking the stuff to get up close and personal with the shrubs and berries.

About twenty percent of commercially harvested coffee comes from Coffea robusta, also known as Coffea canephora. There are dozens other species growing wild throughout tropics and new ones have recently been found in Madagascar and Cameroon. To varying degrees they all contain caffeine, a bitter toxin produced by the plant to repel predators. Robusta contains more caffeine, making it easier to grow but not as flavorful as arabica.

Another genus that has made its mark on the world is Cinchona, a tropical shrub with unique medicinal qualities. It is named after the Peruvian Countess of Chinchon, who is said to have been cured of malaria by native Quechuan people familiar with the plant's curative powers. The active ingredient present in the bark is known as quinine, which to this day is used to treat malaria. Its cultivation and use by Europeans facilitated the settlement of tropical areas that were otherwise hotbeds of the disease.

A few members of the Rubiaceae family are used ornamentally, the best known perhaps being the Gardenia genus. These tropical evergreen shrubs produce beautiful, white, sweet-smelling flowers. The name honors the appropriately-named Scottish botanist Alexander Garden.

A lesser known ornamental shrub that I have encountered in California is the Mirror Bush, Coprosma repens, which comes from New Zealand. Its common name must derive from the fact that the leaves are among the glossiest I have ever seen. All in all a very striking shrub, one that I would have otherwise never connected to coffee.

61. Rosaceae

The Rosaceae or rose family includes so many familiar and economically important species it is ridiculous. Where to begin? With roses I guess, which is the genus Rosa (a fine example of which is seen below). Then comes a supermarket full of familiar foods: apples (Malus), pears (Pyrus), raspberries (Rubus), strawberries (Fragaria), and of course the amazing Prunus genus, which includes peaches, plums, nectarines, apricots, cherries, and almonds. Have I forgotten anything? Probably.

I like encountering the more obscure members of this approximtely 2800 species-large family. Are loquats obscure? There are tons of them around here -- Eriobotrya japonica not surprisingly comes from Asia, but are now commonplace in California. Also called Japanese plum, to me they taste a little like apricots. It's a pleasant flavor that also works well in jams, jellies, pastries, pies and gelato, to name a few applications.

Quince, Cydonia oblonga, also has numerous culinary uses. Its origin is in the Middle East, where it has a very ancient history of cultivation that may have predated the apple. What has been translated to "apple" in some ancient texts may actually be a reference to quince, which resembles a hard, fuzzy apple.

The Amelanchier genus includes trees that go by such interesting names as shadblow, shadbush and serviceberry. These North American natives are used both ornamentally and for their berries, which are eaten raw as well as in jams and pies.

Moving onto more obscure species, there's the chaparral shrub chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum) that, when in flower, produces an insane amount of pollen. While working at parks that included this shrub I recall getting the pollen all over my clothes and even down my shirt via my neck. Fortunately I didn't have any allergic reactions!

Then there is Photinia, a fairly common landscaping shrub throughout California. Photinia is showy both for its red leaves and its abundance of dense corymbs when in flower. I can't say this is my favorite plant, but I like that they are easy to identify.

Perhaps the most delightfully obscure member of the rose family I know is Lyontree, Lyonothamnus floribundus, also known as Catalina Ironwood or Santa Cruz Ironwood. A true California native, endemic to the Channel Islands, Lyontree is increasingly being used on the mainland for landscaping. They are easy to spot with their peeling red bark and distinctive, toothed leaves that look almost like caricatures of marijuana leaves. For years I wondered what these were. It's great that this rare, native tree is getting more play.

60. Rhizophoreaceae

I like to refer to the Rhizophoreaceae family as the mangrove family, because that is what this family means to me. Mangroves and me go back a ways, back to the Florida Everglades where they are abundant. I was impressed to learn that the spread of mangroves literally creates land out of sea. In fact it does this with the help of allied plants and animals, the sum of which creates an ecological community that includes crabs, crocodiles, various species of mangroves and buttonwood, Conocarpus erectus. But the dominant player is red mangrove, Rhizophora mangle.

One very confusing thing is that different mangroves belong to different families. White mangrove, Laguncularia racemosa, belongs to the Combretaceae family, while black mangrove, Avicennia germinans, belongs to the Acanthaceae (the first family listed on this blog). Again, the dominant player, at least in the American tropics, seems to be red mangrove.

Above is a photo I took while kayaking near Bannister Island, Belize. I'm not sure exactly which mangroves they are, but it was impressive to see such an extensive matrix of islands rising out of the sea. This to me is the essence of mangroves: living land, not for people, but for its own sake.

59. Rhamnaceae

The Rhamnaceae or Buckthorn family is about 900 species large and found throughout the world -- mainly in the warmer parts. I don't think this family existed for me before I moved to California and got acquainted with its community of native chaparral plants. One of the more abundant and attractive of these drought-resistant shrubs is Ceanothus. They are attractive in the wild, where their spherical, white and lavender flowers emit a memorable perfume, and they are attractive as landscaping shrubs, their hardy leaves remaining dark-green year round. The Ceanothus genus contains over 50 species plus numerous hybrids and cultivars.

It was also in California where I had a memorable encounter with Jujube, Ziziphus jujuba, also known as Chinese date. This more exotic member of the Rhamnaceae family hails from Asia. The most striking feature are the fruits; once you see the mature fruits, you cannot un-see them. At least I can't. They resemble dates in some respects and not surprisingly they are eaten in a similar way -- as snacks, dried fruit and various confections. But they are not related to dates, which belong to the Arecaceae family.

58. Proteaceae

Above, pincushion flowers from the Leucospermum genus, South African beauties that do well on the California coast. In this case, Monterey Bay. The Proteaceae family includes over 1500 species of mostly exotic looking plants from the southern hemisphere. The Macadamia genus is probably the best known due to their famous nuts. One species that caught my attention while living in Southern California was Grevillea robusta, also known as Australian silver oak. It caught my attention because it was so damn peculiar looking -- both the leaves and mustard-orange flowers. Since that initial encounter I have also noticed them in Northern California. Needless to say this native of the Australian east coast is used as a landscaping tree throughout the Golden State. 

Another example of how strange looking members of this family can be is this Banksia serrata (above and below) that I photographed at the Santa Cruz arboretum. Appropriately the genus is named for the English botanist Joseph Banks, who discovered this species in 1770 at Australia's Botany Bay (part of present day Sydney). In fact, Captain Cook came up with the name "Botany Bay" because of the abundance of interesting plants that Joseph Banks found there. In any case these weird cones are not something you see every day in the U.S.

 

57. Polygonaceae

Polygonaceae is definitely an interesting family. Among its other names are buckwheat, knotweed and smartweed. The family includes approximately 1200 species within approximately 50 genera. Distribution is worldwide, with representatives found in both tropical and temperate climates. Perhaps the best known is buckwheat -- Fagopyrum in the Old World and Eriogonum in the New.

Two species stand out in my memory. The first, seen here, is commonly known as sea grape, and scientifically as Coccoloba uvifera. This American native is found on coastlines throughout the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. Its striking, round leaves make quite an impression. I took these photos one sunny January day in Port Aransas, TX. I had encountered them previously on beaches in the Mexican Caribbean, and possibly Florida, where the grapes are made into and popularly sold as jelly.

The other memorable species is mile-a-minute weed, Persicaria perfoliata. I was surveying the land behind my parents' land in New York when I discovered the strange, triangular leaves seen below growing over some other shrubs. Close inspection revealed sinister-looking barbed vines. I was not at all surprised to learn that this is an invasive Asian import, probably recently introduced, as I have no memory of seeing it in all the years of exploring this land. The weed was supposedly introduced into Oregon, Maryland and Pennsylvania, with the latter's York County generally recognized as the epicenter of the current infestation.