Little Red Cactus Flowers 🌺 🌺🌺
Los Angeles Cactus & Succulent Society Plant Show & Sale 2017 (lacactus.com)
Spent an hour or so at the show on Saturday checking out all the great vendors and plants.
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Garden Alphabet #89: Tomato
Tomato
“The tomato is the edible, often red fruit of the plant Solanum lycopersicum, commonly known as a tomato plant. Both the species and its use as a food originated in Mexico, and spread around the world following the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Its many varieties are now widely grown, sometimes in greenhouses in cooler climates.
The tomato is consumed in diverse ways, including raw, as an ingredient in many dishes, sauces, salads, and drinks. While it is botanically a fruit, it is considered a vegetable for culinary purposes (as well as by the United States Supreme Court, see Nix v. Hedden), which has caused some confusion. The fruit is rich in lycopene, which may have beneficial health effects.
The tomato belongs to the nightshade family. The plants typically grow to 1–3 meters (3–10 ft) in height and have a weak stem that often sprawls over the ground and vines over other plants. It is a perennial in its native habitat, although often grown outdoors in temperate climates as an annual. An average common tomato weighs 102–105 grams.[2][3]“ — Wikipedia.org
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
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Los Angeles Cactus & Succulent Society Plant Show & Sale 2017 (lacactus.com)
Spent an hour or so at the show on Saturday checking out all the great vendors and plants.
Follow A Gardener’s Notebook on Facebook
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
Los Angeles Cactus & Succulent Society Plant Show & Sale 2017 (lacactus.com)
Spent an hour or so at the show on Saturday checking out all the great vendors and plants.
Follow A Gardener’s Notebook on Facebook
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
Los Angeles Cactus & Succulent Society Plant Show & Sale 2017 (lacactus.com)
Spent an hour or so at the show on Saturday checking out all the great vendors and plants.
Follow A Gardener’s Notebook on Facebook
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
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A scene from the annual Los Angeles Cactus & Succulent Society
Annual Drought Tolerant Plant Festival
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Music: “Night Music” by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com) under Creative Commons License
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
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Flowering Now: Sunflowers (Helianthus)
Flowering today (Tuesday, July 18, 2017) in the neighborhood.
I love sunflowers, but I don’t have enough open space in the sun to get a huge show like our neighbor. At least I can enjoy these during my neighborhood walks, though.
Photo: Douglas E. Welch, A Gardener’s Notebook
Helianthus or sunflowers (from the Greek: ήλιος, Hēlios, “sun” and ανθός, anthos, “flower”) L. /ˌhiːliˈænθəs/[2] is a genus of plants comprising about 70 species[3] in the family Asteraceae.[4] The genus is one of many in the Asteraceae that are known as sunflowers. Except for three species in South America, all Helianthus species are native to North America. The common name, “sunflower”, typically refers to the popular annual species Helianthus annuus, or the common sunflower, whose round flower heads in combination with the ligules look like the sun.[5] This and other species, notably Jerusalem artichoke (H. tuberosus), are cultivated in temperate regions as food crops for cattle and poultry and ornamental plants.[6] The largest sunflower field is located in Tuscany, Italy. [7]
The domesticated sunflower, H. annuus, is the most familiar species. Perennial sunflower species are not as popular for gardens due to their tendency to spread rapidly and become invasive. Whorled sunflowers, H. verticillatus, were listed as an endangered species in 2014 when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a final rule protecting it under the Endangered Species Act. The primary threats are industrial forestry and pine plantations in Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. They grow to 1.8 m (6 ft) and are primarily found in woodlands, adjacent to creeks and moist, prairie-like areas.[8] — Wikipedia.org
More information on Penstemon:
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See all previous posts in Flowering Now here
Strawberries in the container garden this evening.
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Interesting Plant: Wallaces Pitcher Plant (Lepechinia fragrans)
By Stan Shebs, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link
What are your thoughts on this Interesting Plant? Drop a note in the comments!
Lepechinia fragrans is endemic to California. It is found in open areas in chaparral, in dry ravines, on rocky slopes and ridgetops, between 60 and 1100 meters. It is known in the Trifuno Pass area of the Santa Monica Mountains and in the San Gabriel Mountains, as well as the north Channel Islands. It may also exist in Ventura County and areas on the south coast below Los Angeles County, California.
It is threatened by development and by fire management. While it is not listed as a threatened or endangered plant by the State of California or by the U.S. federal government, it is listed by the California Native Plant Society as a plant of limited distribution which is fairly endangered and should be watched.[1]
Lepechinia fragrans is a vase-shaped herbaceous shrub from 60 centimeters to just under 2 meters in height and equal in spread. It tends to grow taller in shade, and somewhat shorter in full sun. The plant itself is light green, but the many hairs give it a fuzzy grayish-green appearance. The entire plant is hairy, with long nonglandular hairs and glands which have short or no stalks. It has a pleasant scent which may be released when the glands are touched. Its arching branches become woody toward the base of the plant. It has the square stems of the mint family, which are very pronounced in this species.
The leaves can be deltate-lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, and are smooth-edged or slightly serrate. The lower ones are petioled below and generally larger, to 12 centimeters. Upper leaves can lack petioles and are generally smaller, as little as 4 centimeters in length. Like many of California’s plants, it has two types of leaves. Larger, lusher leaves are produced during the rainy season in winter, and some of these are shed during the dry season, and are replaced by leaves which are smaller and more gray in color
The flowers range in color from white to pale pink to medium purple. The calyx has 5 lobes and is slightly two-lipped. It is persistent in fruit and enlarges, becoming slightly inflated and turning purple. The corolla is bell-shaped and 2.5 to 3 centimeters long. It is also two-lipped, with the upper lip divided into 4 lobes, and a larger, unlobed lower lip. There are two pairs of stamens and a double-lobed style in the flower’s throat.
The fruit is a cluster of four smooth to shiny nutlets which are dark brown to black in color. They are round to ovate, with a length of 2 to 4 millimeters. — Wikipedia
More information on Wallaces Pitcher Plant (Lepechinia fragrans) :
View all past “Interesting Plant” posts
Interesting Plant is a series from A Gardener’s Notebook blog and podcast that highlights the most interesting plants I find in my Internet and real-world travels — Douglas
Los Angeles Cactus & Succulent Society Plant Show & Sale 2017 (lacactus.com)
Spent an hour or so at the show on Saturday checking out all the great vendors and plants.
Follow A Gardener’s Notebook on Facebook
* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!
