Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum

Plant Identification => Plant Identification Questions and Answers => Topic started by: Giles on July 27, 2014, 07:25:21 PM

Title: Plant from Picos.
Post by: Giles on July 27, 2014, 07:25:21 PM: A friend saw this in N. Spain a month or two ago.
I can't work out what it is.... ....please help......
Title: Re: Plant from Picos.
Post by: Maggi Young on July 27, 2014, 09:00:44 PM: I have a feeling that when we find out what this is we're going to feel daft that we didn't know it.....
::) :-\

The foliage doesn't seem to "match" the flowers spike, does it?
edit : I mean the foliage sems to belong to a Cirsium or similar......
Title: Re: Plant from Picos.
Post by: DaveM on July 27, 2014, 09:09:56 PM: I too was thinking of an apparent mismatch.... the rosette looks a bit like a pedicularis, but that doesn't fit the branching flower spike, a single head of which looks a bit like Digitalis????? Hmmmm.
Title: Re: Plant from Picos.
Post by: Matt T on July 27, 2014, 10:04:28 PM: I'd say that it's white mignonette, Reseda alba:
http://www.maltawildplants.com/RESD/Reseda_alba.php (http://www.maltawildplants.com/RESD/Reseda_alba.php)
Title: Re: Plant from Picos.
Post by: David Sellars on July 28, 2014, 04:13:18 AM: Funnily enough I took a photo in early June of the exact same plant as you can see by the background rocks.

The second photo is a close-up of the flower and with the orange anthers and the height nearly 2 m, I had concluded that it was probably Reseda suffruticosa. Either way according to "Flowers of Southwest Europe" by Polunin and Smythies, it would seem that it would be rare in the Picos as northern Spain is not indicated as a location.
Reseda alba, Portugal and Med. region.
Reseda suffruticosa, North Portugal, South, South Central and East Spain.
Title: Re: Plant from Picos.
Post by: Susann on July 28, 2014, 06:25:55 AM: Wow, I wish I had spotted that one, spending so much time in Picos last year. I almost feel ashamed missing it, but am pleased by reading it is supposed to be very rare. Now I have yet another reason to go back...
Title: Re: Plant from Picos.
Post by: Giles on July 28, 2014, 06:48:20 AM: Thankyou everybody.
Title: Re: Plant from Picos.
Post by: annew on July 28, 2014, 08:29:08 AM: What fantastic flowers on that spike with that great cluster of coral-coloured stamens
Title: Re: Plant from Picos.
Post by: Maggi Young on July 28, 2014, 09:34:22 AM: Great result ( as usual ) from the forumists. What must the odds be on two people photographing the self-same plant? :o 8)