{"id":475,"date":"2020-06-30T14:38:00","date_gmt":"2020-06-30T21:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol223\/?page_id=475"},"modified":"2020-07-09T15:31:28","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T22:31:28","slug":"linnaea-borealis","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol223\/linnaea-borealis\/","title":{"rendered":"Linnaea borealis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Family: Caprifoliaceae<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Common name: Twinflower<\/p>\n\n\n\n

E-flora BC: https:\/\/linnet.geog.ubc.ca\/Atlas\/Atlas.aspx?sciname=Linnaea%20borealis<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wikipedia: https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Linnaea_borealis<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you walk through the woods when the sun is out, you may catch a glint of reflection from the forest floor. When you bend down to look, you’ll notice small, egg-shaped, shiny leaves arranged opposite to each other along a slender stem that’s trailing across the moss. It is likely that you have come across twinflower. If it’s early July in or around Nanaimo, you will notice the pretty pink nodding funnel-shaped flowers, suspended in pairs (like twins) on delicate stems above the foliage. In the fall, you can usually discern the brown spent flower-stalks still present on the plant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twinflower was a favourite of Carl Linnaeus, the 18th century Swedish taxonomist who formalized the binomial nomenclature that we use today to name organisms, (https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Binomial_nomenclature<\/a>) and the plant got its scientific name Linnaea<\/em> in his honour. The species name, borealis<\/em>, indicates that this plant is found in the Northern hemisphere. Twinflower is circumboreal, which explains why Linnaeus could admire this plant in his native Sweden while we also find it growing right here in Nanaimo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Carl Linnaeus’ wedding portrait from 1739. In most of his portraits, Linnaeus is depicted holding a piece of his favourite plant, the twinflower. Painter: J. H. Scheffel. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The shiny, reflective leaves of twinflower carpeting a bit of ground in the forest. Some specimens of starflower (Lysimachia latifolia<\/a><\/em>) are also visible in the photo. Photo credit: Hitomi Kimura<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Note the veins on the top surface of the shiny leaf, giving a somewhat wrinkly appearance. Also note the few teeth on the top half of the leaf.
The leaves of twinflower are arranged in an opposite pattern along the stem, meaning that there are two leaves at each leaf node. In these erect shoots of the plant, you can see how successive leaf pairs are arranged at a 90-degree angle relative to each other.
Photo credit: Douglas Fraser <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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On horizontal shoots, where the stem is trailing along the ground, the leaf-stalks bend such that the top surface of each leaf is facing up toward the light.
In addition to the opposite leaf arrangement, another characteristic of the Family Caprifoliaceae is the perfectly round stem – you can compare the photo of this twinflower stem to those of honeysuckle (Lonicera<\/em> sp.<\/a>) and snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus<\/a><\/em>), other members of the Caprifoliaceae. Photo credit: Douglas Fraser<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The nodding, pink, conical flowers are held in pairs on delicate stems above the foliage. Photo credit: Douglas Fraser<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Close-up of the delicate twinned flowers. In the fall, the brown, dried up remnants of the flower-stalk often remain on the plant and the twinned stalks at the top can help in identification. Photo credit: Douglas Fraser<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Family: Caprifoliaceae Common name: Twinflower E-flora BC: https:\/\/linnet.geog.ubc.ca\/Atlas\/Atlas.aspx?sciname=Linnaea%20borealis Wikipedia: https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Linnaea_borealis If you walk through the woods when the sun is out, you may catch a glint of reflection from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2649,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-475","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol223\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol223\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol223\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol223\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2649"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol223\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol223\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":772,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol223\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/475\/revisions\/772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol223\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}