I was sure someone posted this flower within the past month or two, but I'm unable to find it without opening every posting called "Please ID" or "What is this?". I would have called this a shrimp plant, but I'm not seeing the posting I'm thinking of querying "Justicia", so maybe it's something else. I just passed one today near me and got interested. It's about one meter tall, opposite leaves in one plane. Small round purple fruits.
Yes, thanks Axel. Here's the August 15 posting, with a much better photo. At least next time I forget the name, I'll be able to find my posting.
Maybe we say it incorrectly but we say Lay....sess...tear... ia! Himalayan honeysuckle is much easier to cope with. http://davesgarden.com/guides/botanary/go/3362/#b
Berries taste like burnt sugar, and can be eaten dried like raisins...plant in the pic is a straggly, small specimen: usually an upright arching shrub with numerous stems to about 6 feet or so.
I had an established one in an area over-topped by trees and surrounded by larger shrubs on Camano Island freeze out. So the one in the picture should probably be planted in the ground. Plus the container is now much too small for it anyway. In fact, it might have rooted out the bottom and into the ground already. Usually these produce numbers of cane-like stems close together, in the manner of a Fargesia bamboo. Their strong green coloring makes them effective in winter, as with other shrubs and trees grown for their bark the more stems the greater the effect; if this specimen has been thinned that was a mistake. As can be seen in the photo the floral display is also not complete when the plant is so underweight.
