New flower: Nemophila menziesii!
A cousin of the Fivespots I’ve grown before, and also a California native annual.
#flowers #plants #usnatives #botany #gardening

Another new ornamental edible in the greenhouse: Talinum paniculatum.
Commonly referred to as Fameflower or Jewels of Opar (apparently a title taken from a Tarzan novel), this American native is found from the southeast US through the Caribbean and into northern South America. When just in vegetative stage it’s moderately attractive, with thick red stems and bright green to yellowish succulent leaves, but it’s when it starts flowering that it puts on a show. Short stalks slowly grow taller and more complex, throwing out peduncles in all directions that begin popping open with tiny but hot pink flowers that quickly develop into brilliant jewel-like orange-red berries. Once the whole scape is finished it looks like a floating cloud of sparkling gems above the soft leaf carpet below them, and they are quite popular as a soft texture addition to cut flower arrangements.
As said before it’s not just pretty, but also edible; the leaves are kind of like spinach with just a little bit of other flavor in them (I tried one, can’t quite explain it) and so quite good for a rich salad.

#talinumpaniculatum #fameflower #edibleplants #ornamentalplants #flowers #plants #usnatives #plantsathome #indoorplants #botany #educational #horticulture #botanical #bloomscrolling #gardening #carltoncarnivores

A strange little plant that looks nothing now like it will when mature, but is displaying its evolutionary history: Sabal minor, the dwarf palmetto! I currently have 3 seedlings though will likely only keep one once they start getting adult leaves.
This small fan palm is one of the most cold-hardy and widespread palm “trees” in the US, ranging all the way up to zone 7 in southern Oklahoma, and will dwell anywhere that has near-constsntly moist, sandy to swampy soils. They can reach up to 6 feet tall and adult leaves bear long petioles and fronds at the end that splay out and split in all directions like a ragged oriental fan.
Despite being called trees, palm really don’t fit that label; even the biggest ones barely develop what one could call actual wood, and they’re a somewhat unique development in their plant grouping: the monocots. Look at these leaves and you’ll see that relation: their cousins are the grasses, the irises, the daylilies, and other plants that begin their life as usually one slender leaf rather than two.

#sabal #sabalminor #palmetto #palmtrees #strangeplants #plants #educational #usnatives #botany #plantsathome #horticulture #botanical #gardening #carltoncarnivores