Whilst recently researching the wildflower families, I fell down a fruit-shaped rabbit hole.  And it is because of the amount of variety shown in the fruit of the Rosaceae, or rose family.

Japanese rose Rosa rugosa

For more on what makes a plant a member of the Rosaceae, check out my recent blog Wildflower families: Rosaceae.

Where to start?  There’s a lot of variety, and taking a look at my Fruit variety and terminology blog might help.

Rosaceae Fruit: Aggregate Fruit

Rosaceae fruit are one to two seeded, and often form together into aggregates, or aggregate fruit.  Think of a blackberry or a raspberry.  Each of those little lumps (or drupelets) houses a seed.  They clump together to form what we see as one fruit, although it is an aggregate of many.  Think how many seeds you find when eating one blackberry!

Jersey Post copyright 2027 Jersey bramble Rubus caesarius

If you have time to spare, have a look at my step by step blog on painting a blackberry.

Rosaceae Fruits: Drupes

Some other Rosaceae grow drupes.  A drupe is a fleshy fruit which has a thin skin and grows around a central hard stone.  Inside the stone (or pip, or kernel) is the seed.

Plum Prunus prunus fruit

Plums and cherries are drupes.  In the states, the term “stone fruit” is used.  This refers to any soft fruit with a woody stone, such as apricots and peaches.

Peach Prunus persica with stone (and seed) removed

Rosaceae fruits: Aggregates of Achenes

Some have aggregates of single-seeded achenes.  Some of these have spines which catch onto fur for seed dispersal.  These are actually called awns, and are formed from the persistent remains of the style.

Piri Piri bur Acaena novae-zelandiae seedhead and individual achene with awns

Other examples include Herb bennet, Geum, and Mountain avens.

Water avens Geum rivale showing flower and seed head with awned achenes

Others, like Meadowsweet, twist their achenes together into a spiral.

Potentilla seed heads look a lot like those of the Ranunculaceae family, an assembly of achenes borne in a globe-like arrangement.

Rosaceae Fruit: The Pseudo-fruit (Rosehip)

Rosehips are not made from the carpels of a flower.  The seeds within are formed from carpels, with their thin coats.  But the red or orange fleshy part of a rosehip is called a hypanthium.  It is just a fleshy shell, housing the real fruit, the achenes (formed from carpels), each bearing one seed.  The hypanthium is formed from swollen receptacle flesh.

Japanese Rose Rosa rugosa rosehip cross section

The receptacle is the part of the plant where the flowering parts are attached, not the female flower parts themselves.  Receptacles lie below the flowering structure, and explains why we see that distinctive brown bit at the “bottom” of a rosehip.  They are the remnants of the calyx and other flowering structures, and if you look closely you can sometimes see old stamens.  Which makes that the “top” of the pseudo fruit, I suppose.

Rosehip anatomy diagram

Rosaceae Fruit: The Pome

One of the most commercially important Rosaceae, the apple, carries its’ seeds in a Pome.  A pome is a swelling of the receptacle, not the carpel.  It is built of several hypanthium (enlarged receptacle) which have grown together.

At the centre of this we find the pericarp which contains five to thirteen seeds (it’s commonly known as the apple core), depending on how successful pollination was.

Diagram showing the structure of the Pome (apple)

So next time you eat an apple or a pear, remember that the distinctive brown bit at the “bottom” is the residual flowering parts, specifically the calyx.

Pear sprig with blossom and fruit Pyrus communis

For more on pomes, check out this blog from Where the spruce eats.  To be sure you can tell your pome from your drupe, take a look at this blog from Toronto botanical garden.

Rosaceae Fruit: The Strawberry

The strawberry bears its’ seeds on the outside, and in fact every yellow seed is a strawberry fruit.  The fleshy part (which we eat so cheerily) is made from swollen receptacle tissue, rather like the apple (a pome).

Wild strawberry Fragaria vesca with external fruits and seeds on a swollen receptacle

However, the big difference is that the seeds of the strawberry are on the outside not the inside, and it is the only fruit which does this.  It is therefore not only delicious but also remarkable.

Conclusion

This blog is far from exhaustive, and I have no doubt I could find enough to write an entire blog about the core of an apple.  I hope this serves as an introduction to the variety and fascinating structures of the fruit of the  Rosaceae.

Sketchbook study of the Dog rose Rosa canina

The post Rosaceae Fruit appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

This series talks about some common wildflower families.  For basic terminology, look at my  the basics of botany blog, and another on different fruit types.  For more on scientific names, how they work, and why they matter,  look at What’s in a name 1 and part 2.  Take a look at  the other families I’ve looked at so far, the  Ranunulaceae (Buttercups), Caryophyllaceae (Campions), and Brassicaceae (Cabbages)  I hope to add more families over the coming months.

Rock cinquefoil Potentilla rupestris

I know a little about wildflowers,  but I am an amateur, and not a trained botanist.  So although I’ll try and get stuff right, if you see a mistake, please let me know.

Wildflower families: Rosaceae

The Rose family has 107 genera and over 3100 species globally.  Flowers have five or ten petals, and often have an epicalyx (see below).   Leaves have stipules, and tend to be alternate.  There’s a vast array of fruits in this family, from plums and apples to strawberries, Mountain avens with its dry achenes in one head, to Lady’s mantle with a lone seed in a receptacle.  As well as Roses, other Rosaceae garden flowers include Cotoneasters, Pyrocanthus, and Geums.  Our most common fruit crops are Rosaceae, and lots of highly varied wild flowers are in this family, including Cinquefoil, Meadowsweet, and Agrimony.

Entire leaved Cotoneaster Cotoneaster‌ integrifolius and other Cotoneaster species

(For more on telling Cotoneaster species apart, not a fun occupation, please check out my blog).

Rosaceae overview

Plants in this family have alternate leaves with stipules at their base.  A stipule is like a tiny leaf that grows in pairs at the base of a leaf stalk, next to the stem. Flowers have five or ten petals, lots of stamens, and can be solitary or in racemes. The name Rosaceae comes from the Latin for rose, Rosa.  There’s a suggestion that the name is far more ancient than that, possibly dated back to ancient Persia where ornamental roses were first grown.

Copyright Jersey Post: Roses Nostalgia Rosa Nostalgia

Some members of this family reproduce asexually, without seeds.  Strawberries do this with runners, while Raspberries, Blackberries, and some roses put up suckers at some distance from the parent plant.

Barren strawberry Potentilla sterilis showing a runner

Rosaceae Leaves

Rosaceae leaves are often lobed, with toothed or deeply notched margins.  (For more on leaf margins, look at my blog).  Some may be very deeply lobed, like Tormentil.

Tormentil Potentilla erecta

Some Rosaceae have compound leaves made of an array of smaller leaflets rather than simple ones  (For more on simple versus compound leaves check out my blog).  You can tell if a Rosaceae leaf is compound or simple by looking for a stipule.  You’ll only stipules at the base of a leaf, so if you look at a Rosaceae “leaf” and see no stipules, it could well be a leaflet.  Examine a rose leaf (compound, of many leaflets) or a Blackberry (likewise) and use the stipule position to decide where the stalk of the entire leaf (not that of a leaflet) attaches to the plant.  The shape of leaves, if not the size, is pretty consistent across the whole plant.

Agrimony Agrimonia eupatoria clearly showing basal stipules

Stipules can be tiny to really large, smooth to toothed.  Often the stipules can prove confusing as they resemble part of the main leaf.

Rosaceae Flowers

Rosaceae flowers are regular, with radial symmetry.  They have five petals, which tend to overlap, and five to ten sepals which also overlap but mostly do not fuse.

Blossom of Pear Pyrus communis

Some Rosaceae have an epicalyx, a whorl of bracts just below the calyx.  You can see this in the Cinquefoils and the Strawberry.  If you look closely at the green “top” of a strawberry, you can see the sepals, the epicalyx in a circle below them, and you may also see some residual stamens, clinging to the inner edges of the calyx array.  There’s a good blog on this, by The botanist in the kitchen.

Wild strawberry Fragaria vesca showing calyx and epicaylx

Flowers grow in compound clusters at the ends of the stem, known as cymes or racemes.  However, they can also be solitary.

They are bisexual with lots of stamens surrounding one or many free carpels.  The stamens, should you care to examine them, grow in whorls of 5 or more, but this can be really hard to see.  They bend inwards towards the flower.

Individual Hawthorn blossom Craetegus monogyna showing incurved stamens

Carpels (the female reproductive organ of a flower, consisting of a style, an ovary, and a stigma) tend to be superior, growing above the flowering structure.  In some species, they are Perigynous, meaning the flowering parts grow around the edge of the receptacle where the pistil (the tube down to the seed, through which pollen has to travel to fertilize the ovule and form a seed) is housed.  Cherries and roses are perigynous. For more on ovary positions look at my blog on the ovary.

Cherry Prunus avium

Rosaceae Fruit: Aggregates, Drupes and Achenes

There is an extraordinary amount of variety in the fruits of the Rosaceae, and I’ve ended up putting my research here into a separate blog which I’ll publish in a week or two.  Below is a summary.

Rosacea produce one to two seeded fruit, but that’s where the similarities end.

Consider the variation.  Like the Ranunculaceae, some species have assemblies of achenes. Some achenes have spikes to help dispersal, such as the Geum and Avens species.  Or have achenes twisted together so they look like a “mister whippy” ice-cream, a beautiful effect shown by Measdowsweet.

Assembled carpels of the Mountain avens Dryas octopetala

Some familiar soft fruit, like the blackberry and raspberry, are made of lots of individual fruits.  Each a little “blob” is called a drupelet, and contains one or two seeds.  These are known as aggregate fruit.  From the position of the calyx, you can tell these have developed from superior ovaries.

Copyright Jersey post 2017 Blackberry Rubus fruticosa

Drupes are formed when ovary tissue swells to become fleshy, enclosed in a thin skin.  At the centre of this you have a hard stone, a woody coat for the seed within.  Peaches, plums, cherries and apricots are drupes.

Plum Prunus prunus

Apples and pears are pomes.  A pome is formed from the receptacle, the area below the flowering structure.  This swells and within it you find the apple core with five to ten pips.

Somerset redstreak apple Malus domestica

Strawberries attach their fruit to the outside of a swollen receptacle.  The fleshy red bit isn’t a fruit at all.  The fruit is each of the tiny yellow seeds embedded in the red flesh.

Strawberries Fragaria × ananassa

Rosaceae: Other species

As well as the fruit discussed, Rosaceae contains the Lady’s mantle, Silverweed, Cinquefoil, Piri-piri bur, Rowan, Sorbus species, Cotoneasters, and (of course) roses.

Piri Piri bur Acaena novae-zelandiae

Conclusion

I hope this blog on the Rosaceae wildflower family was of some interest.  What a varied family!  I hope to do more of these blogs over the coming weeks and months.  References include my FSC botany course, the Common Families of Flowering Plants by Michael Hickey & Clive King, and information from Naturespot.

Rowan Sorbus aucuparia sprig with berries and blossom

The post Wildflower families: Rosaceae, the Rose family appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

All illustrations in this blog are copyright Jersey Post (www.jerseystamps.com) 2017 and must not be reproduced without the express permission of Jersey Post.

For other step by step botanical illustration blogs, click here.

First draw your blackberry

First, make sure your drawing of the blackberry is botanically correct, and you’re clear as to the size and shape of each of the druplets.  A druplet is one individual part of an aggregate fruit such as a blackberry or raspberry.  (For more on fruit definitions, check out my blog.)

Pencil rough of the Jersey bramble Rubus caesarius.  Copyright Jersey Post (www.jerseystamps.com) 2017

I draw up my subjects with a mechanical pencil.  I like the Pentel P205 with an H or HB lead.  In this case I’ve painted on Fabriano Artistico.

Adding the leaves, stems, and background

First, I needed to put in a pale blue background wash.  I used Cereulean blue Winsor and Newton watercolour diluted with water, then allow this to dry fully.

Blackberry with background painted in                       copyright Jersey Post (www.jerseystamps.com) 2017

I like to paint leaves and stems first, and to save the fun part of an illustration til the end, in this case it means painting the berry comes last.

Blackberry with buds and leaves completed.              copyright Jersey Post (www.jerseystamps.com) 2017

Painting the Berries

The first step is to mix a good dark purple, and using a very fine tipped brush (this is my trusty Winsor and Newton Series 7 (number 1) paintbrush, outline the edge of each drupelet.  This colour is a mix of purple, Alizarin crimson, and Winsor blue.  I tend to favour Winsor and Newton watercolours, from pans.

Outlining each drupelet of the blackberry                   copyright Jersey Post (www.jerseystamps.com) 2017

Next, have a look to see where the light falls on the fruit, and plot in the shape of that highlight on each individual drupelet.  Be sure to leave the highlighted areas free of paint; your whites (and highlights) are the untouched paper.  Look for the distinct shapes of these bright areas, outline them with your paintbrush.

Drawing the shapes of the highlights on each drupelet   copyright Jersey Post (www.jerseystamps.com) 2017

Colour in the areas which are NOT your highlights with the same purple black as before.  Remember to leave a thin crescent of white paper around the edge of each drupelet, this makes each part look ripe and round.

The dark areas of each drupelet are coloured in with a rich purple-black                         copyright Jersey Post (www.jerseystamps.com) 2017

Adding colours to the berries

Mix up a pale Cobalt blue, perhaps with a touch of black or purple in. Making sure you don’t consume the areas of white, paint a margin of this next to each area of dark paint.  This makes the gradation between dark shadow and bright highlight look more realistic.

Put a margin of pale Cobalt blue around each highlight    copyright Jersey Post (www.jerseystamps.com) 2017

Do this for each drupelet, and remember that on the shadowed side of the berry there’ll be less white gleaming in the light, so make the margin colour a touch darker.

Each drupelet now has a blue sheen                         copyright Jersey Post (www.jerseystamps.com) 2017

Mix up a wet magenta; I used Cobalt violet and Opera rose.  Using it in different levels of dilution, pop a thin margin of this pink on the right hand side of the central shine of each drupelet in the berry.

Add magenta, very wet, to the fruit                           copyright Jersey Post (www.jerseystamps.com) 2017

This adds the warm red to the blackberry without compromising the shiny black of the fruit.

All the drupelets have had pink added                       copyright Jersey Post (www.jerseystamps.com) 2017

Before putting final tweaks to the berry, I want to paint in the red and green unripe blackberries which are also on the sprig.

Blackberry with red and green berries unpainted         copyright Jersey Post (www.jerseystamps.com) 2017

Adding highlights

Using a thick-ish mix of Permanent white gouache (I like Winsor and Newton gouache), apply a hairline of this to the outside perimeter of each drupelet, pressing a little harder when passing next to the highlighted parts.

Adding white gouache highlights to a drupelet            copyright Jersey Post (www.jerseystamps.com) 2017

Breathe a sigh of relief, you’ve painted a shiny blackberry.  Now you can eat your reference!

This is the final artwork of the Jersey bramble for the Jersey Post “Fruits and Berries” series of stamps; and one of my favourites in the set.              copyright Jersey Post (www.jerseystamps.com) 2017

I hope this breakdown of the process involved in getting blackberries painted is helpful, they truly are a lovely botanical illustration subject to tackle.

For more on creating the “Fruits & Berries” issue for Jersey post, have a look at my blog.

The post Step by step: Blackberry appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

The fruits and berries that needed illustrating were the Dewberry Rubus caesius, the Elderberry Sambucus nigra, the Wild strawberry Fragaria vesca, the Jersey bramble Rubus caesarius, Sloes Prunus spinosa, and Black bryony Dioscorea communis.

All the botanical illustrations in this blog are copyright Jersey Post (www.Jerseystamps.com) 2017, and must not be reproduced without their express permission.

Sloes artwork for one of the stamps                                copyright Jersey Post (www.Jerseystamps.com) 2017

This commission gave me the chance to wander the countryside around Hay-on-Wye, gathering specimens to paint; luckily the job came in during the autumn months!

Desk whilst illustrating the Dewberry stamp artwork

I also illustrated a First Day cover (an illustration for the corner of the First Day Cover envelope); this was a sprig of Hawthorn berries Crataegus monogyna.

Hawthorn berries; botanical illustration for the First Day Cover of Jersey Post’s stamp issue-copyright Jersey Post (www.Jerseystamps.com) 2017

Here’s a detail of some of the wonderfully prolific and vibrant red berries this sprig of Hawthorn carried.

Detail of Hawthorn berries                                              copyright Jersey Post (www.Jerseystamps.com) 2017

Illustrating Black Bryony

One of the plants I painted was the Black bryony.  You often see the startling orange berries of this plant in hedgerows.  It was important to show the variation in berry colour; green through yellow to an orange red.  I also had a lot of fun with the tendrils that this plant grows.  I love using these to help when composing an illustration.

As always, painting the leaves began with a layer of tiny paint marks, building up and marking the areas of dark.

Painting the first layer of green on a Black bryony leaf copyright Jersey Post (www.Jerseystamps.com) 2017

Next, I put a yellower and more dilute mix of green over the entire leaf.  I use Winsor and Newton paints, and a Winsor and Newton series 7 paintbrush.

Brighter green wet wash applied to the leaf.  Copyright Jersey Post (www.Jerseystamps.com) 2017

The angled stems and tendrils get plotted in next.  As always I leave the fun berries to the end.

Painting in stems and tendrils of Black bryony                   copyright Jersey Post (www.Jerseystamps.com) 2017

The berries needed to look bright and smooth, so I spent a long time building up the colour with endless tiny brush strokes in orange and red, following the shape of the fruit.

Final illustration of Black bryony                                      copyright Jersey Post (www.Jerseystamps.com) 2017

Illustrating the Elderberry

Another lovely plant was the Elderberry. I love the crimson of the stems of this plant, especially in contrast to the shiny black berries.  Getting the shine right on each berry was a challenge.

Paining each Elderberry                                                  copyright Jersey Post (www.Jerseystamps.com) 2017

It was a tricky plant to arrange in the format of a postage stamp, and required the positioning of the leaflets behind the berries, always a difficult task.

Elderberry artwork                                                         copyright Jersey Post (www.Jerseystamps.com) 2017

Presenting the illustrations in context

Another part of the commission is to illustrate the Presentation pack, the shiny decorated sleeve in which newly issued postage stamps can be delivered.  This features Rowan berries Sorbus aucuparia, Sloe Prunus spinosa, Bramble Rubus fruticosus, and Goji berries Lycium barbarum; all of which grow wild in Jersey.

Presentation pack with Rowan, Goji, Sloe and Bramble      copyright Jersey Post (www.Jerseystamps.com) 2017

One of the things I like to do mid way through a job such as this, is create a mock up of the stamps to ensure they look alright as a series, and to be certain the text and images work well together.  Here is the rough of the stamp layout, an aid to the commissioners when they look at these detailed roughs and decide what feedback is required.

Layout of stamps at Colour rough stage                           Copyright Jersey Post (www.Jerseystamps.com) 2017

The published stamps, first day cover, and presentation pack arrived in the post just this week.  To say I am delighted with how they look once the designers have produced the issue is an understatemant, they’ve done a fabulous job with my paintings!

This job was a joy, I really love working with Jersey Post, they give interesting subjects, long lead times, and treat their artists really well – what more could an illustrator ask for?

The post Botanical Illustrations of Fruit for Jersey Post appeared first on Lizzie Harper.

The illustrations come from various commissions including the Wildlife Trusts, the Bumper Book of Nature by Stephen Moss, and the Hedgerow Handbook by Adele Nozedar.

Hop plant.  Before they go yellow and are used for beer, they’re a bright shade of green.  They grow wild sometimes in the hedges round here (Powys).

Autumn crocus are quite rare, but worth looking out for.  If you do spot them there’s no question that they could be anything else; they’re quite large and look very much like the croci we see at springtime.

By now the lovely brown seedheads of the Greater reed mace are splitting open and shedding their fluffy seeds everywhere.  The seeds against the brown which hasn’t split yet is really beautiful to look at.

Pretend the apple blossom isn’t there, and look out for apples which are ripening.  This one’s a Somerset redstreak, and very strangely was comissioned by Hereford Cider Museum to decorate a presentation box for the Queen on her Golden Jubilee.  The box contained apple brandy, just for the record.

Some knapweed are still in flower, and are a favourite with bees and bumblebees.  As an aside, if you want to read an excellent book about British Bumblebees, you couldn’t do better than David Goulson’s “A Sting in the Tale”.

Unlike bell heather and a few others, this one is common everywhere on moorland. It often turns hillsides purple into September.

Meadowsweet is past its best, but in the damper and cooler shadows of hedges and walls you may be able to find some still in flower.  It smells delicious.

The berries on the rowan, or mountain ash, should be almost ripe now.  I’ve seen lots of these lovely trees grown in gardens as well as in improbable places on hillsides.

Autumn,  The fruit trees are doing well this year, so keep an eye out for damsons in your own gardens or from trees that remain unharvested.  You dont need to make them into jam, they’re delicious eaten straight from the tree like plums.

Of course, if you’re really unable to find any flowers or fruit, keep your eyes peeled for amazing autumn leaves.  This one’s from a maple tree I found in Sir Harold Hillier’s Gardens in Hampshire.

Happy Autumn, everyone!

The post Autumn fruit and flowers appeared first on Lizzie Harper.