Plant of the Day
28 December 2014
Umbrellas, lighting and lots of imagination show the silhouette of the spiky evergreen Ruscus aculeatus (butcher’s broom, box holly) at night. These rhizomatous subshrubs have flattened, leaf-like cladophylls with small pale green flowers, followed by glossy red berries and the stems reach about 0.5m high. They will grow in deep shade, tolerate drought once established and in the wild are indicators of old woodland. In the past bunches of spiky stems were used to clean butcher’s chopping blocks. In the lowest image the arching stems of the taller Danae racemosa (Alexandrian laurel), another shade tolerant evergreen with cladophylls, can be seen with the Ruscus.
Jill Raggett
via Tumblr http://jillraggett.tumblr.com/post/106395330104
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