Re: Obedient plant
> Garden tour report, my Physostegia are all in full bloom. They are
> gorgeous. The variety I have are a light lavander color.
> My aster's are starting to open also.
Hi Dee Ann,
The light lavender obedient plants are probably the straight species,
like our native variety.
I love asters -- the colors can be so vivid! I only wish they
didn't also signify the impending end of our growing season. :)
> I question I have been pondering and hope someone can clear up for me.
> Are Veronica (speedwell) and Salvia ( blue sage) in the same family? I
> have both and they are lovely, a little different, but enough alike
> that I wondered if possibly they are "kissing cousins"
They're actually in two entirely different families. Salvia are
in Lamiaceae (the mint family), where as Veronica are in Scrophulariaceae
(the figwort family). Other figwort family members include foxgloves,
penstemons, turtleheads, and snapdragons.
The biggest difference between the two families are the four-angled
stems in Lamiaceae and the gynoecium in Scrophulariaceae. The gynoecium
describes the collection of carpels, or the innermost parts of a flower.
In the figwort family the gynoecium has 2 carpels with a terminal
style and many axile ovules and produces a capsule instead of nutlets,
whereas mints have 2 carpels with 4 basal ovules.
This probably sounds like Greek. :)
I guess in a nutshell, yes, they look very similar, and you can
really only tell them apart if you slice the flowers open and know
what you're looking for...
Chris
hort.net plant image gallery (1026 online photos and growing!)
http://www.hort.net/gallery/
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@mallorn.com with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PERENNIALS
