Featured Plant Species: English Holly

 

In the southwestern corner of BC, English holly (Ilex aquifolium)--a common Christmas decoration--has moved into the woods and is now present in most of our urban or near-urban 'woods' as a result of dispersal by birds.  A walk through local parks can often turn up seedlings, saplings and trees.  It is a hardy species that is tolerant of moist conditions and, where it invades, becomes part of the site ecology. 

English holly is a broad-leaf evergreen species that is native to western and southern Europe, northwest Africa, and southwest Asia, including the UK (exclusive of northern Scotland) (Wikipedia 2013, Kew 2013).  Kew reports it as one of the 'few native evergreen trees in Britain'.  In BC, English holly is grown on holly farms on Vancouver Island and is commonly found in gardens.

Visit our atlas page on English Holly.
Read more about English holly here (Kew Royal Botanical Gardens).

Guest Contributors: Observations on European Mistletoe (Gui): by Jim Dickson and Genevieve (Jenny) Lecrivain

A little bit of European seasonal flavour by two E-Flora contributors...

The French name for Mistletoe is Gui; the g is hard, the pronunciation being like the Scots gie, meaning give. One of the first things to strike a Scottish botanist in Franche-Comté [the former 'free county' of Burgundy, France] is the abundance of Gui (Viscum album), a plant rarely noticed in Scotland where it is not native. There is a plant low down on the trunk of a Common Lime in Glasgow University campus. There is a bigger population in the middle of Edinburgh where some spread has taken place. Sparse other records have been made in Scotland. So that does not amount to much but here in Haute-Saône this parasite simply cannot be missed. All I have to do is walk down past the fruit trees to the end of Jenny’s back garden and there it is on an old Plum tree. However, it is particularly noticeable on the many plantations of Poplars (Peupliers, the often planted Populus x euamericana, a hybrid of Populus nigra). These trees can be infested, as can Willows and Apple trees. The crown of an old Apple can appear more Mistletoe than Apple.

The hosts as seen by us so far in Haute-Saône are:

Apple (Malus domestica), Birch (Betula pendula), Black Loqust  (Robinia pseudacacia), Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), Hazel (Corylus avellana), Plum (Prunus domestica), Blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), Poplar (Populus spp), Small-leaved Lime (Tilia cordata), Willows (Salix spp).

Though short, this list makes the point that Gui grows on many different trees, as on Scots Pines in Tyrol but not in Scotland. In recent scientific papers no less than 27 different host trees have been found in central Warsaw and 59 species, cultivars and hybrids of trees are claimed as hosts in Croatia and Slovenia.

Though here in Haute-Saône Poplars in general are very susceptible, it seems the commonly planted Lombardy Poplar (Populus nigra cv. italica) is resistant.. In Warsaw the Polish botanists noted 612 trees of Populus x euamericana but only one Lombardy Poplar with Gui.

It is easy to find Lombardy Poplar totally lacking Gui very close to other Poplars which in winter can look partly green because of the abundant growth of the parasite.

There is no Oak on our list (Quercus robur) though we have been told of one place where Gui grows on Oak in Haute-Saône. It seems rarely on Oak anywhere. So how come the druids with golden sickles could gather Mistletoe from Oak, as perhaps on Angelsey, an island where Gui does not grow now (if it ever did)? That story comes from Pliny the Elder. Is it fully trustworthy? We hae oor doobts, as they say.  However, our scepticism may be misplaced regarding a special interest in Gui by the British (and/or other Celts) because of a very remarkable, intriguing, recent archaeological discovery from Germany. At Glauberg in Hesse the excavators dug up a life-size stone statue of a “Celtic Prince” from about 500 BC. He sports a headdress shaped convincingly like an opposite pair of Gui leaves. The shape is right even to the two not being a symmetrically matching pair. 

 

 At Poncey, France, six infested Poplars with Gui and, to the right, two Lombardy Poplars (with the upright branches) free of Gui, December 2012. Photo by Jim Dickson

Poplars along the Saône canal near Chemilly, France, everyone with Gui, November 2012. Photo by Jim Dickson.

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Jim Dickson is a Scottish archeobotanist and photo contributor to E-Flora BC. He is well known for his work on Otzi, the Iceman. Jim, with his wife Genevieve Lecrivain, resides in both Scotland and France, but has visited BC to work on the BC iceman--Kwäday Dän Ts'ìnchí--studying the mosses that gave clues to his origin.  Some of Jim's publications include:  The Changing Flora of Glasgow: Urban and Rural Plants Through the Centuries, Bryophytes of the Pleistocene: The British Record and Its Chorological and Ecological Implications, Ancient Ice Mummies, and The Life and Death of Kwäday Dän Ts'ìnchí, an Ancient Frozen Body from British Columbia: Clues from Remains of Plants and Animals. 

View Jim's photos on E-Flora BC here. View Jenny's photos here.

Viscum album is not found in BC. It is native to Europe and western and southern Asia. Read more about this species here.

In British Columbia, we have four species of mistletoe reported, in the genus Arceuthobium: A. americanum, A. douglasii, A. laricis, and A. tsugense. A. tsugense has 3 subspecies.  Click on the links to view the atlas pages.

  

New Article on Sagebrush Sparrow Now Available

A new detailed article on the status and occurrence of the Sagebrush Sparrow (Artemisiospiza nevadensis) in British Columbia is now posted in the Notes and Articles section of E-Fauna BC.  Prepared by Rick Toochin, this article provides summary information on this species in the province.

Previously, we listed the Sage Sparow for BC, but recent nomenclatural changes have split that species.  Rick writes:  "[The] Sage Sparrow was split into two species from the two very distinct subspecies of Sage Sparrows found throughout their range (Retter 2013): Bell’s Sparrow and the Sagebrush Sparrow. Bell’s Sparrow is a non-migratory species found in coastal California (Byers et al. 1995, Beadle and Rising 2002)....The Sagebrush Sparrow (A. nevadensis) is found throughout the birds range with the subspecies (A. n. canescens) being confined to central California with these birds being a little bit smaller but otherwise are identical to the latter species in plumage characteristics (Byers et al. 1995, Beadle and Rising 2002)."

Read the PDF, with photos, here.  Or visit the species atlas page here.

Updated Checklist of the Bivalves of BC Now Available

Thanks to the efforts of Robert Forsyth and Rick Harbo, we have recently posted an updated (2013) checklist of the bivalve molluscs of Britsh Columbia. View the checklist here.

This checklist now includes 237 bivalve species from both marine and freshwater habitats in the province.  Both English common names and scientific names are updated, and marine, freshwater and marine intertidal species are indicated in the checklist.

The authors provide interesting insight into the documentation of bivalves in BC:  "Scientific collections began with Captain Cook and his crew, who anchored in Nootka Sound in 1778. The earliest description and name of a mollusc from the northeast Pacific was the Pacific Razor, Siliqua patula (Dixon, 1789). Dixon wrote a natural history appendix to the account of his voyage to the northwest coast of North America. He described the Pacific razor clam, and mentioned other species from Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands). ... The earliest checklist of marine mollusks of the Pacific coast of Canada was by Newcombe (1893), who listed 107 bivalves. Coan and Scott (1997) prepared a checklist of marine bivalves from the Arctic coast of Alaska to central Baja California, including all habitats from the intertidal to the deep sea."

Recent additions to the checklist for BC include Waldo arthuri.  Waldo arthuri is a new species of commensal clam (a galeommatid bivalve mollusk) that has been discovered off the coast of California and Vancouver Island by Paul Valentich-Scott, Diarmaid Ó Foighil, and Jingchun Li (2013). It has been found in the oral spines of the heart urchin from 80 to 444 meters depth, in muddy sediments.  In BC, Waldo arthuri is reported from Barkley Sound. 

Other new additions to the bivalve list include newly reported species of water fleas, documented by Ian Gardiner.  

The Western Bumble Bee Documented in BC

 

 Western Bumble Bee (Bombus occidentalis), photo by Jeremy Gatten

Thanks to biologist Jeremy Gatten, we now have photos of the rare Western Bumble Bee (Bombus occidentalis) on E-Fauna BC, taken at Tod Creek Flats on Vancouver Island.  This species, also known as the White-bottomed Bee, had seriously declined in western North America.  Bumble Bee expert Robbin Thorp, who identified the bee in the photo, says:  "This species declined drastically in the western portions of its range from central California to southern BC over 10 years ago. It is just now beginning to show signs of recovery within scattered areas of its most severe decline, including the nearby Seattle area."  Jeremy's photo, taken on August 17, 2013, confirms that the species is still present in BC. 

The Xerces Society provides good detail on this rare species, including the following information:  "These bees can still be found in the northern and eastern parts of their historic range, but the once common populations from southern British Columbia to central California have nearly disappeared. This bumble bee is an excellent pollinator of greenhouse tomatoes and cranberries, and has been commercially reared to pollinate these crops. In the past, it has also been an important pollinator of alfalfa, avocado, apples, cherries, blackberries, and blueberry."

View the E-Fauna BC atlas page for this species here.

Read the Xerces Society page on the Western Bumble Bee here.

Article on the Hermit Warbler in BC Now Available

A detailed article on the status and occurrence of the Hermit Warbler (Setophaga occidentalis) in British Columbia, by Rick Toochin, is now available.  Rick writes that the Hermit Warbler is a "secretive species of warbler that breeds in coniferous forests from western Washington State (the Olympic Peninsula), east of the Olympic Mountains, rarely at the southern end of Puget Sound, south through the Cascades into western Oregon south through the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California and in the coast ranges of Marin Count".  He adds:  "In British Columbia, this species occurs as a casual vagrant and there have been 30 records of Hermit Warbler recorded with all records coming from coastal areas of the Province."  Read more about the Hermit Warbler here.

New Bird Articles Now Available: Pine Warbler, Eurasian Crane, Lesser Goldfinch and Black-Throated Spararow

Thanks to the on-going efforts of Rick Toochin and fellow birders Peter Hamel, Margo Hearne, and Martin Williams, we have now posted four new bird articles on E-Fauna BC (in the Notes and Articles section). These cover the Black-Throated Sparrow, Eurasian Crane, Lesser Goldfinch and Pine Warbler in BC and provide comprehensive reviews of the species occurrence(s) in the province as well as detailed information on identification.  Check back for more articles from BC birders.