There’s a fine edition of the carnival of plants, Berry Go Round, at Brainripples. Jade Blackwater has presented so many interesting posts and web sites that I’ll be returning to the carnival several times this month, just to be sure I don’t miss anything. You may find yourself doing the same. It’s called Berry Go Round 30 – Come Together.
In this rainiest of La Niña rainy seasons, everything in the pine forest where I walk the dogs is green, green, green. A spot of red, then, really catches the eye, even when it’s against the clay dirt of a forestry road.
There are lots of sprawling, scrambling vines around, but this one I like because of its red inflorescence and also its trifoliate leaves. When I took a clipping or two home and and opened my trusted identification manual by Gentry in hand, it didn’t take long to come up with the family and genus name of this woody vine.
Leaves alternate and compound
The leaves are divided into three leaflets, which makes them compound leaves, and they are not opposite each other on the stem – they work their way up the stem on alternate sides.
This combination of alternate, compound leaves is most often found in the legume (Fabaceae) family, but legume leaves have smooth edges or margins. The margins of the leaves on this woody vine are toothed, or serrated.
The toothed edges place it in one of three possible families: the soapberry (Sapindaceae), the cucumber (Cucurbitaceae), or the grape (Vitaceae) family.
Crucial tendrils
To distinguish the families from each other, Gentry uses the configuration of the tendrils. Soapberry tendrils are bifurcated or forked. Cucumber tendrils are divided, spirally coiling, and make a right angle with the base of the leaf stalk. Grape tendrils arise on the stem opposite the leaf stalk – in the exact position another leaf would be if these leaves were opposite rather than alternate.
So which tendrils do we have here?
Over the past 16 years, annual rainfall in our area has averaged 183 inches. That’s a little over 15 feet. On average, most of this rain comes in the months of August through October, with 25-31 inches, or more than 2 feet, of rainfall each month.
So far this year we’ve had 134 inches (11 feet) and we’re two weeks away from August.
Some days, the standard 5-inch rain gauge doesn’t hack it.
Just saying.
Jeremy Cherfas at Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog has posted 11 blog posts about plants that you really must read, which is the 29th edition of the Berry Go Round carnival of plants. All eleven posts that he points to are truly worth reading, but one that gripped my attention for some time is a tour-de-force on the strawberry. You’ll see what I mean.
A note on the host blog: Agricultural Biodiversity may sound a bit dry to you, but if you follow the blog even for a short time, you’ll see that the issue is far larger than simply keeping agriculture from becoming an industry that produces only a few, almost mechanized, foods. Just skim down the list of categories – there are 46! – to get an idea of the topics covered. Plus, Jeremy’s style, as you’ll see in the BGR carnival, is lively and opinionated.
