Tuesday, July 02, 2013

Button Bush Flowers wallpaper

Button Bush Flowers wallpaper
Button Bush Flowers wallpaper
Button Bush scientific name, Cephalanthus  Occidentalis, means "western head flower " referring to its occurrence in the Western Hemisphere--there are related species in Asia--and to the dozens of individual blossoms on its spherical "head-shaped" flower cluster.Also called "Honey Balls" because of its flower fragrance, Buttonbush is in the Madder Family (Rubiaceae), one of the largest plant families with more than 500 genera and 7,000 species worldwide.Buttonbush
Cephalanthus  Occidentalis, Family: Madder (Rubiaceae).Most members of the Madder Family bear "four-part" flowers, with four sepals, four petals, and four stamens--all visible in the Buttonbush photo above.Buttonbush is a semi-aquatic woody shrub that grows not around Hilton Pond specifically but is on our property along the banks of a larger impoundment into which Hilton Pond flows.Other than chainsaws, about the only things controlling growth of Buttonbush are Beavers that chew through the stringy bark (left) and fire that burns the shrubs to water level--a cataclysmic event from which the Button bush seems to rebound quickly and with improved vigour. We discovered our lower pond Buttonbush colony several years ago when numerous spherical seed heads that give the deciduous shrub its name were silhouetted against the autumn sky.

This unnamed lower body of water--which we informally call "Nothilton Pond"--differs from its upper neighbour in that vegetation along its margins has been uncut for perhaps 50 years, whereas previous owners mowed right to the edge of Hilton Pond.We stopped such clear-cutting practises at the Centre back in 1982, after which natural succession brought new plants to Hilton Pond's banks--especially Hazel Alder and, in the past several years, wildflowers such as Swamp Milkweed. As yet, however, Buttonbush hasn't made the jump upstream.The elliptical four-inch leaf of Buttonbush is a dark, lustrous green above, slightly paler below, with a pink petiole attaching it to the twig
Button Bush Flowers wallpaper


Button Bush Flowers wallpaper

Button Bush Flowers wallpaper

Button Bush Flowers wallpaper

Button Bush Flowers wallpaper

Button Bush Flowers wallpaper


Button Bush Flowers wallpaper

Button Bush Flowers wallpaper

Button Bush Flowers wallpaper

Button Bush Flowers wallpaper

Button Bush Flowers wallpaper

Button Bush Flowers wallpaper

Button Bush Flowers wallpaper

Button Bush Flowers wallpaper

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