The species was originally mentioned without description by William Colenso, the name being given as Phormium forsterianum. It was later known as P. colensoi, a name that was listed without description in 1846 by Joseph Dalton Hooker. The name became better known from J. D. Hooker's 1864 publication in Handbook of the New Zealand Flora. However, previously, in 1848, Auguste François Le Jolis had described the species under the name P. cookianum, and for many years this name was thought to have priority over Hooker's name P. colensoi. The latter is now regarded as the accepted name by some, based on a brief description of the species in a quotation from J.D. Hooker in an article by Auguste Le Jolis in the Revue Horticole of 1 January 1848. Another specimen, believed to be identical to a plant found by Ronald Gunn at the Whanganui River in 1864, was described from a plant growing in a garden in Torquay, England in 1888 and given the name P. hookeri (later reduced to a subspecies under the name P. cookianum subsp. hookeri). This name is also now regarded as a synonym of P. colensoi by some. Phormium cookianum, however, is still the preferred name in Aotearoa New Zealand according to Ngā Tipu Aotearoa and The Flora of New Zealand, as studies of the complex morphological and genetic variation as well as hybridization, and hence taxonomy, of the genus are still underway.


Numerous cultivars of this species have been selected for cultivation (those marked agm have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit):
'Black Adder'
'Cream Delight'agm
'Dark Delight' has deep-red leaves up to 1.2 metres in length
'Duet', a dwarf cultivar up to 30 cm in height with cream and green variegated foliage
'Flamingo'
'Golden Wonder'
'Maori Maiden' (also known as 'Rainbow Maiden'), an erect growing cultivar with leaves to 1 metre in length with bronze stripes
'Sundowner', a cultivar with very long leaves which are up to 1.8 metres long. These have a purple centre and cream edges.
'Tricolor',agm an upright cultivar that has leaves with red, yellow and green stripes. The flowers are pale yellowish-green.
There is also a dwarf cultivar, and hybrid cultivars have been selected from crosses with Phormium tenax. P. colensoi cultivars are regarded as less hardy than other Phormium cultivars.


Phormium tenax (called flax in New Zealand English; harakeke in Māori; New Zealand flax outside New Zealand; and New Zealand hemp in historical nautical contexts) is an evergreen perennial plant native to New Zealand and Norfolk Island that is an important fibre plant and a popular ornamental plant.  The plant grows as a clump of long, straplike leaves, up to two metres long, from which arises a much taller flowering shoot, with dramatic yellow or red flowers.
The fibre has been widely used since the arrival of Māori to New Zealand, originally in Māori traditional textiles and also in rope and sail making after the arrival of Europeans until at least WWII. It is an invasive species in some of the Pacific Islands and in Australia.
The blades of the plant contain cucurbitacins, which are poisonous to some animals, and some of them are among the bitterest tastes to humans.


The hara in the Māori name harakeke is a remnant of the Austronesian root *paŋudaN (via Proto-Oceanic *padran) surviving in related languages referring to pandanus plants with similar characteristics of sheathing leaves also used for weaving (like Pandanus tectorius, also known as hala in Hawaiian), as New Zealand was one of the only places where pandanus was not available.


The jumping spider Trite planiceps lives predominantly in the rolled-up leaves of this species. Phormium tenax is a coastal cover plant associated with significant habitat such as the breeding habitat for the endangered yellow-eyed penguin.


Harakeke was one of the most commonly used fibres for weaving in prior to European contact in New Zealand, due to its wide availability and long strands. Harakeke can be woven raw to create open-weave items (where the para or the waterproof epidermis of the plant is kept intact), or processed so only the muka remains, for close-weave objects. The broad length of harakeke leaves allow weavers to create a variety of strip lengths, making the plant suitable for a range of objects and sizes.
Harakeke can be boiled with hot stones to bleach strips, however dying the fibre is difficult due to the water resistant para. However, harakeke can by dyed using paru, or an iron-rich mud. Harakeke can be made more flexible with less shrinkage using the hapine technique, where a knife or shell is run across the fibre to remove moisture without breaking the surface layers.


Phormium tenax had many uses in traditional Māori society. It was the main material used for weaving, adopted after aute (paper mulberry), the traditional tree used to create fabric in Polynesia, did not thrive in New Zealand's "Scientific Plant Breeding" climate. Many of the traditional uses have largely fallen into disuse, though there is an upswing in the use of traditional materials in modern Māori art and craft. The two most common forms for flax in traditional craft are the use of stripped, dried leaves as broad bands, such as in the weaving of kete (flax baskets), and the scraping, pounding, and washing of the leaves to create a fibre — muka — which is used in tāniko (weaving) of soft, durable fabric for clothing. Flax is also used as a decorative and structural element in tukutuku, panelling found within Mãori wharenui (meeting houses).
Prior to the Great Depression of the 1930s, which decimated flax as an industry, there were two serious attempts by Europeans to breed for fibre. The first was by Wellington-based Leonard Cockayne about 1908. The second by Massey-based John Stuart Yeates in the late 1920s.
New Zealand Flax was cultivated on Saint Helena from the late 1800s to around 1966 for the production of string and rope and for export. Today the plants remain but the industry has stopped; they are considered an ecological problem.


In recent times, P. tenax and its cousin P. colensoi have been widely cultivated as ornamental garden plants, their striking fans of pointed leaves providing a focal point in mixed plantings or at the edge of a lawn. They are easy to grow in a sunny spot, especially in coastal areas with some protection in winter, but require reliably moist soil. They are frequently found in garden centres amongst plants with a similar appearance, notably Yucca and Cordyline. However, these are very different plants with different requirements. P. tenax and some cultivars can grow to a substantial size - 4 m (13 ft) tall by 2 m (7 ft) broad.


More recently several cultivars have been selected as decorative garden plants, including:
'Bronze Baby' - arching bronze leaves, 2-to-3-foot (0.61 to 0.91 m) plant.
'Dazzler' - arching leaves that are bronze-maroon with red and pink stripes, plant reaches 3 feet in height
'Duet'agm
Purpureum Group agm
'Sundowner'agm - 6-foot-tall (1.8 m) plant, leaves are striped with bronze, green and rose-pink
'Variegatum'agm
'Yellow Wave'agm
Those marked agm have gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.


Photinia serratifolia (syn. Photinia serrulata), commonly called Taiwanese photinia  or Chinese photinia is a flowering shrub or tree in the flowering plants family Rosaceae, found in mixed forests of China, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and India.


The tree is evergreen, with white flowers emerging in Spring accompanied by red-colored leaves, and red fruits growing in Autumn. It grows typically 4–6 m (13–20 ft), sometimes up to 12 m (39 ft), tall. Its leaves are toxic due to the presence of cyanogenic glycosides. The flower, blossoming in spring, typically lasts for one to two weeks. Its flowers are known to have a strong scent similar to that of human semen. The flower have bell-shaped sepal split into five lobes, and around 20 stamens. Ovary contain two to four locules, with one ovule in each locule. The tree produces high amount of bright, red colored fruits that are small pomes with diameters ranging from 4–12 millimetres (0.16–0.47 inches), each containing one to four seeds. The fruit, ripen in Autumn and survives through winter, is a food source to various kinds of birds, including thrushes, waxwings, and starlings. The seeds spread primarily through bird excretions.


The tree is typically found at altitudes from sea level to 2,500 metres (8,000 ft). It is found in mixed forests of central and southern China, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, and India.


Three varieties of the species are recognized in the Flora of China:
Photinia serratifolia var. ardisiifolia. Narrow leaf variant native to Taiwan, typically found around 850m altitude. Leaves are obovate (reverse ovate), ellipse-shaped, and leathery in texture.
Photinia serratifolia var. daphniphylloides. Wide leaf variant native to Taiwan. Leaves are elliptic or long obovate.
Photinia serratifolia var. lasiopetala. Native to Taiwan. Leaves are obovate, slender, or spoon-shaped.


The tree is widely used as a greening plant in some mainland Chinese cities, due to the relative ease to plant and maintain, and the tree being less demanding for its surrounding environments. In Wuhan, where the tree is in its native range, the tree is planted by the sides of all major avenues, as well as in the Wuhan University. However, due to the strong, semen-like odor from its flowers filling the entire city in Spring, some Wuhan residents have complained that the tree should be removed and other trees should be planted instead.


Phragmatobia fuliginosa, the ruby tiger, is a moth of the family Erebidae.


Subspecies include:
Phragmatobia fuliginosa borealis (Staudinger, 1871) in Scotland and in northern regions of Eurasia
Phragmatobia fuliginosa melitensis (O. Bang-Haas, 1927) (Malta)
Phragmatobia fuliginosa paghmani (Lének, 1966) (Transcaucasia: Azerbaijan; Iran; northern Iraq; Afghanistan; Central Asia; southern Kazakhstan; China: western Xinjiang)
Phragmatobia fuliginosa pulverulenta (Alphéraky, 1889) (China: eastern Xinjiang, Qinghai, Nei Mongol; southern aimaks of Mongolia; south-eastern Kazakhstan, partly)
Phragmatobia fuliginosa rubricosa (Harris, 1841) (North America)
Phragmatobia fuliginosa taurica (Daniel, 1970) (Near East: from southern Turkey to Palestina)


Phragmatobia fuliginosa can be found in the Palearctic realm. It is present in most of Europe, in North Africa, Russia, Central Asia, Tibet, and in northern areas of North America.


Phragmatobia fuliginosa has a wingspan of 35–45 mm.  The ruby tiger has the thorax and forewings dark reddish brown with a blackish comma-shaped spot at the apex of the cell, edged with carmine. Hindwings are carmine, more or less hyaline in the costal area, with more or less confluent black spots before the margin and at the apex of the cell.
The name-typical form ''Phragmatobia  fuliginosa L. has the forewing rather densely scaled and the hindwing bright rose-red with distinct black spots. Underside strongly suffused with purple-pink.
The eggs are reddish grey. The larva is light or dark grey with a black brown head. The entire body is covered with foxy red hairs. These hairs are always more black brown in placida, and sometimes so in fuliginosa. The pupa is black with the abdomen marked with yellow in the segmental incision.


Phragmatobia fuliginosa borealis has vivid black markings and the red is confined to the sides of the abdomen and the anal part of the hindwing. Phragmatobia fuliginosa ab. subnigra Mill., that has very dark forewings, must not be confused with the northern form; it is scarcely darker than true fuliginosa, and not so strongly hyaline as borealis. In Phragmatobia fuliginosa ab. flavescens Schultz the abdomen and hindwing are yellow instead of red.  The full species Phragmatobia amurensis Seitz, 1910 is a form of the same size as Phragmatobia  fervida, but is in colour it is almost exactly like fuliginosa, the forewing however being broader.  Phragmatobia pulverulenta Alph. is a transition to fervida, the forewing being lighter than in fuliginosa, more yellowish brown, and the hindwing lighter and clearer, more flesh-colour, and with well-defined marginal spots. Phragmatobia fuliginosa fervida Stgr., from Turkestan and northern China, is the largest and lightest form. The forewings are strongly tinged with yellowish red, and therefore almost the same colour as the hindwings, the latter bear strongly reduced dots. Phragmatobia placida Friv., from South-East Europe, Asia, Minor and Turkestan, is a very large form, usually regarded as a separate species [Phragmatobia placida (Frivaldszky, 1835)], with the forewing more triangular and uniformly dark brown, and the hindwing pure light pink spotted with black. The forewing bears a carmine dot at the upper angle of the cell.


The moth flies from May to August depending on the location.  It is double-brooded in the south of England, flying in April to June, and again in August and September. In the north it is a univoltine species, with just one generation in June.
The caterpillars are polyphagous, feeding on various plants, mainly Rubus fruticosus, Prunus spinosa, Filipendula ulmaria, Plantago lanceolata, Senecio jacobaea, Salix repens, Salix starkeana, Salix phylicifolia, Polygonum spp., Rumex crispus, Potentilla erecta, Rubus idaeus, Trifolium spp., Chamaenerion angustifolium, Calluna vulgaris, Vaccinium myrtillus, Vaccinium uliginosum, Andromeda polifolia, Plantago major, Taraxacum vulgare and Taraxacum officinale.


Phragmites australis, known as the common reed, is a broadly distributed wetland grass growing nearly 20 feet (6 metres) tall.


Phragmites australis commonly forms extensive stands (known as reed beds), which may be as much as 1 square kilometre (0.39 square miles) or more in extent. Where conditions are suitable it can also spread at 5 metres (16 feet) or more per year by horizontal runners, which put down roots at regular intervals. It can grow in damp ground, in standing water up to 1 m (3 ft 3 in) or so deep, or even as a floating mat. The erect stems grow to 2–4 m (6+1⁄2–13 ft) tall, with the tallest plants growing in areas with hot summers and fertile growing conditions.
The leaves are 18–60 centimetres (7–23+1⁄2 in) long and 1–6 cm (1⁄2–2+1⁄4 in) broad. The flowers are produced in late summer in a dense, dark purple panicle, about 15–40 cm (6–15+1⁄2 in) long. Later the numerous long, narrow, sharp pointed spikelets appear greyer due to the growth of long, silky hairs. These eventually help disperse the minute seeds.


Recent studies have characterized morphological distinctions between the introduced and native stands of Phragmites australis in North America. The Eurasian phenotype can be distinguished from the North American phenotype by its shorter ligules of up to 0.9 millimetres (1⁄32 in) as opposed to over 1 mm, shorter glumes of under 3.2 mm (1⁄8 in) against over 3.2 mm (although there is some overlap in this character), and in culm characteristics.
Phragmites australis subsp. americanus – the North American genotype has been described as a distinct species, Phragmites americanus
Phragmites australis subsp. australis – the Eurasian genotype
Phragmites australis subsp. altissimus (Benth.) Clayton
Phragmites australis var. marsillyanus (Mabille) Kerguélen


It is a helophyte (aquatic plant), especially common in alkaline habitats, and it also tolerates brackish water, and so is often found at the upper edges of estuaries and on other wetlands (such as grazing marsh) which are occasionally inundated by the sea. A study demonstrated that P. australis has similar greenhouse gas emissions to native Spartina alterniflora. However, other studies have demonstrated that it is associated with larger methane emissions and greater carbon dioxide uptake than native New England salt marsh vegetation that occurs at higher marsh elevations.
Common reed is suppressed where it is grazed regularly by livestock. Under these conditions it either grows as small shoots within the grassland sward, or it disappears altogether. In Europe, common reed is rarely invasive, except in damp grasslands where traditional grazing has been abandoned.


In North America, the status of Phragmites australis is a source of confusion and debate. It is commonly considered a non-native and often invasive species, introduced from Europe in the 1800s. However, there is evidence of the existence of Phragmites as a native plant in North America long before European colonization of the continent. The North American native subspecies, P. a. subsp. americanus (sometimes considered a separate species, P. americanus), is markedly less vigorous than European forms. The expansion of Phragmites in North America is due to the more vigorous, but similar-looking European subsp. australis.
Phragmites australis subsp. australis outcompetes native vegetation and lowers the local plant biodiversity. It forms dense thickets of vegetation that are unsuitable habitat for native fauna. It displaces native plants species such as wild rice, cattails, and native orchids. Phragmites has a high above ground biomass that blocks light to other plants allowing areas to turn into Phragmites monoculture very quickly. Decomposing Phragmites increases the rate of marsh accretion more rapidly than would occur with native marsh vegetation.
Phragmites australis subsp. australis is causing serious problems for many other North American hydrophyte wetland plants, including the native P. australis subsp. americanus. Gallic acid released by phragmites is degraded by ultraviolet light to produce mesoxalic acid, effectively hitting susceptible plants and seedlings with two harmful toxins. Phragmites is so difficult to control that one of the most effective methods of eradicating the plant is to burn it over 2–3 seasons. The roots grow so deep and strong that one burn is not enough. Ongoing research suggests that goats could be effectively used to control the species.


Since 2017, over 80% of the beds of Phragmites in the Pass a Loutre Wildlife Management Area have been damaged by the invasive roseau cane scale (Nipponaclerda biwakoensis), threatening wildlife habitat throughout the affected regions of the area. While typically considered a noxious weed, in Louisiana the reed beds are considered critical to the stability of the shorelines of wetland areas and waterways of the Mississippi Delta, and the die-off of reed beds is believed to accelerate coastal erosion.


The entire plant is edible raw or cooked. The young stems can be boiled, or later on be used to make flour. The underground stems can be used but are tough, as can the seeds but they are hard to find.
Stems can be made into eco-friendly drinking straws. Many parts of the plant can be eaten. The young shoots can be consumed raw or cooked. The hardened sap from damaged stems can be eaten fresh or toasted. The stems can be dried, ground, sifted, hydrated, and toasted like marshmallows. The seeds can be crushed, mixed with berries and water, and cooked to make a gruel. The roots can be prepared similar to those of cattails.


Phryma leptostachya, or lopseed, is a perennial herb of the genus Phryma. When distinguished from Phryma oblongifolia and Phryma nana, it is native to eastern North America.
The plant stands about 0.3 to 1.0 meters tall, and the inflorescences bear a number of small (4 mm) tube-shaped white to pink flowers.


Phryma leptostachya was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1753. It was the only species he placed in his genus Phryma. Two further species were later described by the Japanese botanist Gen-ichi Koidzumi, Phryma oblongifolia and Phryma nana. However, these species were generally not accepted, and populations in Asia and North America were usually treated as the single species Phryma leptostachya, being distinguished only at the rank of subspecies and variety. In 2017, treating all three as full species was supported by morphological and earlier molecular phylogenetic evidence, and all three are accepted by Plants of the World Online, as of April 2022, although other sources may continue to use a single species with only intraspecific divisions.


The roundtail horned lizard (Phrynosoma modestum) is one of the smaller species of horned lizard. Their specific epithet is from the Latin word modestum, meaning modest or calm. They are found in the United States, in western Texas, New Mexico eastern Arizona, southeastern Colorado and eight states in northcentral Mexico where they are referred to as "tapayaxtin".


Roundtail horned lizards prefer rocky and sandy, semiarid habitat with sparse vegetation, near harvester ant or especially honeypot ant colonies, which is their primary diet.


The color of roundtail horned lizards usually reflects the color of the soil in their native habitat. Most are uniformly grey in color, but they can also be light brown, or even a pale yellow. Often, darker-colored regions occur around the neck and groin, and sometimes striping on the tail.
They are short, flat, round-bodied lizards with short limbs, and small heads, which have a distinctive crest of nearly equal-length horns. Unlike other horned lizards, they lack a fringe of lateral scales and do not seek to flatten themselves to the ground to eliminate shadow; instead, they hunch their bodies into the shape of a rock for camouflage, boldly casting a shadow.
Their maximum size is 7 cm (2.7 in) snout-to-vent length, and 10.5 cm (4.3 in) total length.


Roundtail horned lizards are oviparous, breeding and laying eggs in early summer.


Phyciodes cocyta, the northern crescent, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in the Nearctic realm.
The wingspan is 32–38 mm. The butterfly flies from June to July depending on the location. Its habitats include fields, meadows, glades, and openings in woodlands.
The larvae feed on Asteraceae species. Adults feed on nectar from dogbane, fleabane, and white clover.


Phyciodes mylitta, the Mylitta crescent or Mylitta crescentspot, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in western North America.
The wingspan is 26-37 mm. Wings are orange with black markings and white fringe on the edges. The females are darker than the males. The butterfly flies from June until late July in Canada and until fall in California. It is found in a variety of habitats, and usually inhabits meadows and stream banks in forested areas.
The larvae are black with spines and white markings. They feed on Cirsium and Carduus species. Adults feed on flower nectar.


Phyciodes phaon, the Phaon crescent or mat plant crescent, is a species of butterfly found in Florida, neighboring states, west to New Mexico and south to Cuba (since the 1930s) and the Cayman Islands where it is known as the crescent spot.


There are several flights (early spring to late fall) in the northern part of the range and nearly year round in peninsular Florida. Males patrol open areas near host plants for females. Mating occurs primarily during mid-day. Eggs are laid in clusters on the undersides of leaves of the fogfruit host plants. The common host throughout much of Florida is turkey tangle fogfruit (Phyla nodiflora).


Phyciodes pulchella, the field crescent, is a butterfly of the family Nymphalidae. It is found in the Nearctic realm.
The wingspan is 24–36 mm. The butterfly flies from May to August in Canada.
The larvae feed on Asteraceae species.


Listed alphabetically:
P. p. camillus Edwards, 1871
P. p. deltarufa Scott, 1998
P. p. inornatus Austin, 1998
P. p. montana (Behr, 1863)
P. p. owimba Scott, 1998
P. p. pulchella
P. p. tutchone Scott, 1994
P. p. shoshoni Scott, 1994
P. p. vallis Austin, 1998


Phyla lanceolata is a species of flowering plant in the verbena family known by the common names lanceleaf fogfruit, fogfruit, or frogfruit. It is native to the southern half of North America, including much of the United States except for the northwestern quadrant, and much of Mexico. It is resident in many types of moist and wet habitat, including disturbed areas, such as irrigation ditches. It is a perennial herb growing decumbent in a matlike form with spreading, trailing stems up to half a meter long, sometimes rooting at nodes. The lance-shaped or nearly oval leaves are up to 6 centimeters long and have toothed or partially toothed edges. The inflorescence, arising on a peduncle several centimeters tall, is a spherical spike of flowers which elongates into a cylindrical form as the fruits develop. The tiny, densely packed flowers are white, sometimes tinged with blue or purple.
It is similar to the related species Phyla nodiflora, but differs in having much longer and more pointed leaves. Both species are common as weeds and in the ornamental environment.
An older scientific name for this species is Lippia lanceolata, and in some older references 'frogfruit' is provided as a common name.
The Acadian French name for the plant is "caille eau," stemming from the superstition that it can curdle water.


The white-cheeked honeyeater (Phylidonyris niger) inhabits the east coast and the south-west corner of Australia. It has a large white patch on its cheek, brown eyes, and a yellow panel on its wing.


The white-cheeked honeyeater was described by Bechstein in 1811.
Two subspecies are recognised: Phylidonyris niger niger in eastern Australia; and P. n. gouldii (Schlegel, 1872) in southwest Western Australia. The latter subspecies has a narrower white cheek-patch, slightly more black on the breast, and different vocalizations, which in future may lead to its classification as a separate species.
The generic name Phylidonyris combines the term Phylidon or Philedon, used by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier in 1817 for the friarbirds (now placed in the genus Philemon), with Cinnyris (Cuvier, 1816) for the sunbirds; the specific epithet derives from Latin niger 'black'.


The white-cheeked honeyeater is a medium-sized black and white honeyeater, with a long, sturdy bill that curves downwards. It has large bright-yellow tail and wing panels, with a large conspicuous white cheek-patch on a mainly black head. The eye is dark brown and it has a long, tapering, white brow-line. Young birds have a yellow gape and brow and the plumage is dusky or dull brownish. It is gregarious, active and noisy with swift, erratic flight.
It is 16–20 cm (6.3–7.9 in) in length; males weigh 15.5–25 g (0.55–0.88 oz) and females 15.5–20 g (0.55–0.71 oz).


The white-cheeked honeyeater is endemic to eastern and south-western Australia. It ranges from east of the Great Divide in Queensland through coastal New South Wales, becoming scattered south to Jervis Bay. It also occurs in south-western Western Australia and from Israelite Bay, east of Esperance, to the Murchison River in Kalbarri National Park.
The white-cheeked honeyeater is usually found in moist heathlands, as well as around paperbark swamps and wetlands, and in forests or woodlands with a heath understory. Occurring in both temperate and subtropical zones, they are found in parks, gardens and flowering street trees throughout their range. Not afraid of humans and adapting easily to settlement activity, they are sometimes killed by cats.


The white-cheeked honeyeater has a distinctive yapping call "chwikup, chwikup"; a melodious "chippy-choo, chippy-choo" and a higher, repeated lilting "twee-ee-twee-ee" call given in display song-flight during the breeding season.


White-cheeked honeyeaters feed mainly on nectar from the flowers of Banksia, eucalypt, Grevillea, bottlebrush, heath, Darwinia (in southwest Western Australia), Calothamnus and Dryandra species. They also glean insects on bark or sally and hover for them in the air. They often feed busily and noisily in small groups and may feed beside New Holland honeyeaters.


White-cheeked honeyeaters pair monogamously for the breeding season, which can be at any time of year coincident with nectar availability, though peaking from August to November and March to May.  Males defend breeding territories that can be held for several years. Males aggressively attack other birds of their own and other species during the breeding season, but not familiar birds such as their own mates, relatives and resident neighbours. There is not much competition between white-cheeked and New Holland honeyeaters, as they choose different perching sites and have different nesting seasons. The female builds a cup-shaped nest from twigs, strips of bark, and other plant materials,  bound with spider web, and lined with plant down and pieces of flowers. The nest is placed low in forked branches of trees or shrubs, often close to the ground, but well-concealed in dense foliage or in grass below shrubs and ferns. A clutch of 2 or 3 eggs, each measuring 21 mm × 15 mm (0.83 in × 0.59 in), is laid. The eggs are whitish buff to pink, splotched with chestnut-red and slate-grey towards the large end. The female incubates the eggs for 15 days. Both parents feed the nestlings for 15 days, then continue feeding the young for several weeks after fledging.


It grows to be 20–50 cm (7.9–19.7 in) tall. The main stem does not have leaves but rather small scales (see phyllanthoid branching) and the secondary stems contain the flowers and leaves. The flowers are inconspicuous, small, and unisexual. Male and female flowers are located on the same plant.


It was originally published in William Roxburgh's 1814 Hortus Bengalensis (as a nomen nudum) and later validated in his 1832 Flora Indica.
It has two accepted varieties:
Phyllanthus tenellus var. arabicus (Yemen, Saudi Arabia) Müll.Arg.
Phyllanthus tenellus var. tenellus (Angola, Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Réunion, Tanzania)


In addition to the Mascarene Islands, P. tenellus is possibly also native to eastern Africa, other western Indian Ocean islands, and the Arabian Peninsula. It has become a naturalized weed in tropical and subtropical areas, including Australia, Mexico, South America, Eastern North America (from Florida to Virginia west to California), as well as parts of Asia and the West Indies.


The common aspen leaf miner or aspen serpentine leafminer (Phyllocnistis populiella) is a moth of the family Gracillariidae. It is found in northern North America, including Alberta, Massachusetts, Ontario and Alaska.
The larvae feed on Populus tremuloides and balsam poplar. The larvae feed on the contents of epidermal cells on both top and bottom surfaces of quaking aspen leaves, leaving the photosynthetic tissue of the mesophyll intact. This type of feeding is taxonomically restricted to a small subset of leaf mining insects but can cause widespread plant damage during outbreaks.


Phyllodesma americana, the American lappet moth, is a moth of the  family Lasiocampidae. It is found from Nova Scotia to [northern Florida], west through Texas to California, north to British Columbia and Yukon.
The wingspan is 29–49 mm. Adults are on wing from March to September in two generations in the south. In eastern Ontario, adults are on wing from May to July. The flight season in Ohio is from April to August. There is one generation per year in the northern part of the range.
The larvae feed on the leaves of Alnus, Betula, Quercus, Populus, Salix, Ceanothus velutinus, Chrysolepis chrysophylla and Rosoideae species.


Phyllodoce breweri is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae known by the common names purple mountain heath and Brewer's mountain heather.
It is native to California, where it can be found in mountain ranges including the southern Cascade Range, the San Bernardino Mountains, and the Sierra Nevada, its distribution extending into Nevada. It grows in rocky subalpine mountain habitat, such as slopes and meadows.


Phyllodoce breweri  is a matlike shrub with many short stems lined densely with leathery evergreen needlelike leaves.
The inflorescence is a cluster of several flowers toward the ends of the stems, with some flowers occurring below in leaf axils. The bright purple-pink flowers are cup-shaped as the petals are fused except for the very tips, which roll under. At the center of the flower is a yellow ovary and ten long, protruding stamens tipped with large anthers.


Phyllopertha horticola, the garden chafer or garden foliage beetle, is a beetle from the family Scarabaeidae. Phyllopertha horticola was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.


This rather common species is widely widespread in Europe and in Asia, east to Siberia and Mongolia. In the north of Europe their distribution reaches the middle Fennoscandia and includes the British Isles, in southern Europe it mainly occurs in the mountains. It is the only European representative of the genus Phyllopertha.


These beetles inhabit bushes, hedgerows, woodland edges, meadows and fields, from the lowlands to mountainous areas. They also live in parks and gardens, hence the common name of garden chafer.


Phyllopertha horticola is approximately 8.5–11 millimetres (0.33–0.43 in) in size. Unlike Mimela of the family same family, these beetles have a non-ovoid body. They have chestnut-brown wing casings which are covered with a long upright pubescence. On each elytron run six longitudinal bands of small dots. Head and thorax are finely granulated. Head, thorax and legs are shiny dark green or bluish. The underside of the body is also green. The antennas are very short and end in a fan-like group of three lamellae, with which the beetle perceives fragrances.


The adult beetle can be seen from April to July, especially in late spring and early summer. In June they can be encountered in a particularly large number. Adults live for up to eight weeks.
Females lay 15-25 eggs in the ground at a depth of 10–15 cm. After a period of 4–6 weeks they hatch and larvae grow up to 2 cm in length and develop in the soil. Larvae take 2–3 years to develop. They overwinter in the ground. In April, they migrate to deeper soil layers to turn into a chrysalis and hatch in May into an imago, allowing an adult insect to emerge. The males swarm first; the females follow with a few days delay. The females are mated very quickly by flying around males.
Larvae and beetles are considered an agricultural pest. Beetles damage leaves, flowers and developing fruits of many deciduous trees and shrubs (mainly oak leaves, hazelnut and birch leaves, as well as cherry and rose petals). Larval stages will feed on roots of clover, grasses and crops (cereals, cabbages, cucumbers, beets, peas).


The willow warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus) is a very common and widespread leaf warbler which breeds throughout northern and temperate Europe and the Palearctic, from Ireland east to the Anadyr River basin in eastern Siberia. It is strongly migratory, with almost all of the population wintering in sub-Saharan Africa.
It is a bird of open woodlands with trees and ground cover for nesting, including most importantly birch, alder, and willow habitats. The nest is usually built in close contact with the ground, often in low vegetation. Like most Old World warblers (Sylviidae), this small passerine is insectivorous. In northern Europe, it is one of the first warblers to return in the spring, though later than the closely related chiffchaff.


The willow warbler was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Motacilla trochilus. The willow warbler is now one of around 80 species placed in the genus Phylloscopus that was introduced by the German zoologist Friedrich Boie in 1826. The genus name combines the Ancient Greek phullon meaning "leaf" and skopos meaning "seeker" (from skopeo, "to watch"). The specific epithet is Ancient Greek meaning "wren".
Before the English name was standardised to willow warbler by William Yarrell in 1843, it was sometimes called "willow wren".
Three subspecies are recognised. There is a clinal reduction in green and yellow plumage tones from west to east, with central birds browner and easternmost birds predominantly greyish:
P. t. trochilus (Linnaeus, 1758). Breeds Europe (from the Pyrenees and Alps northward) except northern Scandinavia, winters west Africa.
P. t. acredula (Linnaeus, 1758). Breeds northern Scandinavia east to western Siberia, winters central Africa.
P. t. yakutensis (Ticehurst, 1935). Breeds eastern Siberia, winters eastern and southern Africa.


The willow warbler is a typical leaf warbler in appearance, 11–12.5 cm long and 7–15 g weight. It is greenish brown above and off-white to yellowish below; the wings are plain greenish-brown with no wingbars. Juveniles are yellower below than adults. It is very similar to the chiffchaff, but non-singing birds can be distinguished from that species by their paler pinkish-yellow legs (dark brown to blackish in chiffchaff), longer paler bill, more elegant shape and longer primary projection (wingtip). Its song is a simple repetitive descending whistle, while the contact call is a disyllabic 'hoo-eet', distinct from the more monosyllabic 'hweet' of chiffchaffs.


All populations are highly migratory, with the subspecies P. t. yakutensis migrating up to 12,000 km from eastern Siberia to southern Africa along the Asian - East African Flyway, one of the longest migrations of any for a bird of its size. Approximate timings are:
October to March: wintering in sub-Saharan Africa.
Mid-March to mid-May: migrates and arrives in the breeding range.
Late April to August: breeding season, usually only one brood but rarely two.
August to October: migrates back to Africa.


Willow warblers prefer young, open, scrubby woodland with small trees, including human-altered habitats such as coppice and young plantations up to 10–20 years old. High amounts of birch, alder and willow, with good lichen amounts, and water features (e.g. streams), fields with large amounts of bracken and mosses, and patches of low bramble (for nest cover) are preferred, but it will use a wide range of other species, including young or open coniferous forests. Incorporating woodland ride edge thickets of varying structure and height is beneficial. They prefer damp woodland areas. Thicket forming shrubs like blackthorn provide pockets of habitat. Deer browsing can degrade the required low cover.
The highest population densities are found in Scandinavia (where it is the commonest bird of any), with up to 1,100 pairs per square kilometre, and a total population in Sweden and Finland of 24 million pairs. Lower densities occur further east, with peak densities of 27 pairs per square kilometre in central Siberia. Even lower densities are found on the southern edge of the breeding range, with just 9 pairs per square kilometre in Switzerland, and a total of just 100 pairs in the whole of northern Spain.
In England this species has on average decreased in population by 70% within the last 25 years, with the biggest declines in the southeast. In Scotland some increases have occurred. The Forestry Commission offers grants under a scheme called England's Woodland Improvement Grant (EWIG); as does Natural England's Environmental Stewardship Scheme.


Phyprosopus callitrichoides, the curve-lined owlet, is a moth of the family Erebidae. The species was first described by Augustus Radcliffe Grote in 1872. It is found in the US from New Hampshire to Florida, west to Montana and Texas.
The wingspan is 28–35 mm. Adults are on wing from May to August.
The larvae are described as "fantastically bizarre" and feed on greenbrier species (see Smilax).


Physalis heterophylla, colloquial name clammy groundcherry, is a herbaceous plant that is a member of the family Solanaceae.  It is native to North America, occurring primarily in the eastern United States and Canada.  It is known to occur in all contiguous states except for Nevada and California.  It is found mainly in habitats such as dry or mesic prairies, gravel hills and rises, sandy or rocky soils, and waste places such as roadsides.
Physalis heterophylla is a perennial, and is one of the taller-growing North American members of the genus, reaching a height up to 50 cm.  The leaves are alternate, with petioles up to 1.5 cm, ovate in shape, usually cordate at the base (this is especially true of mature leaves), 6–11 cm long at maturity.  Each member of the genus Physalis has at least one characteristic that makes it easy to differentiate in the field.  For P. heterophylla, the stems and leaves are glandularly pubescent, giving it the "clammy" feel from which its name is derived.  The plant also has distinctive thick rhizomes that run horizontal to the stem.  Some sources recognize four distinct subspecies based primarily on leaf variation:
P. heterophylla var. heterophylla, with thin leaves that have dentate margins;
P. heterophylla var. clavipes, with thick, conspicuously veined leaves and sparingly tooth-like protrusions on otherwise entire margins;
P. heterophylla var. ambigua,  with thick, conspicuously veined leaves and dentate margins;
P. heterophylla var. nycangienea, with thin leaves that have sparingly tooth-like protrusions on otherwise entire margins.
The flowers are on simple inflorescences that emerge from leaf apexes.  The petals are yellow on the exterior, and yellow on the interior with purple highlights emanating up each petal from the base.  They are funnelform in shape, with five fused petals.  There are five reticulated sepals, which enlarge after flowering to eventually protect the maturing fruit.  Stamens five, with yellow anthers and purple filaments.  The flowers face downwards when open, and are about 2.5 cm in diameter.  The fruits are typical for the family (appearing like a tomatillo), and have a slightly bitter taste, though they are perfectly edible when ripe. The rest of the plant is poisonous, including to animals.


Physalis peruviana, is a South American plant native to Colombia, Ecuador and Peru in the nightshade family (Solanaceae), commonly known as Cape gooseberry or goldenberry, known in its countries of origin as aguaymanto, uvilla or uchuva, in Hawaii called poha, and in Egypt called Harankash, in addition to numerous indigenous and regional names.  The goldenberry is also known as ground cherry. The history of P. peruviana cultivation in South America can be traced to the Inca Empire. It has been cultivated in England since the late 18th century, and in South Africa in the Cape of Good Hope since at least the start of the 19th century. Widely introduced in the 20th century, P. peruviana is cultivated or grows wild across the world in temperate and tropical regions.


Physalis peruviana was first formally named by Carl Linnaeus in 1763.
The plant was grown in England in 1774 and by early settlers of the Cape of Good Hope before 1807. Whether it was grown there before its introduction to England is not known, but sources since the mid-19th century attribute the common name "Cape gooseberry" to this fact. One suggestion is that the name properly refers to the calyx surrounding the fruit like a cape, possibly an example of false etymology, because it does not appear in publications earlier than the mid-20th century. Not long after its introduction to South Africa, P. peruviana was introduced into Australia, New Zealand, and various Pacific islands. Despite its name, it is not botanically related to the true gooseberries of the genus Ribes.
P. peruviana has dozens of common names across the world in its regions of distribution. For example, in Peru it is known as aguaymanto in Spanish, or topotopo in Quechua. In neighboring Colombia, it is known as uchuva. In northeastern China Heilongjiang Province, it is informally referred to as deng long guo ("lantern fruit"). In French, it is called amour en cage ("love in a cage"), as well as other possible names, such as coqueret, alkékenge, or lanterne chinoise ("Chinese lantern") (also used for other Physalis, such as Physalis alkekengi), cerise de terre ("ground cherry"), or tomatillo (also used for Physalis philadelphica).


P. peruviana is closely related to the tomatillo and the Chinese lantern. As a member of the plant family Solanaceae, it is related to a large number of edible plants, including tomatoes, eggplants, and potatoes.
P. peruviana is an annual in temperate locations, but perennial in the tropics. As a perennial, it develops into a diffusely branched shrub reaching 1–1.6 m (3 ft 3 in – 5 ft 3 in) in height, with spreading branches and velvety, heart-shaped leaves. The hermaphrodite flowers are bell-shaped and drooping, 15–20 mm (5⁄8–3⁄4 in) across, yellow with purple-brown spots internally. After the flower falls, the calyx expands, ultimately forming a beige husk fully enclosing the fruit.
The fruit is a round, smooth berry, resembling a miniature yellow tomato 1.25–2 cm (1⁄2–3⁄4 in) wide. Removed from its calyx, it is bright yellow to orange in color, and sweet when ripe, with a characteristic, mildly tart grape- or tomato-like flavor.
A prominent feature is the inflated, papery calyx enclosing each berry. The calyx is accrescent until the fruit is fully grown; at first, it is of normal size, but after the petals fall, it continues to grow until it forms a protective cover around the growing fruit.  If the fruit is left inside the intact calyx husks, its shelf life at room temperature is about 30–45 days. The calyx is inedible.


Physalis peruviana is native to the mountain slope regions of Peru and Chile. It grows in forests, forest edges, and riparian areas. It grows at high elevations of 500–3,000 m (1,600–9,800 ft) in its native region, but may also be found at sea level in Oceania and Pacific islands where it occurs widely in subtropical and warm, temperate conditions. Its latitude range is about 45°S to 60°N, and its altitude range is generally from sea level to 3,000 m (9,800 ft). The plant has become invasive in some natural habitats, forming thickets, particularly in Hawaii and on other Pacific islands.


It has been widely introduced into cultivation in tropical, subtropical, and temperate areas such as Australia, China, India, Malaysia, and the Philippines. P. peruviana thrives at an annual average temperature from 13–18 °C (55–64 °F), tolerating temperatures as high as 30 °C (86 °F). It grows well in Mediterranean climates and is hardy to USDA hardiness zone 8, meaning it can be damaged by frost. It grows well in rainfall amounts from 800–4,300 mm (31–169 in) if the soil is well drained, and prefers full sun or partial shade in well-drained soil, and grows vigorously in sandy loam.
The plant is readily grown from seeds, which are abundant (100 to 300 in each fruit), but with low germination rates, requiring thousands of seeds to sow a hectare. Plants grown from year-old stem cuttings will flower early and yield well, but are less vigorous than those grown from seed.


In South Africa, cutworms attack the Cape gooseberry in seedbeds, red spiders in the field, and potato tuber moths near potato fields. Hares damage young plants, and birds eat the fruits. Mites, whiteflies, and flea beetles can be problematic. Powdery mildew, soft brown scale, root rot, and viruses may affect plants. In New Zealand, plants can be infected by Candidatus liberibacter subsp. solanacearum.


P. peruviana is an economically useful crop as an exotic exported fruit, and is favored in breeding and cultivation programs of many countries. P. peruviana fruits are marketed in the United States as goldenberry and sometimes Pichuberry, named after Machu Picchu in order to associate the fruit with its origin in Peru.
Cape gooseberry is made into fruit-based sauces, pies, puddings, chutneys, jams, and ice cream, or eaten fresh in salads and fruit salads. In Latin America, it is often consumed as a batido or smoothie, and because of its showy husk, it is popular in restaurants as a decorative garnish for desserts. To enhance its food uses, hot air drying improved qualities of dietary fiber content, texture, and appearance.
In basic research on fruit maturation, the content of polyphenols and vitamin C varied by cultivar, harvest time, and ripening stage.


According to nutrient analyses by the USDA, a 100 g serving of Cape gooseberries is low in food energy (222 kilojoules or 53 kilocalories) and contains moderate levels of vitamin C, thiamin, and niacin, while other nutrients are negligible (see table). Analyses of oil from different berry components, primarily its seeds, showed that linoleic acid and oleic acid were the main fatty acids, beta-sitosterol and campesterol were principal phytosterols, and the oil contained vitamin K and beta-carotene.


Physcia stellaris is a species of lichen. It is pale grey, but darker in the centre, and lacks isidia, lobules, soredia and pruina. It tests negative with potassium hydroxide. In North America, it is known colloquially as the fringed rosette lichen.


Physostegia virginiana, the obedient plant, obedience or false dragonhead, is a species of flowering plant in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It is native to North America, where it is distributed from eastern Canada to northern Mexico. Physostegia are known commonly as obedient plants because a flower pushed to one side will often stay in that position. The name “false dragonhead” refers to the dragonheads of the related Dracocephalum, a genus to which the plant once belonged.


It is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial producing clumps of stiff, squared stems 2–4 ft (0.61–1.22 m) tall. The leaves are lanceolate and toothed. The inflorescence is a long, dense raceme containing many tubular pink flowers which resemble snapdragons. The open fruit is shaped like a vase and contains four triangular, black seeds.


There are two recognized subspecies. They are:
Physostegia virginiana ssp. praemorsa - Widespread farther south, to Texas and New Mexico. It has larger flowers, with sterile bracts below the inflorescence, and lacks rhizomes. It is typically found in dry upland sites such as prairies and glades.
Physostegia virginiana ssp. virginiana - Found farther north and west. It has smaller flowers that lack sterile bracts. It is patch-forming from rhizomes. It is typically found in wetter habitats, such as streambanks and bottomlands.
Cultivars of P. virginiana often do not fit well into either of the two varieties and are intermediate in characters. They are thought to have originated from hybridization between the two subspecies.


It is considered a good plant for adding late-season flowers to a garden. Fertile soils produce robust growth and wide spreading, and the plant may require staking. When it grows tall it has a "tendency toward floppiness" that can be controlled with pruning. It can be aggressive and dominate a landscape.


Several cultivars have been bred for color variety. Some (agm) have earned the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Cultivars include.
'Alba' - white flowers.
'Crown of Snow' - white flowers
'Pink Bouquet' - rose pink flowers
'Rosea' - pink flowers
'Rosy Spire' - lavender-pink flowers
'Summer Snow' (agm) - pure white flowers
'Variegata' - pink flowers, green and white variegated leaves
'Vivid' (agm) - bright pink flowers


Phyteuma orbiculare, common name round-headed rampion or Pride of Sussex, is a herbaceous perennial plant of the genus Phyteuma belonging to the family Campanulaceae.


Phyteuma orbiculare reaches on average 20–50 centimetres (7.9–19.7 in) of height. A deep blue, almost purple wildflower that is not as it seems: each head, rather than being a single bloom, is actually a collection of smaller ones, huddled together.
The stem is erect, simple, glabrous and striated, the leaves vary in shape on a single plant, with larger, broader, ovate to lanceolate, serrated, petiolated leaves at the base of the stem and smaller, narrower, lanceolate to linear cauline leaves. The head-shaped inflorescence is a dense erect panicle of about 1.5–3 centimetres (0.59–1.18 in) of diameter, with usually 15 to 30 flowers. The petals are blue or violet-blue and form small tubes with an opening at the top. The outer bracts are lanceolate and usually two to four times longer than wide. The flowering period extends from May to August. The fruit is a capsule containing numerous small seeds.


This plant is widespread in most of Europe from the Pyrenees to the Balkans. The plant can be found at low altitudes in Western Europe and in mountains of Central Europe. In the United Kingdom, the plant is more common on the South Downs than anywhere else.


This species grows mainly in grasslands, meadows, pasturelands, and pine forests. It prefers full sun exposure on calcareous soils, at an altitude of 600–2,400 metres (2,000–7,900 ft) above sea level. In the UK, its habitat is chalk grassland.


Phyteuma orbiculare subsp. flexuosum R. Schulz
Phyteuma orbiculare subsp. montanum R. Schultz
Phyteuma orbiculare subsp. orbiculare


The round-headed rampion is known colloquially in the county of Sussex, England as the Pride of Sussex. It is also the County flower of Sussex. As Sussex's county flower, its name was chosen for the Rampion Wind Farm, a wind farm off the coast of Sussex.


Phyteuma spicatum, the spiked rampion, is a herbaceous perennial plant in the family Campanulaceae. It is common across much of Europe. Its common names include raiponce en épi (French), ährige Teufelskralle (German), ährige Rapunzel (Swiss German), and Raponzolo giallo (Italian).
Found in diverse types of forest, especially broadleaf beech forests, but also coniferous forests, as well as prairies, along forest roads, in logging clearings.
The leaves, roots, and flowers are edible, and can be eaten raw. Flowers before blooming can for instance be prepared by steaming or boiling briefly, then seasoned (see photo).


Global: GBIF. A collation of numerous data sources which include both historical data and occurrences outside natural range.
Britain and Ireland: BSBI Atlas Current known distribution map by hectad in the British Isles. Natural distribution is confined to East Sussex.
Germany: FloraWeb.
Norway: Norsk Rødliste 2006. Species listed as Vulnerable on Norwegian Red Data List, where it is confined to an area of Telemark county.
Switzerland: Infoflora.


Online Atlas of the British and Irish Flora
Plantlife
FloraWeb in German.
Photos:  Günther's Site; Gerhard Nitter


Phytolacca americana, also known as American pokeweed, pokeweed, poke sallet, dragonberries, and inkberry, is a poisonous, herbaceous perennial plant in the pokeweed family Phytolaccaceae. This pokeweed grows 1 to 3 metres (4 to 10 ft). It has simple leaves on green to red or purplish stems and a large white taproot. The flowers are green to white, followed by berries which ripen through red to purple to almost black which are a food source for songbirds such as gray catbird, northern mockingbird, northern cardinal, and brown thrasher, as well as other birds and some small animals (i.e., to species that are unaffected by its mammalian toxins).
Pokeweed is native to eastern North America, the Midwest, and the South, with more scattered populations in the far West. It is also naturalized in parts of Europe and Asia. It is considered a pest species by farmers. Pokeweed is poisonous to humans, dogs, and livestock. In spring and early summer, shoots and leaves (not the root) are edible with proper cooking (hence the common name "poke sallet", i.e., "poke salad"), but they later become deadly, and the berries are also poisonous. It is used as an ornamental in horticulture, and it provokes interest for the variety of its natural products (toxins and other classes), for its ecological role, its historical role in traditional medicine, and for some utility in biomedical research (e.g., in studies of pokeweed mitogen). In the wild, it is easily found growing in pastures, recently cleared areas, and woodland openings, edge habitats such as along fencerows, and in wastelands.
The scientific name Phytolacca americana comes from the Greek word phyton meaning plant and lacca meaning crimson lake in reference to the deep reddish-purple fruits. The second term, americana is in reference to this plant being native to America.  The common name "poke" is derived from puccoon, pocan, or poughkone (from an Algonquin Indian name for this plant). Berries were once used to make ink, hence the sometimes-used common name of inkberry.


Pokeweed is a member of the family Phytolaccaceae, and is a large herbaceous perennial plant, growing up to 2.5 metres (8 feet) in height over the course of a summer. One to several branches grow from the crown of a thick, white, fleshy taproot; Michael D. K. Owen describes the branches as "stout, smooth, [and] green to somewhat purplish". Simple, entire leaves with long petioles are alternately arranged along the stem.
Pokeweeds reproduce only by their large, glossy black, lens-shaped seeds, which are contained in a fleshy, 10-celled, purple-to-near-black berry that has crimson juice. The flowers are perfect, radially symmetric, white or green, with 4–5 sepals and no petals. The flowers develop in elongated clusters termed racemes. The seeds have long viability, able to germinate after many years in the soil.


Plant Type: Perennial herbaceous plant which can reach a height of 3 m (10 ft) but is usually 1.2 to 2 m (4 to 6+1⁄2 ft). The plant must be a few years old before the root grows large enough to support this size. The stem is usually red late in the season. There is an upright, erect central stem early in the season, which changes to a spreading, horizontal form later with the weight of the berries. The plant dies back to the roots each winter. The stem has a chambered pith.
Leaves: The leaves are alternate with coarse texture with moderate porosity. Leaves can reach 41 centimetres (16 inches) in length. Each leaf is entire. Leaves are medium green and smooth, with a distinct odor that many characterize as unpleasant.
Flowers: The flowers have 5 regular parts with upright stamens and are up to 5 millimetres (1⁄4 in) wide. They have white petal-like sepals without true petals, on white pedicels and peduncles in an upright or drooping raceme, which darken as the plant fruits. Blooms first appear in early summer and continue into early fall.
Fruit: A shiny dark purple berry held in racemose clusters on pink pedicels with a pink peduncle. Pedicels without berries have a distinctive rounded five part calyx. Fruits are round with a flat indented top and bottom. Immature berries are green, turning white and then blackish purple.
Root: Thick central taproot which grows deep and spreads horizontally. Rapid growth. Tan cortex, white pulp, moderate number of rootlets. Transversely cut root slices show concentric rings. No nitrogen fixation ability.


The entire pokeweed plant contains triterpene saponins such as phytolaccagenin, jaligonic acid, phytolaccagenic acid (phytolaccinic acid), esculentic acid, and pokeberrygenin (in the berries), as well as phytolaccasides A, B, D, E, and G, and phytolaccasaponins B, E, and G (in the roots).
The roots also contain other triterpenoids such as oleanolic acid, α-spinasterol and its glucoside, α-spinasteryl-β-D-glucoside, and a palmityl-derivative, 6-palmytityl-α-spinasteryl-6-D-glucoside, as well as a similarly functionalized stigmasterol derivative, 6-palmityl-Δ7-stigmasterol-Δ-D-glucoside. Pokeweed berries also contain betalain pigments such as betanin and others. The leaves contain a number of common flavonols. Seeds of pokeweed contain the phenolic aldehyde caffeic aldehyde. Pokeweed also contains lectins, such as pokeweed mitogen.


Phytolacca americana or pokeweed is also known as pokeberry, poke root, Virginia poke (or simply poke), pigeonberry, inkberry, redweed or red ink plant. When used in Chinese medicine, it is called chuíxù shānglù (垂序商陸). As food, it is called poke sallet, or more commonly poke salad, sometimes spelled polk salad.


Pokeweed is native to eastern North America, the Midwest, the Gulf Coast, and the West Coast of the US. It is an introduced weed in Japan.


Birds are unaffected by the poisons in the berries, and eat them, dispersing the seeds. The berries are reported to be a good food source for songbirds and other bird species and small animals that are unaffected by its toxins. Distribution via birds is thought to account for the appearance of isolated plants in areas otherwise free from pokeweed.
Pokeweed berries are reported to be a good food source for songbirds such as gray catbird (Dumetella carolinensis), northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos), northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinals), brown thrasher (Toxostoma rufum), other bird species including mourning dove (Zenaida macroura), and cedar waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum). Small mammals apparently tolerant of its toxins include raccoon, opossum, red and gray fox, and the white-footed mouse.
Pokeweed is used as a sometime food source by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species, including the giant leopard moth (Hypercompe scribonia).


All parts of the plant can be toxic and pose risks to human and mammalian health. Toxins are found in highest concentration in the rootstock, then leaves and stems, then the ripe fruit. The plant generally gets more toxic with maturity, with the exception of the berries, which are dangerous even while green.
Children may be attracted by clusters of berries. Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OARDC) notes:
Children are most frequently poisoned by eating raw berries. Infants are especially sensitive and have died from eating only a few raw berries. Adults have been poisoned, sometimes fatally, by eating improperly prepared leaves and shoots, especially if part of the root is harvested with the shoot, and by mistaking the root for an edible tuber. Research with humans has also shown that common pokeweed can cause mutations (possibly leading to cancer) and birth defects. Since the juice of pokeweed can be absorbed through the skin, contact of plant parts with bare skin should be avoided.
Pokeweed is to be avoided during pregnancy and children consuming even one berry may require emergency treatment. The plant sap can cause dermatitis in sensitive people.
The plant is not palatable to most animals and is avoided unless little else is available or it is present in contaminated hay, but horses, sheep and cattle have been poisoned by eating fresh leaves or green fodder and pigs have been poisoned by eating the roots.
If death occurs, it is usually due to respiratory paralysis.
Pokeweed poisoning was common in eastern North America during the 19th century, especially from the use of tinctures as antirheumatic preparations and from ingestion of berries and roots that were mistaken for parsnip, Jerusalem artichoke, or horseradish.


Owen states:
If taken internally, pokeweed is a slow acting but a violent emetic. Vomiting usually starts about 2 hours after the plant or parts of it have been eaten. Severe cases of poisoning result in purging, spasms, and sometimes convulsions. If death occurs, it is usually due to paralysis of the respiratory organs. Cases of animal or human poisoning should be handled by a veterinarian or a physician.
The OARDC staff scientists note that symptoms of poisoning include "a burning sensation in the mouth, salivation, gastrointestinal cramps, and vomiting and bloody diarrhea", and that depending upon the amount consumed, more severe symptoms can occur, including "anemia, altered heart rate and respiration, convulsions and death from respiratory failure." If only small quantities are ingested, people and animals recover within one to two days.


Some pokeweeds are grown as ornamental plants, mainly for their attractive berries. A number of cultivars have been selected for larger fruit panicles.


Owen notes that "Indians and early settlers used the root in poultices and certain drugs for skin diseases and rheumatism."
The late 19th century herbal, the King's American Dispensatory, describes various folk medical uses that led individuals to ingest pokeberry products. Phytolacca extract was advertised as a prescription weight loss drug in the 1890s.
Pokeweed is promoted in alternative medicine as a dietary supplement intended to treat a wide range of maladies including mumps, arthritis and various skin conditions. While pokeweed has been subject to laboratory research, there is no medical evidence that it has any beneficial effect on human health.


Poke is a traditional southern Appalachian food. The leaves and stems of young plants can be eaten, but must be cooked by boiling two or more times with the water drained and replaced each time. The leaves taste similar to spinach; the stems, similar to asparagus. A typical recipe is to remove the leaves from the young plant, rinse them in cool water, bring the leaves to a rolling boil in a large pot for about 20 minutes, discard the cooking water, rinse them in cool water, repeat the boiling and the rinsing at least two more times, panfry the leaves in bacon grease for two minutes, add bacon, and salt and pepper to taste.
The roots are poisonous, as are mature leaves and stems. A late 19th century herbal, the King's American Dispensatory, describes various folk medical uses that led individuals to ingest pokeberry products. Some festivals still celebrate the plant's use in its historical food preparations.
As late as the 1990s two companies commercially canned and sold pokeweed, but in 2000 the last one, the Allen Canning Company of Siloam Springs, Arkansas, closed down its operation.


As shown in the sidebar, a 100g serving of pokeweed contains 20 calories and 3.1 grams of carbohydrates, 1.6 grams of sugars, 1.5 grams of dietary fiber, 0.4 grams of fat, 2.3 grams of protein, and is a rich source of vitamin A, vitamin B₂, vitamin C, vitamin K, and manganese. It contains low levels of vitamin B₁, vitamin B₆, iron, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium.


Plant toxins from Phytolacca are being explored as a means to control zebra mussels.
The toxic extract of ripe pokeweed berries can be processed to yield a pink dye. Early European settlers to North America would procure a fine red dye from the plant's roots.
During the middle of the 19th century wine often was coloured with juice from pokeberries.
Phytolacca contains lectins known as Pokeweed mitogen which are used to stimulate B-cell proliferation which is useful for B-cell assays, immunodeficiency diagnostic test, and immunotherapy.


A 1969 hit written and performed by Tony Joe White, "Polk Salad Annie", is about poke sallet, the cooked greens-like dish made from pokeweed. The lyrics include:
And in the fields looks somethin' like a turnip green

And everybody calls it polk salad, polk salad
Elvis Presley covered the song.


Poke salad festivals are held annually in several small southern towns, though often these celebrations are only remotely related to the plant as food or medicine (see  and individual festival references below). Locations include:
Toccoa, Georgia
Arab, Alabama
Blanchard, Louisiana
Gainesboro, Tennessee
Harlan, Kentucky
In Oklahoma, poke salad may be added to the annual wild onion dinners.


Phytolacca icosandra, sometimes known as button pokeweed or tropical pokeweed, is a species of flowering plant found in the neotropics and introduced into the warmer areas of the western USA.
It reaches up to 3 m in height, with leaves of 10–20 cm by 9–14 cm. The flowers are produced in racemes 10–15 cm long, each flower 5–10 mm diameter, with 8-20 stamens (icosandra means "twenty stamens"). The fruit is a black berry, 5–8 mm diameter.


The yellow-billed magpie (Pica nuttalli), also known as the California magpie, is a large bird in the crow family that is restricted to the U.S. state of California. It inhabits the Central Valley and the adjacent chaparral foothills and mountains. Apart from its having a yellow bill and a yellow streak around the eye, it is virtually identical to the black-billed magpie (Pica hudsonia) found in much of the rest of North America.
The scientific name commemorates the English naturalist Thomas Nuttall.


mtDNA sequence analysis indicates a close relationship between the yellow-billed magpie and the black-billed magpie, rather than between the outwardly very similar black-billed and European magpies (P. pica); the two American forms could be considered as one species.
The Korean subspecies of the European magpie (P. p. sericea) is more distantly related to all other (including North American) forms judging from the molecular evidence, and thus, either the North American forms are maintained as specifically distinct and the Korean (and possibly related) subspecies are also elevated to species status, or all magpies are considered to be subspecies of a single species, Pica pica.
Combining fossil evidence and paleobiogeographical considerations with the molecular data indicates that the yellow-billed magpie's ancestors became isolated in California quite soon after the ancestral magpies colonized North America (which probably happened some 3–4 mya) due to early ice ages and the ongoing uplift of the Sierra Nevada, but that during interglacials there occurred some gene flow between the yellow- and black-billed magpies until reproductive isolation was fully achieved in the Pleistocene.
The yellow-billed magpie is adapted to the hot summers of California's Central Valley and experiences less heat stress than the black-billed magpie.


The yellow-billed magpie is gregarious and roosts communally. There may be a cluster of communal roosts in one general area made up of a central roost containing many birds and several outlying roosts with fewer.
Yellow-billed magpie flocks are known to engage in funeral-like behavior for their dead. When a magpie dies, a gathering of them congregates around the deceased bird where they call out loudly for 10-15 minutes.


The yellow-billed magpie prefers groves of tall trees along rivers and near open areas, though in some cities they have begun to nest in vacant lots and other weedy places. A pair of birds builds a dome-shaped nest with sticks and mud on a high branch. Nests may be 14 meters above the ground and are sometimes built far out on long branches to prevent predators from reaching them. They nest in small colonies, or occasionally alone. Even when nesting close to other birds they may exhibit some territorial behavior. These birds are permanent residents and do not usually wander far outside of their breeding range.
Extra-pair copulation is not uncommon among yellow-billed magpies. After mating, a male will exhibit mate-guarding, preventing the female from mating with other males until she lays the first egg. The clutch contains 5 to 7 eggs which are incubated by the female for 16 to 18 days. Both parents feed the nestlings a diet of mostly insects until fledging occurs in 30 days.


These omnivorous birds forage on the ground, mainly eating insects, especially grasshoppers, but also carrion, acorns and fruit in fall and winter. They are attracted to recently butchered carcasses on farms and ranches. They pick through garbage at landfills and dumping sites, and sometimes hunt rodents.


This bird is extremely susceptible to West Nile virus. Between 2004 and 2006 it is estimated that 50% of all yellow-billed magpies died of the virus. Because the bird tends to roost near water bodies such as rivers, it is often exposed to mosquitoes.


The IUCN classifies the bird as a vulnerable species. The Nature Conservancy places it in the vulnerable category. Besides West Nile Virus, threats include loss of habitat and rodent poison. The bird has a limited area of distribution but is widespread throughout the area and still common in many places.


The Eurasian magpie or common magpie (Pica pica) is a resident breeding bird throughout the northern part of the Eurasian continent. It is one of several birds in the crow family (corvids) designated magpies, and belongs to the Holarctic radiation of "monochrome" magpies. In Europe, "magpie" is used by English speakers as a synonym for the Eurasian magpie: the only other magpie in Europe is the Iberian magpie (Cyanopica cooki), which is limited to the Iberian Peninsula.
The Eurasian magpie is one of the most intelligent birds, and it is believed to be one of the most intelligent of all non-human animals. The expansion of its nidopallium is approximately the same in its relative size as the brain of chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and humans. It is the only bird known to pass the mirror test, along with very few other non-avian species.


The magpie was described and illustrated by Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner in his Historiae animalium of 1555. In 1758 Linnaeus included the species in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Corvus pica. The magpie was moved to a separate genus Pica by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. Pica is the Classical Latin word for this magpie.
The Eurasian magpie is almost identical in appearance to the North American black-billed magpie (Pica hudsonia) and at one time the two species were considered to be conspecific. In 2000, the American Ornithologists' Union decided to treat the black-billed magpie as a separate species based on studies of the vocalization and behaviour that indicated that the black-billed magpie was closer to the yellow-billed magpie (Pica nuttalli) than to the Eurasian magpie.
The gradual clinal variation over the large geographic range and the intergradation of the different subspecies means that the geographical limits, and acceptance of the various subspecies, vary between authorities. The International Ornithological Congress recognises six subspecies (a seventh, P. p. hemileucoptera, is included in P. p. bactriana):
P. p. fennorum – Lönnberg, 1927: northern Scandinavia and northwest Russia
P. p. pica – (Linnaeus, 1758): British Isles and southern Scandinavia east to Russia, south to Mediterranean, including most islands
P. p. melanotos – A.E. Brehm, 1857: Iberian Peninsula
P. p. bactriana – Bonaparte, 1850: Siberia east to Lake Baikal, south to Caucasus, Iraq, Iran, Central Asia and Pakistan
P. p. leucoptera – Gould, 1862: southeast Russia and northeast China
P. p. camtschatica – Stejneger, 1884: northern Sea of Okhotsk, and Kamchatka Peninsula in Russian Far East
Others now considered as distinct species:
P. mauritanica – Malherbe, 1845: North Africa (Morocco, northern Algeria and Tunisia) (now considered a separate species, the Maghreb magpie)
P. asirensis – Bates, 1936: southwest Saudi Arabia (now considered a separate species, the Asir magpie)
P. serica – Gould, 1845: east and south China, Taiwan, north Myanmar, north Laos and north Vietnam (now considered a separate species, the Oriental magpie)
P. bottanensis – Delessert, 1840: west central China (now considered a separate species, the black-rumped magpie)
An analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequences published in 2003 confirmed that the black-billed magpie and the yellow-billed magpie were closely related to each other. The study also found that magpies in Korea (described as P. p. serica) are as different from the nominate subspecies as they are to the North American magpie species. These results imply that the species Pica pica is not monophyletic. A more recent study using both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA found that magpies in eastern and northeastern China are genetically very similar to each other, but differ from those in northwestern China and Spain.


The adult male of the nominate subspecies, P. p. pica, is 44–46 cm (17–18 in) in length, of which more than half is the tail. The wingspan is 52–62 cm (20–24 in). The head, neck and breast are glossy black with a metallic green and violet sheen; the belly and scapulars (shoulder feathers) are pure white; the wings are black glossed with green or purple, and the primaries have white inner webs, conspicuous when the wing is open. The graduated tail is black, glossed with green and reddish purple. The legs and bill are black; the iris is dark brown. The plumage of the sexes is similar but females are slightly smaller. The tail feathers of both sexes are quite long, about 12–28 cm long. Males of the nominate subspecies weigh 210–272 g (7.4–9.6 oz) while females weigh 182–214 g (6.4–7.5 oz). The young resemble the adults, but are at first without much of the gloss on the sooty plumage. The young have the malar region pink, and somewhat clear eyes. The tail is much shorter than the adults.
The subspecies differ in their size, the amount of white on their plumage and the colour of the gloss on their black feathers. The Asian subspecies P. p. bactriana has more extensive white on the primaries and a prominent white rump.
Adults undergo an annual complete moult after breeding. Moult begins in June or July and ends in September or October. The primary flight feathers are replaced over a period of three months. Juvenile birds undergo a partial moult beginning about one month later than the adult birds in which their body feathers are replaced but not those of the wings or the tail.
Eurasian magpies have a well-known call. It is a choking chatter "chac-chac" or a repetitive "chac-chac-chac-chac". The young also emit the previous call, although they also emit an acute call similar to a "Uik Uik", which may resemble the barking of a small dog. Both adults and young can emit a kind of hiss barely noticeable from afar.


The range of the magpie extends across temperate Eurasia from Portugal, Spain and Ireland in the west to the Kamchatka Peninsula. The closely related Oriental magpie (P. serica) has been introduced in Japan on the island of Kyushu.
The preferred habit is open countryside with scattered trees and magpies are normally absent from treeless areas and dense forests. They sometimes breed at high densities in suburban settings such as parks and gardens. They can often be found close to the centre of cities.
Magpies are normally sedentary and spend winters close to their nesting territories but birds living near the northern limit of their range in Sweden, Finland and Russia can move south in harsh weather.


The Eurasian magpie is believed to be not only among the most intelligent of birds, but also among the most intelligent of all animals. Along with the western jackdaw, the Eurasian magpie's nidopallium is approximately the same relative size as those in chimpanzees and humans and significantly larger than the gibbons. Like other corvids, such as ravens and crows, their total brain-to-body mass ratio is equal to most great apes and cetaceans. A 2004 review suggests that the intelligence of the corvid family to which the Eurasian magpie belongs is equivalent to that of the great apes (chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans) in terms of social cognition, causal reasoning, flexibility, imagination and prospection.
Magpies have been observed engaging in elaborate social rituals, possibly including the expression of grief. Mirror self-recognition has been demonstrated in European magpies, making them one of only a few species to possess this capability. The cognitive abilities of the Eurasian magpie are regarded as evidence that intelligence evolved independently in both corvids and primates. This is indicated by tool use, an ability to hide and store food across seasons, episodic memory, and using their own experience to predict the behavior of conspecifics. Another behaviour exhibiting intelligence is cutting their food in correctly sized proportions for the size of their young. In captivity, magpies have been observed counting up to get food, imitating human voices, and regularly using tools to clean their own cages. In the wild, they organise themselves into gangs and use complex strategies hunting other birds and when confronted by predators.


The Eurasian magpie has an extremely large range. The European population is estimated to be between 7.5 and 19 million breeding pairs. Allowing for the birds breeding in other continents, the total population is estimated to be between 46 and 228 million individuals. The population trend in Europe has been stable since 1980. There is no evidence of any serious overall decline in numbers, so the species is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as being of Least Concern.


The Oriental magpie (Pica serica) is a species of magpie found from south-eastern Russia and Myanmar to eastern China, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and northern Indochina.  It is also a common symbol of the Korean identity, and has been adopted as the "official bird" of numerous South Korean cities, counties and provinces.  Other names for the Oriental magpie include Korean magpie and Asian magpie.


A recent study comparing 813 bp mtDNA sequences led to the split of the Oriental magpie from the Eurasian magpie. It has been reproductively isolated for longer even than the yellow-billed magpie (P. nuttalli) of North America. Proposed subspecies include P. p. jankowskii and P. p. japonica.
The Oriental magpie's evolution as a distinct lineage started considerably earlier than the Gelasian date of c.2 million years ago (Ma) indicated by a molecular clock analysis. The assumed divergence rate – 1.6% point mutations per Ma – is appropriate for a long-lived passerine, but hybridization – which as only mtDNA was used would be hard to detect – and the few specimens analyzed make the molecular clock estimate just an approximation. Meanwhile, the fossil record of North American magpies has a specimen – UCMP 43386, a left tarsometatarsus from Palo Duro Falls (Randall County, Texas) – which is probably from the Early Pleistocene Irvingtonian age, around 2–1 Ma. It shows the distinct features of a black-billed magpie (P. (p.) hudsonia), though it might be from a common ancestor of black- and yellow-billed magpies. This was not used to calibrate the molecular clock analysis, but accounting for the phylogenetic hypothesis it appears more likely that the Korean magpie's ancestors diverged from other Pica in the Early Pliocene already, perhaps 5–4.5 Ma, antedating the uplift of the Sierra Nevada which cut off most gene flow between the two North American populations. Residual gene flow between them (and between the two (or more?) Eurasian magpie lineages) until the onset of the Quaternary glaciation some 2.6–2 Ma may also have skewed the molecular clock results.
Like the other magpies, the Oriental magpie is a member of the large radiation of mainly Holarctic corvids, which also includes the typical crows and ravens (Corvus) nutcrackers (Nucifraga) and Old World jays. The long tail might be plesiomorphic for this group, as it is also found in the tropical Asian magpies (Cissa and Urocissa) as well as in most of the very basal corvids, such as the treepies. The unique black-and-white color pattern of the "monochrome" magpies is an autapomorphy.


Compared to the Eurasian magpie, it is somewhat stockier, with a proportionally shorter tail and longer wings. The back, tail, and particularly the remiges show strong purplish-blue iridescence with few if any green hues. They are the largest magpies. They have a rump plumage that is mostly black, with but a few and often hidden traces of the white band which connects the white shoulder patches in their relatives.
The Oriental magpie has the same call as the Eurasian magpie, albeit much softer.


Picea engelmannii, with the common names Engelmann spruce, white spruce, mountain spruce, and silver spruce, is a species of spruce native to western North America. It is mostly a high-altitude mountain tree but also appears in watered canyons.


Picea engelmannii is a medium-sized to large evergreen tree growing to 25–40 metres (82–131 feet) tall, exceptionally to 65 m (213 ft) tall, and with a trunk diameter of up to 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in). The reddish bark is thin and scaly, flaking off in small circular plates 5–10 centimetres (2–4 in) across. The crown is narrow conic in young trees, becoming cylindric in older trees. The shoots are buff-brown to orange-brown, usually densely pubescent, and with prominent pulvini. The leaves are needle-like, 15–30 millimetres (5⁄8–1+1⁄8 in) long, flexible, rhombic in cross-section, glaucous blue-green above with several thin lines of stomata, and blue-white below with two broad bands of stomata. The needles have a pungent odour when crushed.
Purple cones of about 1 cm appear in spring, releasing yellow pollen when windy. The cones are pendulous, slender cylindrical, 2.5–8 cm long and 1.5 cm broad when closed, opening to 3 cm broad. They have thin, flexible scales 15–20 mm long, with a wavy margin. They are reddish to dark purple, maturing to light brown 4–7 months after pollination. The seeds are black, 2–3 mm long, with a slender, 5–8 mm long light brown wing.
The tree grows in a krummholz form along the fringe of alpine tundras.


Engelmann spruce is native to western North America, primarily in the Rocky Mountains and east slopes of the Cascade range from central British Columbia to Southern Oregon in the Cascades and commonly in Montana, Idaho, and Colorado, and more sparsely towards Arizona and New Mexico in the Sky islands; there are also two isolated populations in Northern Mexico. It is mostly a high-altitude mountain tree, in many areas reaching the tree line, but at lower elevations occupies cool watered canyons. It grows from 520–3,650 m (1,710–11,980 ft) above sea level, rarely lower towards the northwest. It appears in the canyons of the Idaho Panhandle and more limitedly in the northeastern Olympic Mountains; the latter includes exceptionally large specimens, e.g. one 2.1 m (7 ft) thick and 55 m (179 ft) tall. It can be found in the Cascade Range (mostly on the eastern slopes) from elevations of 900–1,800 m (3,000–5,900 ft) and liberally in the Rocky Mountains. It can also be found in the Monashee and Selkirk Mountains, as well as the highlands surrounding the Interior Plateau.


Both water uptake and water stored in roots appear to be critical for the survival of subalpine Engelmann spruce saplings that are exposed above the snowpack in later winter to early spring. Transpiration is greatly reduced in small saplings while engulfed in snowpack. For exposed trees, the availability of soil water may be critical in late winter, when transpirational demands increase. Increased rates of transpiration in response to loss of snowpack, coupled with low sapwood water reserves and an extended period of soil frost in windswept areas, may prevent Engelmann spruce from regenerating in open areas both above and below the tree line. Cuticular damage by windblown ice is probably more important at the tree line, but damage caused by desiccation is likely to be more important at lower elevations.
Despite wind damage, the species tends to grow taller than others at the tree line. It is shade tolerant, but not so much as subalpine fir. Thus, it is somewhat dependent on fires to outgrow competitors, although its thin bark and shallow roots make it vulnerable to fire as well. Spruce bark beetles attack the tree, being particularly deadly to groups which have stood for centuries. It is also susceptible to avalanches.
Although older spruce forests are not very useful to animals for forage, they are so in the aftermath of fires, which allow many other plants to rise. Engelmann spruce-shaded streams are exploited by trout. Additionally, aphids produce galls which hang from the tree and look similar to cones when they dry out.


Two geographical subspecies (treated as varieties by some authors, and as distinct species by others) occur:
Picea engelmannii subsp. engelmannii (Engelmann spruce). All of the range except as below.
Picea engelmannii subsp. mexicana (Mexican spruce). Two isolated populations on high mountains in northern Mexico, on the Sierra del Carmen in Coahuila (Sierra Madre Oriental) and on Cerro Mohinora in Chihuahua (Sierra Madre Occidental). Engelmann spruces of the Madrean sky islands mountains in the extreme southeast of Arizona and southwest of New Mexico also probably belong to this subspecies, though this is disputed.
The Engelmann spruce hybridises and intergrades extensively with the closely related white spruce (Picea glauca), found further north and east in the Rockies, and to a lesser extent with the closely related Sitka spruce where they meet on the western fringes of the Cascades.


Native Americans made various medicines from the resin and foliage.
Engelmann spruce is of economic importance for its wood, being light and fairly strong. It harvested for paper-making and general construction. Wood from slow-grown trees at high altitude has a specialised use in making musical instruments such as acoustic guitars, harps, violins, and pianos. Because it is odourless and has little resin, it has been used for food containers such as barrels. It is also used to a small extent as a Christmas tree.


Picea glauca, the white spruce, is a species of spruce native to the northern temperate and boreal forests in North America. Picea glauca is native from central Alaska all through the east, across southern/central Canada to the Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland, and south to Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York and Maine; there is also an isolated population in the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming. It is also known as Canadian spruce, skunk spruce, cat spruce, Black Hills spruce, western white spruce, Alberta white spruce, and Porsild spruce.


The white spruce is a large evergreen conifer which normally grows to 15 to 30 metres (50 to 100 ft) tall, but can grow up to 40 m (130 ft) tall with a trunk diameter of up to 1 m (3 ft 3 in). The bark is thin and scaly, flaking off in small circular plates 5 to 10 centimetres (2 to 4 in) across. The crown is narrow – conical in young trees, becoming cylindrical in older trees. The shoots are pale buff-brown, glabrous in the east of the range, but often pubescent in the west, and with prominent pulvini. The leaves are needle-like, 12 to 20 millimetres long, rhombic in cross-section, glaucous blue-green above (hence glauca) with several thin lines of stomata, and blue-white below with two broad bands of stomata.
The cones are pendulous, slender, cylindrical, 3 to 7 cm long and 1.5 cm wide when closed, opening to 2.5 cm broad. They have thin, flexible scales 15 mm long with a smoothly rounded margin. They are green or reddish, maturing to pale brown 4 to 8 months after pollination. The seeds are black, 2 to 3 mm long, with a slender, 5 to 8 mm long pale brown wing.


Seeds are small, 2.5 to 5 mm long, oblong, and acute at the base. Determinations of the average number of sound seeds per white spruce cone have ranged from 32 to 130.
Common causes of empty seed are lack of pollination, abortion of the ovule, and insect damage.
The average weight per individual seed varies from 1.1 mg to 3.2 mg.
Each seed is clasped by a thin wing 2 to 4 times as long as the seed. Seed and wing are appressed to the cone scale. Embryo and megagametophyte are soft and translucent at first; later the endosperm becomes firm and milky white, while the embryo becomes cream-colored or light yellow. At maturity, the testa darkens rapidly from light brown to dark brown or black. Mature seeds “snaps in two” when cut by a sharp knife on a firm surface.
White spruce cones reach their maximum size after 800 GDD. Cone moisture content decreases gradually after about 1000 GDD.
Cone colour also can be used to help determine the degree of maturation, but cones may be red, pink or green. Collection and storage dates and conditions influence germination requirements and early seedling growth.
A bushel (35 L) of cones, which may contain 6,500 to 8,000 cones, yields 6 to 20 ounces (170 to 570 g) of clean seed.
Seed dispersal begins after cone scales reflex with cone maturation in the late summer or early fall of the year of formation. Cones open at moisture contents of 45% to 70% and specific gravities of 0.6 to 0.8. Weather affects both the initiation and pattern of seed dispersal, but cone opening and the pattern of seed dispersal can vary among trees in the same stand. Even after dispersal has begun, cold, damp weather will cause cone scales to close; they will reopen during dry weather. Most seed falls early rather than late, but dispersal may continue through fall and winter and even into the next growing season. Seed dispersal occurs mainly in late summer or early fall.
White spruce seed is initially dispersed through the air by wind. Both the initiation and pattern of seed dispersal depend on the weather, but these can vary among trees in the same stand. Small amounts of white spruce seed are normally dispersed beyond 100 m from the seed source, but exceptionally seeds have been found more than 300–400 m from the nearest seed source.


The root system of white spruce is highly variable and adaptable, responding to a variety of edaphic factors, especially soil moisture, soil fertility, and mechanical impedance. On soils that limit rooting depth, the root system is plate-like, but it is a common misconception to assume that white spruce is genetically constrained to develop plate-like root systems irrespective of soil conditions. In the nursery, or naturally in the forest, white spruce usually develops several long 'running' roots just below the ground surface.
The structure of the tracheids in the long lateral roots of white spruce varies with soil nitrogen availability.


White spruce can live for several hundred years, with an estimated average lifespan of 250 to 300 years.
Slow-growing trees in rigorous climates are also capable of great longevity. White spruce 6 to 10 m (20 to 33 ft) high on the shore of Urquhart Lake, Northwest Territories, were found to be more than 300 years old.


The bark of mature white spruce is scaly or flaky, grey-brown or ash-brown, but silvery when freshly exposed. Resin blisters are normally lacking, but the Porsild spruce Picea glauca var. porsildii Raup has been credited with having smooth resin-blistered bark.
White spruce bark is mostly less than 8 mm and not more than 9.5 mm thick.