If you’re going by the Chemistry building this week, take a moment to
climb the main stairwell and look out the big window at Reed’s only
castor aralia (Kalopanax pictus). The tree was given to Reed as
a gift from Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum in 1972. Biology professor Bert
Brehm planted the tree on the edge of the canyon and it’s now almost
two stories high.
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The great thing about the Chemistry stairwell is that it gives you
an up-close view of the flowers when the tree blooms every August. The
castor aralia is in the ginsing family (Araliaceae) and it has that
group’s distinctive way of blooming, with many small flowers grouped
together in rounded, golf-ball-sized clusters. It also has the typical
leaves with lobes and veins that spread out like a fan from a single
point.
Quiz time! Can you think of the three other common plants in the
Portland area that are members of the same family and have similar
leaves and flowers? I’ve hidden the answers in the white space below
and you can highlight the text with your mouse to see them. (Hints: One
is an invasive pest here on campus, another is a thorny plant in the
gorge, and the third is a common houseplant.)
Answers: English Ivy (Hedera helix), Devil’s Club (Oplopanax horridum), and Schefflera (Schefflera sp.)
– posted by Niels
