I failed for decades to keep the European gas plant, Dictamnus albus alive in our heat and humidity. Despite these mounting failures, I keep trying new genetics as they become available. Finally, this month, we have met with our first success with our first gas plant flowering. Although gas plant looks superficially nothing like its relatives, this oddity is a member of the Citrus family, Rutaceae.
In the wild, it hails from Southern Europe, into Northern Africa, and all the way to Southwestern Siberia, where it grows in open shade to morning sun. In addition to its exquisite beauty, it produces a large number of oils, and is quite flammable, when confronted with a nearby lit match. The lovely pinnate foliage smells of lemon when crushed, unless your are one of these unfortunate individuals whose skin is allergic to the leaves. Hardiness is Zone 3a-7a.
Congrats!
How old is the plant in the picture? How did you protect it from slugs and snails?
Our Dictamnus albus is about to blossom for the first time in 4 years but it is still considerably smaller than yours. And it only survived this year because I was checking twice a day for slugs. 🙂
> unless your are one of these unfortunate individuals whose skin is allergic to the leaves
My understanding is that you don’t need to be allergic: exposure of your skin to sunlight after sufficient contact with the plant is enough to trigger the reaction; see the Wikipedia article on “Phytophotodermatitis”.
Once we switched (39 years ago) to organic nutrients and building microbes in the soil by extensive use of compost, our slug problem disappeared. Will investigate the phytodermatisis since I found that much of the information on the Internet has little basis in real world reality, unless I can trust the source.