Earlier I mentioned a few resources you could use to research your plant specimen. Today I will draw on these resources and others to learn more about the Dorstenia plant I selected for my current project. I always start with the big picture and then get more specific, so I will begin with learning more about the Moraceae, the plant family to which my lovely plant belongs.
My references remind me that plants in the Moraceae (more-ay-see-ee) often have a white milky sap and small inconspicuous flowers that are usually arranged in some sort of cluster (i.e., inflorescence). To say that the flowers on my plant are small is an understatement! If my photomicroscopy skills were better, I would post a magnified view of my flowers. You know, I think I will go ahead and do this because not knowing will only bother me. I have to wait until I have a developed hypanthodium, though. As is often the case in botanical illustration, plants change and my plant no longer looks quite like it did when I took these reference photos.
The leaves of the Dorstenia plants in my collection are in fact simple and arranged alternately along the stem, just as my references describe them to be. The fruit on my hypanthodium are a glorious sight, don’t you think?
Most of my references (Caster, 2004; L.H. Bailey Hortorium, 1976; Walters & Keil, 1996; Zomlefer, 1994) refer to the fruit of the Moraceae as achenes (single-seeded fruits like strawberry “seeds”) or drupes (fleshy fruits with a big pit like a peach). One reference, Kirkbride et al. (2006), refers to the fruit of Dorstenia as being “trymosum.” I looked up the word “tryma” in Harris & Harris (2001) and learned that a tryma is “a drupe-like nut with a fleshy, dehiscent exocarp, as a walnut or hickory nut.” The fruit in my image resembles the illustration in Harris & Harris (2001). I have flagged the word “tryma” in my head and will continue my research of Dorstenia fruit.
I am satisfied with what I have learned about my plant so far. I will keep looking for Dorstenia-specific references as I proceed with my project. Would you happen to know of any good references?
Literature Cited & Other Resources
- Cactus and Succulent Society of America – http://www.cssainc.org/
- Castner, James L. 2004.
Photographic Atlas of Botany and Guide to Plant Identification. - Harris, James G. and Melinda Woolf Harris. 2001. Plant Identification Terminology: An Illustrated Glossary. Second edition.
- Kirkbride, J.H., Jr., C.R. Gunn, and M.J. Dallwitz. 2006. Family Guide for Fruits and Seeds, vers. 1.0. URL: http://nt.ars-grin.gov/sbmlweb/OnlineResources/frsdfam/Index.cfm. Accessed January 21, 2008.
- L.H. Bailey Hortorium, Cornell University. 1976. Hortus Third: A Concise Dictionary of Plants Cultivated in the United States and Canada.
- Walters, Dirk R. and David J. Keil. 1996. Vascular Plant Taxonomy. Fourth edition.
- Zomlefer, Wendy B. 1994. Guide to Flowering Plant Families.
The book resources with linked images are currently are available at ArtPlantae Books.
Meet me back here on February 5th for the next installment of Real Life.
