Plant Story--Red Yucca, Hesperaloe parviflora, a Very Handsome Plant

I saw red yucca in bud or flower all over the Dallas Fort Worth area of Texas in April. A handsome plant, it was easy to learn to recognize it.

red yucca, Hesperaloe parviflora

Plant Story--Sorghastrum nutans, Indiangrass, Yellow Indian Grass

Sorghastrum nutans was one of the three most common grasses of the tallgrass prairie. Its range spanned the U.S. from the Atlantic to the Rocky Mountains. It has been recorded in almost every county across that range. And because prairies and meadows were plowed, most people don't know it.   

Sorghastrum nutans, Indiangrass, yellow prairie grass

Growing Native Wildflowers on the Colorado Front Range

When people grow native plants, the plants are domesticated or becoming domesticated, whether we intend it or not. The conditions in yards and gardens are pretty different from growing in the wild, even in the same location. This post is about that contrast.

black-eyed Susans, Rudbeckia hirta, in a garden

Plant Story--Balloon-Flower, Platycodon grandiflorus, Ornamental, Food, and Medicine

  Balloon-flower is a pretty ornamental from Asia. 

balloon-flower, Platycodon grandiflorus

Balloon-flower is sufficiently unique that there is only one plant in the genus Platycodon, the balloon-flower, Platycodon grandiflorus. It is in the bellflower family, Campanulaceae.

Travel Story--Laura W. Bush Native Texas Park, Dallas, Texas

Visiting Dallas, Texas, we stopped into the George W. Bush Presidential Center, to find a gem of a garden I had never heard of, the Laura W. Bush Native Texas Park ( link)

Amazing hillside of wildflowers, Laura W. Bush Native Texas Park

Plant Story--Beautiful Gunnison's Mariposa Lily, Calochortus gunnisonii

One of the first things that confused me about the mariposa lily was how to tell it from a sego lily. Different people pointed out the flowers to me and told me the name. It turns out they are both the name of this flower. The scientific name is Calochortus (lily family, Liliaceae) but it is called both mariposa lily and sego lily. 

Gunnison's mariposa lily, Calochortus gunnisonii

Travel Story--the Botanical Garden in Quito, Ecuador

Quito, the capital of Ecuador, is at 9,350' in elevation (the various neighborhoods a little higher and a little lower) and the town center is about 15 miles south of the Equator (latitude 0ᆼ,0', 0"). I live at about 5,000' elevation in Colorado. Where I live, winter lasts from October to May. In Quito, there is no winter. Despite the elevation, Quito does not have frosts and consequently, the Botanical Garden had amazing tropical plants. It boggled this temperate zone botanist's mind.

orchid (Epidendrum) growing outside in Quito