These are my favourite amusements of yesterday visit Food Garden. Scorzonera hispanica, black salsify, black oyster plant, serpent root, viper's herb and many other names. Aster family. South America, Alpine garden. Sisyrinchium palmifolium, Palm-leaf Yellow-Eyed Grass, Iris family. Looks like they are still not in bloom? Oxalis valdiviensis, I think this plant is new at UBC garden.
I'll piggy-back on this thread, first by complaining about my good friend Nadia who said "smell this, right here" as she pointed to the Cynara cardunculus with the bee hidden right where she was pointing. I didn't actually get stung - those bees are very single-purposed when they're on this plant - so we're still friends. Those globe artichoke flowers are ever so soft, surely the inspiration for koosh balls, which feel remarkably similar. And they do have a nice fragrance. Also in the Physic Garden was this lovely Oenothera biennis. We check up on the Franklinia alatamaha every year, since we've been watching it grow since it was a youngster in 2012. It has lots of buds. If I remember correctly, it only ever has a few open flowers at any one time and has a long blooming season. Nadia was pleased to find so many berries on the Vaccinum ovatum, an evergreen huckleberry in the native garden. She liked them more than I did. Here are some berries not to eat - from the Physic Garden, Atropa belladonna, deadly nightshade.
My theme this month seems to have been purple berries (I'm including the fuchsia berries from another posting). I managed to find the name of this, Strobilanthes attenuata. There is a BPotD on it: Strobilanthes attenuata.
