On my May 30 visit, I was trying to second-guess Douglas Justice and what he would be writing about for June. I've never been successful at that before, but this time, everywhere I looked were Rodgersia, so I photographed several of those. And here's the June blog, all about Rodgersia. The thing is, I didn't find a single label. I'll bet they were down there, under all those leaves, plenty visible in the winter. It turns out I don't have any named photo for reference from previous years, probably because I didn't find any labels then either. So what follows are photos with my guesses as to what they are. As Douglas mentions, a lot of them are hybrids, but I'm not sure if I would know which they are. Corrections are welcome. This is the only one I'm certain of - seems to be a pretty good example of Rodgersia podophylla, duck-foot rodgersia, with palmately compound leaves. Botany Photo of the Day from December 23, 2007 show's Daniel Mosquin's close-up of the flowers. The petal-looking things are sepals - there are no petals on Rodgersia. This one seems to have lobed leaf tips like R. podophylla, but some of the leaves look more pinnate, so I'm guessing a hybrid. This has some lobed leaves, but the leaf texture is not as stiff, and there are pink flowers. So a hybrid of R. podophylla and R. aesculifolia? I'll post more in replies to this.
I ended the last posting with a hybrid that I thought involved Rodgersia aesculifolia. Here is what I think is that species. Leaves are palmately compound, flowers are white. These plants with pinnate leaves I'm calling Rodgersia pinnata. Leaf margins are supposed to be doubly-serrate (e-Floras). This almost works. Are these "heavily textured" leaves? Here is a photo from Dave's Garden that was taken at UBCBG in 2011. PlantFiles Pictures: Featherleaf Rodgersia, Rodgers Flower (Rodgersia pinnata) by growin
I think Rodgersia sambucifolia was involved in this plant, but I'm not sure it's not a hybrid. Or maybe I'm totally off on the ID. Here is a Botany Photo of the Day for R. Sambucifolia from 2009: Rodgersia sambucifolia And a photo from Dave's Garden, taken at UBCBG in 2007. PlantFiles Pictures: Rodgersia (Rodgersia sambucifolia) by growin
I just discovered that on June 2, I took two photos of what look like the real Rodgersia pinnata, heavily textured leaves and tall, loose inflorescences and all.
I think these June 28 photos are of the same group of Rodgersia pinnata as the second group in posting #2. This group, with fuzzy stems like the Rodgersia pinnata in posting #4, have more developed fruits.
