Bergamo Wall Plants - Sedum album and Sedum dasyphyllum

Left: Photo of Sedum dasyphyllum on a wall in Bergamo.
Center: Photo of Sedum dasyphyllum and Sedum album in bloom on a wall in Bergamo.
Right: Nestled in a wall, Madonna della borraccina, the protector of sedum.

Both of these Bergamo Wall Plants ™ plants are part of the genus Sedum, commonly referred to as stonecrop. Stonecrops are in the family Crassulaceae, also known as the stonecrop or orpine family.

Sedum album – White Stonecrop – has alternate, fleshy leaves that are nearly cylindrical with rounded tips. The Italian name for S. album is borraccina bianca. Its flowers are in a corymb structure.

Sedum dasyphyllum - Thick-leaved Stonecrop or Corsican Stonecrop – has opposite gray-green leaves, often tinged pink. This stonecrop's leaves are more plump-looking compared to S. album. The Italian common name for S. dasyphllum is borracina cenerina. Both of these sedums found in hot, dry locations on walls with good sun exposure. Often they are growing next to each other as shown in some of the photos here.

The etymology for these plants as follows. Sedum is from the Latin sedum meaning "houseleek" as least as far as Wikitionary is concerned. Sempervivum tectorum – Common Houseleek – is also in the Crassulaceae family. Another possible etymology we found interesting because of its reflection on the Italian language is given in the Italian Wikipedia page for Sedum album. The entry claims that sedum comes from the the Latin verb to sit, sedeo, "I sit". In Italian it's io mi siedo. The connection is the way the stems lay down or sit. (Sedere – to sit – is one of the verbs in Italian that throws an I in during conjugations: siedo, siedi, siede, sediamo, sedete, siedono.) Who knows for sure what the exact etymology is, but we won't forget the conjugation of this verb.

Continuing: Album is "white". Dasyphyllum – according to dryades.it – comes from the Greek dasýs meaning "hairy" e phýllon meaning leaf. If you look closely, sure enough there are hairs.

A list of our wall plants of Bergamo thus far:

• [Papavero] Fumaria officinalis (post) – Earth Smoke
• [Brassicaceae] Aubrieta deltoidea - Purple Rock Cress and Iberis sempervirens - Evergreen Candytuft (post)
• [Geraniaceae] Geranium robertianum (post) - Stinking Bob
• [Asteraceae] Erigeron karvinskianus (post) - Mexican Fleabane
• [Aspleniaceae] Asplenium ceterach (post) - Rustyback Fern
• [Aspleniaceae] Asplenium ruta-muraria (post) - Wall Rue
• [Aspleniaceae] Asplenium trichomanes (post) - Maidenhair spleenwort
• [Urticaceae] Parietaria diffusa (post) – Pellitory
• [Plantaginaceae] Cymbalaria muralis (post) - Pennywort

Left: A wall on Via Fontana in Bergamo where many of the photos of sedum were taken.
Center and right: Sedum album on a wall.

Left: Sedum album and Sedum dasyphyllum.
Center and right: Sedum dasyphyllum.

Sedum album and Sedum dasyphyllum growing together on a wall in Bergamo.

Left: Sedum dasyphyllum in winter.
Right: Sedum daspyphyllum in spring with flowers.

Bergamo Wall Plant – Common Fumitory or Earth Smoke

Left and center: Earth Smoke on a wall in Bergamo.
Right: Botanical illustration of Fumaria officinalis.

Today's Bergamo Wall Plant ™ is Fumaria officinalis – a plant in the Poppy family (Papaveraceae). It has a few common names like the somewhat boring "Common Fumitory" as well the provocative, "Earth Smoke", which sounds like a name you might choose if you had to choose a spirit name.  According to Wikipedia, "smoke" because of "the translucent color of its flowers, giving them the appearance of smoke or of hanging in smoke, and the slightly gray-blue haze color of its foliage, also resembling smoke coming from the ground, especially after morning dew."

Continuing with the etymology, this from The Names of Plants on the origin of the genus name Fumaria:

fumaria – smoke, fumus, Dioscorides' name, καπνος, referred to the effect of the juice on the eyes being the same as that of smoke, but the medieval Latin name, fumus terrae, refers to the appearance of the Fumitory plants as smoke arising from the ground.

Earth smoke is a source of fumaric acid, an organic compound that has a ton of interesting uses as discussed here, including interesting research on reducing methane gas produced in the first stomach of ruminants, a significant contributor to climate change.

F. officinalis is definitely a sun lover. It normally flowers appear between April and October, and we can maybe explain it's early blooming time here due to its location in a sunny spot on Via G. Marieni In Bergamo. Borrowing from our previous post, Bergamo – A Running Meditation,  this road honors General Giovanni Marieni (1858 – 1933), an important figure in the modernization of the Italian air force in World War I. The lane wraps around his ancestral family property sitting at the end of a small ridge, which happens to be on our normal running route.

Left and center: Earth Smoke on a wall on Via Marieni in Bergamo.
Right: View of Via Marieni.

A list of our wall plants of Bergamo thus far:

•  Aubrieta deltoidea - Purple Rock Cress and Iberis sempervirens - Evergreen Candytuft (post)

• Geranium robertianum (post) - Stinking Bob

• Erigeron karvinskianus (post) - Mexican Fleabane

• Asplenium ceterach (post) - Rustyback Fern

• Asplenium ruta-muraria (post) - Wall Rue

• Asplenium trichomanes (post) - Maidenhair spleenwort

• Parietaria diffusa (post) – Pellitory

• Cymbalaria muralis (post) - Pennywort

Bergamo Wall Plants – Purple Rock Cress and Evergreen Candytuft

Left: Aubrieta deltoidea - Purple Rock Cress – via Castagneta Bergamo.
Right: Iberis sempervirens - Evergreen Candytuft – via Sudorno, Bergamo.

The purple and pink flowered plants we believe to be Aubrieta deltoidea or cultivars, such as 'Red Cascasde'. These plants are commonly called Purple Rock Cress. In Italian, the common name is Aubrezia, a variant of the genus name. The genus name honors Claude Aubriet (1651/65 – 1742), a French illustrator and botanical artist. The species epithet likely refers to the leaf shape, deltoid or kite shape.

Purple Rock Cress is a mat-forming evergreen, with small oval-shaped lobed leaves and flowers in shades of pink and purple. These photos of Rock Cress were taken on Via Castagneta on a wall with southern exposure, which may explain why they seem to be blooming early.

The white-flowered plant is Iberis sempervirens – commonly called Evergreen Candytuft or Perennial Candytuft. This particular plant is on a wall in Via Sudorno, near where the Lo Scorlazzino (small stair-climb) meets Lo Scorlazzone (big stair-climb). The genus name Iberis refers to the Iberian Peninsula where many members of the genus are native. The species epithet means "always green".

• Digression 1: We run and walk by this plant a lot. When we come up Lo Scorlazzino and are out of breath we are face to face with this Candytuft, which is all to say we've stared at this Candytuft enough that we are on a first name basis with it.
• Digression 2: In a recent book, Fundamentals: Ten Keys to Reality, the American theoretical physicist Frank Wilczek gives an estimate "that we process and 'understand' about a hundred billion distinct scenes in a lifetime." If we have seen Candytuft 1000 times in our lifetime, which is not unlikely, then that's 1e-3 divided by 1e-11 or about 0.0001 % of our image bank is occupied by Candytuft. Let's call that the Candytuft number.
• Digression 3: Candytuft reminds us of Seattle. The first time we became aware of it was on the south side of a small, standard issue craftsman house in Seattle with white cedar siding and one foot of exposed foundation cement, painted dark green. Nestled up against the foundation was a big Candytuft, which always seemed to be in bloom. And like this Candytuft on via Sudorno, we always seemed to be walking by it. Can it be that Candytufts are manipulative in where they get themselves planted so they can be seen?
• Digression 4: Why the name Candytuft? According to the Wikipedia entry for Iberis, which references Oxford English Dictionary, "[t]he name 'candytuft' is not related to candy, but derives from Candia, the former name of Iraklion on the Island of Crete."

Both Purple Rock Cress and Candytuft aren't super common (say like Pellitory of the Wall or Pennywort) when walking around Bergamo, but every now and then you see them on a wall. Both of these plants are in the Brassicaceae family, known as the mustard or cabbage family. Many important and delicious veggies (that we are on first name basis with) come from the Brassicaceae family as well as the "drosophila of the plant world", Arabidopsis thaliana, which we posted about (really in 2009!),  Arabidopsis Thaliana – Mouse-ear cress.

A list of our wall plants of Bergamo thus far:

•  Aubrieta deltoidea – Purple Rock Cress, Iberis sempervirens – Candytuft
• Geranium robertianum (post) - Stinking Bob
• Erigeron karvinskianus (post) - Mexican Fleabane
• Asplenium ceterach (post) - Rustyback Fern
• Asplenium ruta-muraria (post) - Wall Rue
• Asplenium trichomanes (post) - Maidenhair spleenwort
• Parietaria diffusa (post) – Pellitory
• Cymbalaria muralis (post) - Pennywort

 


Left two photos: Aubrieta deltoidea - Purple Rock Cress, a pink cultivar? – via Castagneta, Bergamo.
Right two photos: Aubrieta deltoidea - Purple Rock Cress – via Castagneta, Bergamo.

Left two photos: Aubrieta deltoidea - Purple Rock Cress – via Castagneta, Bergamo.
Right: Iberis sempervirens - Evergreen Candytuft – via Sudorno, Bergamo.

Stinking Bob – On the Wall

Photos of Geranium robertianum in Bergamo.

Stinking Bob is one name for Geranium robertianum and a plant we’ve observed occasionally on the walls of Bergamo. It's not as common as other plants (see list below).

Our first experience with Stinking Bob was in Seattle in our yard. We ripped out a lot of it in our yard in Seattle where it seemed to magically reappear overnight. Half the biomass in our yard was for a time Stinking Bob and it's friend Arum italicum. Stinking Bob is on the non-regulated Class B noxious weed list in King County, which includes Seattle. 

G. robertianum is a common species of Geranium native to Europe, and parts or Asia, North America, and North Africa. Stinking Bob gets around.

G. robertainum goes by many common names and we prefer a conflation of two of them, Stinking Bob and Herb-Robert, to come up with Stinking Robert, in honor of a friend of ours. So why "stinking"? It's because this geranium has a distinct smell when the leaves are crushed or even brushed up against. It is described as displeasing, but we would say displeasing depends on the nose of the beholder.

So here we are a continent away with our old friend except this time we just walking by and not thinking of ripping it out. On Via Ramera in Bergamo to be exact. Hello Stinking Robert, nice to see you again.

A list of our wall plants of Bergamo thus far:

• Geranium robertianum - Stinking Bob
• Erigeron karvinskianus (post) - Mexican Fleabane
• Asplenium ceterach (post) - Rustyback Fern
• Asplenium ruta-muraria (post) - Wall Rue
• Asplenium trichomanes (post) - Maidenhair spleenwort
• Parietaria diffusa (post) - Pellitory
• Cymbalaria muralis (post) - Pennywort

A photo of Geranium robertianum in Bergamo.

Erigeron karvinskianus – A Mexican (Fleabane) in Bergamo

Erigeron karvinskianus on a wall in San Vigilio, Bergamo.

We couldn't resist that title. One common name for Erigeron karvinskianus is Mexican fleabane and when there is a cheap play on words, we go for it.

Before researching the true name for this post, we just called this plant a "daisy" and technically that is correct as it is part of the daisy-family (Asteraceae). More specifically though, it's in the genus Erigeron commonly called fleabane from a belief that dried Erigeron genus plants repelled fleas or that the plants were poisonous to fleas. (A ye olde conspiracy that once had a large following?)

The species epithet karvinskianus honors Wilhelm Friedrich Karwinski von Karwin (1780 – 1855), a Bavarian naturalist who was reported to have collected the plant in Mexico, one of it's native distribution areas along with the Central Americas and northern parts of South America.

Where we really notice E. karvinskianus is on walls – as in these photos taken in San Vigilio, Bergamo. This daisy blooms throughout a good part of the year and provides a welcome splash of color with the white of new flowers and the purple of older flowers.

Asplenium ceterach – Rustyback Fern

Left: Asplenium cetarach botanical drawing (www.biolib.de).
Center and right: Photos of Asplenium cetarach on a wall in Bergamo.

The upside of the coronavirus lockdown (November 2020 edition) is that we've spent more time walking and exploring parts of Bergamo we usually don't. Case in point, we found ourselves on the Scaletta Scorlazzino, a beautiful and long stair climb up the southern slopes below Via Sudorno. On these sun-exposed walls we ran into Asplenium ceterach, commonly known as the Rustyback fern, another good candidate for a "wall plants of Bergamo" post.

Unlike many other ferns, A. ceterach likes sun and requires little humidity. The Rustyback fern is also known "as a resurrection plant due to its ability to withstand desiccation and subsequently recover on rewetting."[ref] That's an apt metaphor for the on and off again lockdowns and looking forward to getting through this pandemic intact.

The family Aspleniaceae (recall the taxonomy: kingdom, clade, class, order, suborder, family, genus, species) is a family of ferns called spleenworts for their approximate resemblance to spleens. In two previous posts we talked about two other wall-loving ferns in this family: Asplenium ruta-muraria and Asplenium tichomanes, that both look similar to A. ceterach.

Rustyback is found in Western and Central Europe, including the Mediterranean region. It is commonly found growing in fissures in limestone and dolomite rock and on the mortar of stone and brick walls, as in these photos. The English common name Rustyback – according to Wikipedia – is due to the orange-brown hairs (trichomes) on the backside of the fronds.

In Italian, this fern is called la cedracca. According to Treccani, this Italian word derives ultimately from the Persian word shītarak.

Left: A photo of Asplenium cetarach on a sunny wall of the Scaletta Scorlazzino in Bergamo.

Right: The underside of the an A. cetarach frond.

Asplenium ruta-muraria – Wall Rue

Left: Botanical illustration of Asplenium ruta-muraria.
Center and right: Asplenium ruta-muraria on a wall in La Rocca, Bergamo.

Today we spent an hour visiting La Rocca – a fortress that is part of Bergamo’s Città Alta. La Rocca fortress is made up of a memorial park and the Casa dei Bombardieri or Bombardier’s School. The park is free to enter and explore, offering 360-degree views and a great view on to Città Alta as La Rocca is at the east edge of the upper city. The school is the main building in La Rocca and contains one of the museums in the family of Bergamo museums called Museo delle Storie di Bergamo, and even better 360-degree views.

The museum inside La Rocca, also called Museo dell’Ottocento, deals with the Risorgimento (Italian Unification) and while it is a difficult museum to get through it is one of the most rewarding for those that persist. Part of the difficulty is the subject matter. The Risorgimento had many players and events that are hard to keep track of. Also, this museum is currently all signed in Italian, and the exhibits are on complex subjects such as the silk economy, an overview of the Fiera (a very important fair that once existed in the lower city), and demographic and economic facts and figures.

Included in the museum entrance fee is access to access to the top of the Casa dei Bombardieri. On the stairs up to the top of the roof, we noticed this fern that looked similar but not exactly the same as the Maidenhair Spleenwort we talked about in the post Asplenium trichomanes – Another Bergamo Wall Plant.


The plant we noticed is in the same genus and is called Asplenium ruta-muraria, commonly known wall rue. First, based on our obsessive analysis of walls in Bergamo, A. ruta-muraria seems to be much less common than A. trichomanes. Second, A. ruta-muraria has green rachises (midribs), not black like A. trichomanes. And, A. ruta-muraria has pinnules that look like small ginkgo leaves or as suggested by the common name, like the leaves of Ruta graveolens, commonly called rue.


Wall rue is a lithophyte, that is, it grows in or on rocks, and grows exclusively on limestone and other calcareous rocks. In Europe and cities like Bergamo, it can be found on masonry works. Wall rue is called ruta di muro in Italian and according to Flora Italiana (one of our go-to sites), it is present all over Italy. Wall rue is present in the Eastern United States as well but is found more in well-weathered limestone outcrops and rarely invading masonry works according to Flora of North America.

Left: The sori (spore structures) of Asplenium ruta-muraria.

Center and right: More examples of A. ruta-muraria on walls in Bergamo.

Asplenium trichomanes – Another Bergamo Wall Plant

Left: Asplenium trichomanes botanical drawing (www.biolib.de).
Center: Asplenium trichomanes in a wall on Via Tassis in the Upper City of Bergamo.
Right: The spore containing structures (sori) of Aspleninum trichomanes.

We admit it: we are thinking about walls a lot these days. We live in a walled city whose fame rests on having 6.2 km of massive walls surrounding its upper city, Città Alta. Those walls were built by the Venetians in the 16th century. Almost daily, we are walking on and through Bergamo's Venetian walls.

Once inside the upper city, there are a maze of streets that lead you to the Piazza Vecchia, and all of them involve navigating between walls of various types. And lucky for us, interesting plants grow on walls so we are never bored. In the past, we posted about such plants: The Flower that Grows on Walls - Cymbalaria muralis, Pennywort and Pellitory of the Wall (Parietaria judaica). We are back this time with another wort plant, this time Maidenhair spleenwort.

Wort is an ancient English term that simply means "plant". When put together with the name of a part of the body – spleen in this case – it generally meant that the plant was thought to cure problems with that body part. In the case of Maidenhair spleenwort, the sori on the back of the fronds are spleen shaped. 

The wort naming of plants is part of the doctrine of signatures, today considered pseudoscience. Other plant examples with wort in their common name include lungwort, woundwort, toothwort, and liverwort.

Maidenhair spleenwort, Asplenium trichomanes, is a small fern in the the genus Asplenium. On first glance, it looks like what is commonly called a maidenhair fern (genus Adiantum) but that’s in the family Pteridaceae. The spleenwort is however in the same genus as the bird's-nest ferns (A. nidus) commonly sold as house plants. For Maidenhair spleenwort, you must content yourself with finding some walls to enjoy them, and all the better if they are walls in an Italian city like Bergamo.




Left: Maidenhair spleenwort in the botanical garden of Bergamo.
Center and right: Maidenhair spleenwort on Via Noca, Bergamo.

Examples of Asplenium trichomanes - Maidenhair spleenwort.