Asclepias
totototo@telus.net (Tue, 24 Jul 2007 11:00:27 PDT)
On 24 Jul 07, at 7:56, Mary Sue Ittner wrote:
California has something beautiful species of this genus and I'm
wondering how many of them might be geophytes. A couple I have tried
to grow in my garden, but haven't gotten to bloom yet are deciduous
and late to come back in the spring. I've looked at least one of these
when dormant and I could actually see something that looked like it
had a tuber to me but Jepson describes them as annuals, perennials, or
shrubs. There was a really gorgeous one I photographed in Southern
California, Asclepias californica, described as perennial. I'd add it
to the wiki if I thought is qualified.
Jepson is mixing its metaphors somewhat. The real contrasts are
between woody plants, semi-woody plants and non-woody plants; between
annual, biennial, and perennial plants; and between geophytes and non-
geophytes; and between evergreen and deciduous plants, which is
closely correlated with the distinction between herbaceous and non-
herbaceous.
Geophytes include bulbous, rhizomatous, tuberous, and cormous plants.
Our usual bulbs are non-woody, perennial, geophytic, but may be
evergreen or deciduous.
Your milkweed is probably a non-woody deciduous perennial with fleshy
roots that ambiguate the distinction between geophyte and non-
geophyte.
Somewhere in all this mess is the distinction between trees, shrubs,
and sub-shrubs.
As usual, Mother Nature laughs at us humans trying to pigeonhole Her
infinite variety of creations and makes sure She has plenty of gray
area plants on board to frustrate our tidy little schemes.
I think we better all go put icepacks on our throbbing brains, no?
--
RFW
"It's MY computer, Mr Gates. Stop trying to tell me what it will/won't do."
<http://theregister.co.uk/2007/07/…>