Greengirls » Blog Archive » Another mystery plant and (you guessed it) another mystery prize

Another mystery plant and (you guessed it) another mystery prize

Posted on July 2nd, 2007 – 7:45 AM
By Jaime Chismar

GG’s starting off this holiday week with a little with a Monday mystery. For those of you unfamiliar with the northwestern ‘burbs, Plymouth is home to more than strip malls. It’s got great natural curiosities like French Lake Park and great garden curiosities like this yellow flower plant found in Ms. Sal’s yard.

She writes:
The yellow flowers are the size of a dime and hang upside down on 3 foot tall stalks. Leaves are burgundy in color and flowers are strong root spreaders. This flower has been passed from neighbor to neighbor and no one can identify it — Even my master gardener friend didn’t know what it was!

Master gardener — Bah! We GGs have faith in our readers and their resourcefulness. If you are the first to correctly identify this puzzling Plymouth plant, we’ll send you a pretty sweet prize. If you grow this plant in your garden, please tell us more about it!

This entry was posted on Monday, July 2nd, 2007 at 7:45 am and is filed under Mystery plants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

6 Responses to "Another mystery plant and (you guessed it) another mystery prize"

Larry says:

July 3rd, 2007 at 5:02 am

Think it is called smokeplant. It grows well in sun or part sun, and given half a chance, it can almost be considered invasive. Very nice purple foliage, and ours is blooming yellow now. 7-3-07

anneesha says:

July 3rd, 2007 at 12:09 pm

Alternathera is the name I use for the Myster Plant… I bought one a few years ago at a local garden center (Minnehaha Falls, maybe?) and it’s done well. Keeps color best in full sun.

paige says:

July 4th, 2007 at 9:29 am

i think it might be a variety of lysimachia. there are many tall and ground cover types. it is commonly called a loosestrife, but not the invasive purple loosestrife.

Sal Strand says:

July 4th, 2007 at 8:13 pm

Before I checked the Greengirls Blog this morning, I looked into my mother-in-law’s 35 cent book titled, “How to Know the Wild Flowers” by Alfred Stefferud. On page 80 was a description of Loosestrife with a pen hand drawn picture that looked familiar! When I saw Paige’s suggestion…I knew that I was getting closer to solving the mystery. After researching Paige’s suggestion…I found the Fringed Loosestrife (Lysimachia ciliata). Everything is exactly the same…except my plants have the burgandy top lanceolate leaves. No doubt a hybrid as “Lysimachia are sterile to their own pollen and may produce hybrids” (see website below)! The lower leaves are ovate, upper are elongated and tapering with little or any petiole (stem attachment). The flowers face the ground. The plants love wet areas (my yard on Bass Lake in Plymouth). The best internet site was http://2bnthewild.com/plants/H332.htm.

Thanks to Anneesha and Larry. I looked up their suggestions but Paige was the definite winner! Thank you, Greengirls, for this intriguing site. I’ll be back.

paige says:

July 5th, 2007 at 1:40 pm

i found the cultivar…firecracker. very fun and quite prolific.

Connie Nelson says:

July 5th, 2007 at 2:54 pm

I’m with Paige. I’m saying it’s a loosestrife (Lysimachia).