wrong ID on Stachytarpheta
- To: m*@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: wrong ID on Stachytarpheta
- From: D* W*
- Date: Mon, 9 Oct 2000 12:19:23 -0700
I have a couple of plants that I must have received as cuttings from
a forgotten source. They are labelled Stachytarpheta mutabilis, but
when I looked that plant up at
http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/schoellhorn/1/189.htm it is obvious that my
plants are incorrectly labelled.
General impression of the plant:
prostrate, thick yellow-green leaves, purple flowers hover on very
long stems, flowers all summer
More details:
two or three blue-purple flowers, long tube (2 cm or 3/4 inch), two
little top petals, a big petal on each side, and a medium sized petal
on the bottom. The bottom petal has a white blotch on it with several
purple freckles. The face of the flower is 2.5 cm (1 inch) across.
The stem is thin, hairy, dark red-purple, 8 or 9 cm long (about 3
inches), coming from a leaf axil.
The base of the plant is a woody stem that doesn't seem able to
support the weight of the thick leaves, so it is prostrate.
The leaves are a pale yellow-green, hairy, thick, opposite, very
close together so they form rosettes. The largest leaves are 2 cm
long by 1 cm broad (almost 1 inch by 1/2 inch).
It doesn't look like the sort of plant you would describe as hairy,
but the hairs are noticeable without a magnifying glass.
Diane Whitehead Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
zone 8, Sunset zone 5, cool mediterranean climate
