**ARCHIVED POST **
Click Here for larger view Feather Fest Flyer 2019
MARCH MEETING AT FEATHER FEST
Want to spend a great day outdoors?
Come join us for Feather Fest!
In lieu of our March meeting, we will have a booth at the Acton Nature Center on March 23. A fun day for everyone. We still need volunteers to help staff our booth and assist Sandra & Bob Reed in helping the kids make seed balls. Seed ball times are 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Please click on the sign-up link below. Numbers of people needed are recommendations; we can always use extra help. Whether you’ve been before or this is your first time, the Acton Nature Center is a great park with good nature trails.
Click here to sign up:
MARCH WORK DAYS
We had a good turnout for our February 2 work day and it was a great start in readying the garden for spring.
Since the Garden Club resigned from handling maintenance on the planters around the courthouse square in Glen Rose, they have been looking worse and worse. We agreed to help clean up, provide information on what to plant, and possibly help plant, but informed those involved that we could not provide ongoing maintenance. Six of us had an informal work day February 15 to weed, prune and clean up the planters as much as possible. A big problem is the dwarf yaupons that needed to be removed. During our March 2 work day, we split into two groups. While the majority of us worked in the native plant garden, the rest of us worked at removing yaupons and nandinas. After all this work, only one planter remains which is full of shrubs. These shrubs have created traffic hazards as they block your view of the street corners. We will continue working with other concerned citizens to bring these planters back to life.
March 16 is our next work day. Come join us if possible from 8:30-10:30. Afterwards, we’ll be prepping soil and compost into baggies for our seed ball presentations on March 23
APRIL 2019 MEETING
Spring Plant Sale
Malavaviscus arboreus
Plant Sale April 20! Donna Hagar will present a short (15-20 minute) program on Native Plants for Shade. We’ll forward additional information later. We’ll need help working our plant sale. Plan to attend, work the booth a while, attend the presentation and buy plants! We all have shady areas and it’s always difficult to find good plants for those areas.
Cedar Sage Lyre Leaf Sage Yellow Columbine
Salvia roemeriana. Salvia lyrat Aquilegia flavesce
MERIDIAN STATE PARK
New Project
Our chapter has a lot going on right now, but we’re adding another project. Karen Richardson was approached by the Ranger at Meridian State Park to help plan paths, id plants and advise them in handling a piece of land across from the CCC building. Karen is leading a small group of native plant enthusiasts from our Prairie Rose Chapter in assisting them in this project. We will be advisors only, and the park is planning a coalition between others groups such as the Master Naturalists. If you’re good at plant id and want to participate, please contact Marcia Miller at 254-823-6669.
PLANT FAMILY OF THE MONTH
In conjunction with a class of Allen Nelson’s at Tarleton State University, we are proud to announce our first plant family of the month. There are 12 families, so for the next year, we’ll include one in each newsletter. We’ll also post this information on our web site, and archive all of them for easy access in case you ever need to quickly check on any family characteristics.
MARCH FAMILY: LILIACEAE,
Also known as the Lily Family
Cooperia drummondii
Allium mobilens
Taxonomy:
The proper taxonomic classification for this family goes in the following order: Domain, Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species. In some books, this family has been broken into several new families but in our class we treat it as one large and diverse family. Liliaceae is in the Eukaryote domain due to the eukaryotic cells. It is part of the Kingdom Plantae because it photosynthesizes, has tissue development, and undergoes alternation of generations. The phylum is Magnoliophyta, which has general characteristics of being capable of seed production in fruits and has pollen grains. The class would be Liliopsida, order is Liliales, and finally the family is Liliaceae. The family consists of over 700 known species in one classification scheme and many more when treated in the wider sense as we do in Tarleton’s plant taxonomy class.
Characteristics:
Liliaceae are perennial herbs, which means it lives more than two years and regrows every spring. It is easy to identify this, due to the fleshy fibrous state of the roots. The stem is herbaceous or woody and can be found underground or aerial. Leaves are usually basal, alternate or whorled, which can be differentiated in the pictures below. Basal means the leaves are located at the base of a plant and are arranged in a cluster near the ground. Alternate leaves are classified as having only one leaf attached at each node continuously on opposing sides. Whorled arrangement is having three or more leaves or flowers attached at the same node in a circle or ring.
Typically, the flowers are radially symmetric because it can be divided into similar halves at any plane at any angle along the central axis. The term inflorescence describes the arrangement of the flowers on a plant and this family varies considerably between panicle and umbel.
The flowers have both male and female parts meaning it is perfect. The perianth is the outer part of the flower that has sepals and petals, which are similar in color and shape and sometimes called tepals. In the Liliaceae all flowers have 6 tepals (3 sepals and 3 petals) and 6 stamens in most species. When treated as one large family the vegetation of the family is variable including herbs, shrubs, woody vines, and succulents
Pictures:
Horticulture information:
They typically grow best in heavy or rocky soils from 600-2000 m in elevation during times of moderate temperature (room temperature). Most species can tolerate lower light levels but grow best in bright light. Light fertilization is best and they are normally pest and disease free. Liliaceae are grown worldwide as ornamental plants such as tulips, and lilies.
Importance:
Vegetables are a large portion of this family with the most common vegetables being asparagus, leek, garlic, chives, shallots, and onions. Lilium are annual herbs cultivated in gardens for ornamental purpose. Yucca and Agave are used to yield fiber from the leaves. Fermented agave pulp, leftover after the fibers are harvested is used to make tequila.
Plant Medicine:
-
Aloe (Aloe vera) is most commonly used as from treating skin conditions.
-
Asphodel’s (Asphodelus aestivus) underground rooting system has been used to reduce pigmentation of the skin and stop wound bleeding.
-
Meadow saffrom (Colchium autunnale) was traditionally used to treat gout. It contains demecolcine and colchicine which can be used to treat certain skin cancers and leukemia.
-
Garden Onion (Allium cepa) has a bulb with strong antiseptic properties. In addition, if used externally it can be used to treat boils and insect bites.
-
Madonna Lily (Lilium candidum) has a bulb with high amounts of mucilage, which is used to treat burns, boils, and acne. If petals are soaked in oil the extract can be used to treat eczema.
Citations:
Books-
Diggs, George M., et al. Shinners & Mahlers Illustrated Flora of North Central Texas. Botanical Research
Institute of Texas (BRIT), 1999.
L., Castner James. Photographic Atlas of Botany & Guide to Plant Identification. Scientific Publisher
(India), 2004.
Website-
Characteristics and economic importance of family Liliaceae. Online Science Notes. 13 May 2018. 20 Feb. 2019 <http://onlinesciencenotes.com/characteristics-economic-importance-family-liliaceae/>.
Author: Christian L. Galvan
Class Identification: Plant Taxonomy, Spring 2019
**ARCHIVED POST**
**ARCHIVED POST LINKS & PICTURES MAY NOT WORK**
**ARCHIVED POST AUTHOR: jerin
