August 2024 in the garden - Asteraceae, Aster family flowers and lots of other flowers

Douglas Justice wrote that he tried to contain himself, but he did not manage to do that. August in the Garden 2024 - UBC Botanical Garden is a long read, and a ton of fun to follow in the garden. I am just going to start with Inula, one species that I sort-of know, can usually recognize, and have posted often before. And then I am going to sleep and will continue some other time.

Here is Inula racemosa 'Sonnenspeer'. After all these years, I have finally understood the "racemosa" bit, not exactly what I understood as a raceme, but I see that the flowers are all together on a stem.
The first three photos are from Upper Asian Way near the entrance; the last one is on the entrance circle.


Here is Inula magnifica, which is really past its flowering time (July).


Here is Inula helenium, also with large leaves. I can see on this one that the basal leaves have petioles. I did not see that on the previous two, but I wonder if that's the case. I meant to check that today but didn't remember. I have been trying to figure out with @Silver surfer how to distinguish Inula from Telekia (which is not at UBCBG), and until I just saw the petioles here, I thought the sessile leaves were the distinguishing feature.


Inula hookeri has much smaller leaves than the others.


The Pentanema ensifolium is inula in common name only - swordleaf inula or swordleaf elecampane. I started getting fuzzy pictures for the next several minutes, so here's just one photo to show how small this is, with the sword-shape leaves and flower heads maybe 3 or 4 cm.

 

I'll introduce another colour before returning to yellow. This is Helenium 'Moerheim Beauty', called sneezeweed for an entirely bogus reason.


Douglas mentioned that sunflowers, Helianthus annuus, were planted where the Koelreuteria paniculata was removed.

For sure the golden rain tree was cut down, but "removed" seems to be an exaggeration. I realized this is in the Sapindaceae family, not Asteraceae.


I'll try to vary colours a little. I think this is Achillea ptarmica, growing on the entrance plaza and also in the Physic Garden. I saw lots of labels, but no label that matched this.

Next to it on the entrance plaza is Coreopsis grandiflora 'Sonnenkind'.


Here is Achillea millefolium, common yarrow, growing through the Garry Oak Meadow and in the Physic Garden.


Also in the Garry Oak Meadow is Grindelia hirsututa, hairy gumweed. I had just photographed the spiky things, then read again about the rubbery green bracts and thought I'd missed seeing them, but that's what the spiky things are. It turns out they're not spiky and they are rubbery. This was one of the highlights of my visit.


Calendula officinalis is planted in the food garden.

 

Here is my favourite plant of the day, Santolina pinnata subsp. neapolitana 'Edward Bowles'. I think it was last year when I was so excited to discover this.


Also in the button theme, not in the blog, is Cota tinctoria 'Kelwayi', on the entrance plaza.


I forgot about this when I did the previous posting and was looking for non-yellow Asteraceae - this yarrow is Achillea Summer Pastels Group.


[Edited 2024aug14] I thought this was Rudbeckia, but not the species written up in the blog. If these leaves belong to these flowers, I wonder if it's even Rudbeckia.[Edited again], see Ron B's reply - this is Helenium.


I think I'm ending the Asteraceae theme here in blue, Echinops ritro 'Platinum Blue'.

 

Here are a few other high points for me last week. Diplacus grandiflorus in the Pacific Slope Garden was written up by the garden on August 7 as its Facebook Wild Plant Wednesday posting, see Facebook. Ben Stormes's photo is better than mine.


I saw Blitum capitatum, strawberry spinach, planted around the onions in the food garden, was excited to then see it somewhere else in the Food Garden with a label. Chenopodium capitatum is a synonym; it's in the Amaranthaceae family and is edible, though it seems not in large quantities.


At the edge of the Food Garden is this interpretive sign about Wild Food Relatives. In back of it are Cynara cardunculus, cardoons. They look like coosh balls, and feel like it too, but they're pretty well guarded by bees.


Here is Asparagus officinalis.


I've been watching the Zingiber mioga in the Asian Garden, wondering if I will ever see flowers (I'm looking down at the soil line). I was surprised to see this variegated Z. mioga 'White Arrow', also no flowers.


Here are a few in the Asian Garden. This Tropaeolum speciosum doesn't belong there, but it's pretty determined to stay.


I love seeing this Lysimachia clethroides, gooseneck loosestrife.


Here's another favourite - Paris polyphylla var. polyphylla.

 

The one after the pink yarrow is a Helenium.

 

@Ron B, thanks for the Helenium ID re: posting #3.
Here is one labelled Helenium autumnale.


Apologies to people who have had enough Asteraceae photos. I have been back to the garden and now I have some more of those.

@Silver surfer, I think I have this now. Inula basal leaves have a shape that I have seen described as "spatulate", with attenuate leave bases. It's not clear to me whether there is a petiole, or if what is attached to the branch is considered the leaf itself.
Here is Inula racemosa 'Sonnenspeer', with some extra photos, since it has more open flowers this week.


Inula magnifica, really the one that is of interest, as it's the one most likely to be confused with Telekia speciosa.


Inula helenium.


I found the Rudbeckia occidentalis - I clearly glossed right over the text when I was at the garden, even though I really had read it several times. This is in the Pacific Slope Garden, and it has green bracts where ray flowers are usually found. These seem mostly finished blooming, with cones around 4 cm. tall, and they're attractive to pollinators but not so ornamental. There were a few new flowers which are sort-of attractive.


Silphium perfoliatum, on the other hand, is very attractive, and I think unusual. Common name is cup plant, presumably because of the cup-like arrangement (bracts or are they leaves?) under the flowers.

 

Still from last week, one more Asteraceae, Heliopsis helianthoides var. scabra 'Sommersonne', which seems to have three tiers of ray flowers.

These were in the plot with the sunflowers, Helianthus annuus.


Leaving the aster family again, the attribute in the name Lysimachia clethroides from posting #4 was a reference to Clethra, and I would think particularly to Clethra alnifolia.

Here is Clethra barbinervis.


Actaea cordifolia is another with sprays of small white flowers.


I don't know if this is Stachys chamissonis var. cooleyae. I was looking for Clethra fargesii on the south side of Upper Asian Way before the moongate, which I never found, decided to settle for this. A Stachys with this name is listed in Garden Explorer, but not at the location where I found this.


I think this must be what's called Phytolacca hybrid in Garden Explorer, though it seems to be on the other side of the Pavilion from there Garden Explorer says.

 

Found a naturalised Inula helenium on a roadside here, 1.8 m tall monster!