It’s hard to imagine a plant more obscure that the Southeast coastal native Houstonia procumbens. You may recognize the name houstonia as belonging to one of the many more common bluets. Instead, this is a creeping white-et. We’ve had this in our alpine rock garden for a couple of decades, but barely notice it until
In celebration of the obscure Read More »
One of our prize plants in the garden is the Tarahumara Oak, Quercus tarahumara. This truly odd oak is native to Northern Mexico, where it resides in the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountain range in the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Sonora, Durango, and Sinaloa. In cultivation, Quercus tarahumara is extremely rare and of high conservation value. It seems that
Most gardeners are familiar with arums, but few know Engler’s arum…aka: Englerarum hypnosum, a genus first recognized in 2013. This horticultural oddity was kicked out of several better known aroid genera (Colocasia and Alocasia) due to its odd genetics (anastomosing laticifers and colocasioid venation). The lone species of Englerarum can be found in forests from
In the plant world, plants that have no chance of selling, except to a tiny few crazed plant collectors, are called BIO plants, which stands for “of botanical interest only”. Coptis japonica var. dissecta fits the bill on all accounts. This fascinating Asian woodland perennial maintains a small evergreen rosette, topped in spring with tiny
The ultimate BIO plant Read More »
