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.
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| Sorghastrum nutans, Indiangrass, yellow prairie grass |
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.
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| black-eyed Susans, Rudbeckia hirta, in a garden |
Balloon-flower is a pretty ornamental from Asia.
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| balloon-flower, Platycodon grandiflorus |
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)
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| Amazing hillside of wildflowers, Laura W. Bush Native Texas Park |
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.
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| Gunnison's mariposa lily, Calochortus gunnisonii |
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.
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| orchid (Epidendrum) growing outside in Quito |
I know a lot about plants. Websites and blogs, not so much. So today, after 13 years of blogging, I figured out and added the Follower's gadget.
Who knows what other discoveries are out there...
Photos of bouquets for fun:
The plant is called red valerian or Jupiter's beard. Here's a picture
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| red valerian, Jupiter's beard, Valeriana rubra formerly Centranthus ruber |
For me, who writes about plants and checks her accuracy in books and on websides, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (website) has long been a resource I rely on, both the website (Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower data base) and books they have published. So to visit the actual center was a treat!
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| flower bed of evening primroses (Oenothera) |
Common names are locally-used names. Nobody standardizes them. So it is easy for people to use the same common name for different plants.
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| marigolds, genus Tagetes |
Poppies are cheerful flowers of middle and late spring.
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| common poppies, Papaver rhoeas |
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| rhododendrons in the Chinese garden |
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| hounds tongue, gypsyweed, Cynoglossum officinale |
In mid-Apriil, we drove south and west from Austin to find wildflowers in bloom.
And there they were, all along the roadside
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| Texas roadside wildflowers |
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| slimflower scurfpea, Pediomelum tenuiflorum |
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| slimflower scurfpea, Pediomelum tenuiflorum |
I just returned from a tour of part of Texas with the American Horticultural Society. We went to public and private gardens, museums, and parks where wildflowers were blooming. I wore myself out dashing between wonderful plants.
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| hill country rain lilies, Cooperia pediculata |
Velvetweed is a very widespread plant, found all across the United States except the Northeast. It stands up to 9' tall and yet has a very low profile.
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| velvetweed, Oenothera curtiflora |
When you plant a native plant, you might find it spreads aggressively around the yard, crowding out other plants in the garden. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if you are growing natives, you need to be aware that some are pretty wild.
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| black-eyed susan, Rudbeckia hirta along a path; not where I planted the first one |
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 |
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| Fuchsia magellanica flowers |
This blog began in February 2013. So it is turning 13.
Amazing! And I find no shortage of material to write about yet.
The familiar, elegant carnation is a plant with a long and interesting history, mostly forgotten, despite its importance as a decorative flower today.
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| carnations, Dianthus caryophyllus |
Carnation is the current common name of plants with the scientific name Dianthus caryophyllus, in the carnation family, Caryophyllaceae. It and virtually all its close relatives are native to Eurasia. A pretty flower usually pink, wild carnations grew all across southern Europe. Long ago they were transferred to gardens and domesticated, moving them all across Eurasia. For example, ancient Rome used flowers lavishly, in celebrations large and small and they grew carnations for cut flowers in great numbers.
The view from airplanes is a gift we too often take for granted. C.J. Cherryh wrote, in Visible Light (1986), that when the plane takes off, she thinks of the countless generations of people from before the invention of airplanes who would have so loved to fly. I have remembered that vision for decades. We grow jaded, and we shouldn't.
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| the world below |
Cheatgrass, also known as downy brome and downy chess, Bromus tectorum (grass family Poaceae) is a very small grass that has become a major weed. Generally we think of problems increasing as plants get bigger. Individual plants of cheatgrass are almost too small to notice. It makes up for that in numbers.
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| patch of cheatgrass along a trail (red) |
Hummingbirds are a strictly New World group of birds, some 375 species (family Trochilidae) found from Alaska to southern Chile and Argentina. They are the main group of birds that pollinate in the New World. Fast and often brightly colored, people love to watch them. They typically hover while probing flowers for nectar, a fascinating sight.
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| hummingbird pollinating Monarda |