Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris, mint family, Lamiaceae) is a low creeping mint with pretty purple flowers. It spreads, so it can become an annoying weed if you want a lawn that is all grass. The flowers feed bees and butterflies, so it helps support the insect community, if you don't mind nongrasses in your lawn.
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| self-heal, Prunella vulgaris (from above) |
The Naples Botanical Garden is a wonderful place. On 170 acres, it, as their website says, "conserves the plants and habitats of the tropics, cultivates beauty, offers knowledge, and inspires the protection of nature."
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| Naples Botanical Garden, Naples, Florida |
Dragonfruits show up occasionally in U.S. grocery stores, big funny-looking tropical fruits. They are staples of fruit markets in the tropics. They turn out to be the fruits of a big cactus.
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| dragonfruits, Serenicereus undatus, pitayas |
More than a few plants share a common name. Sometimes the plants are similar, sometimes very different. Following a previous disambiguation blog (link) I'll bring some more of those to your attention so you remember to be careful to check which plant is being called by that name. In this post: goat's beard, Indian paintbrush, coneflower, and yucca.
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| Indian paintbrush, Castilleja species |
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| Queen of the night, Epiphyllum oxypetalum, bat-pollinated cactus of the American tropics, now grown all over the world. Fitbit mini for scale. Flowers can be 12" long and 12" across |
Blue eryngo, Eryngium planum, is the most common garden plant in the genus Erygnium. The eryngiums are a group of some 250 species native from southern Europe to Mexico and South America. They are also called sea holly.
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| Eryngium planum, blue eryngo, sea holly |
Diving into the history of plants frequently shows me crafts and professions that I knew little about and that are now largely forgotten. Some have gone from household tasks to highly industrialized and so are out of everyday sight, for example, cloth production. Others, like carriage repair, have been replaced as the technology moved on and exist only for hobbyists.
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| early modern loom, National Wool Museum, Wales |