Flower show features new dates and venues
The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society has reimagined the Philadelphia Flower Show for 2021.
I loved my plant taxonomy course in college — learning how botanists determine which plants are related to each other and placing them in “families.” I was fascinated, specifically, by how taxonomists trace the evolution of plants from the oldest (those with the simplest of reproductive parts) to the most recent and highly-evolved. In the section of study on angiosperms (flowering plants), this took us from the Buttercup Family, with its relatively rudimentary reproductive parts, to the Composite Family, with all the bells and whistles.
Maybe this comes at the intersection of plant geek and musician, but I also just loved the names. I still do. To me, there’s poetry in Ranunculaceae (Rah-nun-cuelácey-ee) the Buttercup Family. In Compositae (compáhs-it-ee) the Composite Family. In Scrophulariaceae, Hamamelidaceae, Papaveraceae.
I thought of this last month when I was organizing my ad hoc “seed corner,” sorting and bagging the seeds I’d collected in the fall. I’d actually forgotten that I’d cut some stalks from one of the little dill plants, but here they were, with their beautiful, parasol-shaped heads. The family name is so easy to remember: Umbelliferae (um-bell-íf-er-ee) . The plants in this family form a distinctive seed head that botanists call an “umbel.” With its radiating “spokes,” it looks like a miniature umbrella, or like a firework caught just as it explodes.) Members of this family include Queen Anne’s Lace, dill, tansy, celery, and parsley. When they flower, you can’t miss them.
There are some people I’ve come across who suggest that by naming things, we’re unable to be truly present to the natural world around us. I think I understand this — how not labeling leaves us free to explore and get to know things on their own merits. Yet I’ve always liked having names for things, especially if I’m going to be around them
a lot, like learning the names of everyone in your dormitory, or on your sports team. To me, a name serves as a point of introduction, and from there we can really get to know each other. It also helps me remember.
If you want to learn more about plant families, a great resource is the book, “Botany in a Day.” The title is a bit misleading; you won’t get it all in just twenty-four hours or even twenty-four days, but it’s a wellthought-out approach. And you’ll soon realize that once you become familiar with the basic terminology and overall approach, things will start to fall into place. For instance, you can feel the square stem of a plant and place it in the mint family. Or you can notice that buds on a twig of a tree are opposite each other, and guess that what you’re looking at might be a maple.
You can look at a dandelion and rather than seeing just a prolific weed you wish weren’t in your lawn, you can see the result of eons of botanical research and development, with each flower “head” actually a composite of dozens of tiny, individual flowers, anywhere from fifty to one hundred and seventy. Each will form its own seed, connected to a feathery sail, ready to take to the wind and set down roots wherever it lands.
Becoming familiar with plant families is more than just a pleasant mental exercise; it can help you understand how to group and care for plants, particularly in the vegetable garden. Actually, when you grow vegetables you pick this up quickly. For instance, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and potatoes are all in the Nightshade Family (Solanaceae). They’re also all subject to the same plant diseases, critical to know for crop rotation. You don’t want to plant tomatoes where you had tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, or eggplants for at least four years.
Pam Baxter is an avid organic vegetable gardener who lives in Kimberton. Direct e-mail to pamelacbaxter@gmail.com, or send mail to P.O. Box 80, Kimberton, PA 19442. Share your gardening stories on Facebook at “Chester County Roots.” Pam’s book for children and families, Big Life Lessons from Nature’s Little Secrets, is available on Amazon, along with her companion field journal, Explore Outdoors, at Amazon.com/author/ pamelabaxter.