JULIE RASKOFF, MEMBG Docent
Imagine that your assignment is to name a plant genus based on a Roman god or goddess. Of all of the possibilities, I doubt seriously that anyone would choose Sterculius, the Roman god of privies (L., stercus, dung). He was chosen by Linnaeus to be the namesake for the genus Sterculia because the true-to-type tree Sterculia foetida (L., foetidus, to stink) has flowers and wood that are appropriately malodorous. Amazingly, the Sterculiaceae are not all pariahs and social outcasts but include, among dozens of genera, two most economically useful trees that are among our favorites: chocolate, Theobroma cacao, and kola, Cola nitida (L. nitidus, shiny, bright, or glossy).
A great ornamental beauty Dombeya would also have to be one of the stars of the Sterculiaceae. We have several in MEMBG, each of which appropriately earns the common name African wedding flower because of the gorgeous pink or white blossom clusters that resemble bouquets and are distributed throughout the greenery. The leaves are usually round (rotundifolia, L. rotundus, round, and folius, leaf), heart-shaped (cordate, L. cor, cordis, heart), or maple-like (acerifolia, L. acer, for the maple tree), and the leaves have downy hair, especially on the under side. Perhaps the show stopper is Dombeya cacuminum (L. cacumen, top or point, as the top of a tree), which in January blooms with one-foot-wide clusters of coral-red flowers.
Shaped something like a huge green bowling pin on steroids, Brachychiton ruprestris (L. ruprestris, rock-loving) bears the common name of bottle tree. Children who visit the garden are fascinated by its shape, as well as by the blossom of Brachychiton discolor (Late L. discolorare, of two different, usually distinct colors). The colorful part of the blossom is a calyx, which not only shows changes in color but also in texture and form.
Ode to Sterculiaceae, with apologies to Dr. Seuss
Some are stink-able.
Some are drink-able.
In some there's beauty that's unblink-able,
As well as shapes that are unthink-able.
In Sterculiaceae they all are link-able.
(Sigh) It's brought me to the brink-able.
Less, next time.