Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Plant Identification => Plant Identification Questions and Answers => Topic started by: arillady on January 04, 2010, 10:20:54 PM
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A niece and her partner visited Scotland last year and gave Mum for Christmas a couple of framed prints taken on their trip. One featured a flower which I was asked to identify - hence this posting. Please do not ask where it was as I forgot to ask.
The shot is not all that good as I was photographing through glass in the boot of the car on the day!!!
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Rosebay Willowherb, I think - Chamaerion angustifolium.
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Rosebay Willowherb, I think - Chamaerion angustifolium.
....and somewhere lovely on the West Coast...... :)
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I posted this 5 minutes ago and 7 views and two replies :o :o :o ::) This forum is the absolute best!!!!
I wonder if some people go to bed with their computers!!!
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What is a "bed".......... somewhere to plant flowers? ;D
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Anne, very kindly did not mention that this willowherb is a blasted weed.
There is a white flowered variant which is said to be not such a pest though I wouldn't trust this to put it in my garden.
Paddy
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Sure thing Maggi ! ;D Why not ;) ?
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And the laughs and smiles and quirky retorts make my day.
Paddy I did think that I recalled some bad feeling about this plant in an earlier posting :(
Nice photo none the less. Third time lucky to post this reply without having to add more as someone has replied while I have been thinking and typing. Then I must get going.
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What's the real name? Chamerion angustifolium? Better known as Epilobium angustifoilum or Fireweed, at least in the US... maybe it has changed and I'm unaware.
The following show as synonyms:
Chamerion angustifolium (L.) Holub; Epilobium angustifolium L.; Chamaenerion angustifolium (L.) Scop.; Chamaerion angustifolium (L.)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Chamerion_angustifolium
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Thanks Mark for the link. Uhm it is everywhere isn't it? No wonder it seeds so well with those nice fluffy seeds. Not sure if it is in Oz - will have to wait for a reply from a local.
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Pat,
If it isn't, that may actually be a blessing by the sound of it. :o
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Fireweed honey is the commonest kind in our area.
Fireweed grows prolifically where the forest has been cut.
In summer, beekeepers truck their hives to these areas, where
they have to put electric fencing around the hives to deter bears.
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What's the real name? Chamerion angustifolium? Better known as Epilobium angustifoilum or Fireweed, at least in the US... maybe it has changed and I'm unaware.
I've understood that Chamerion angustifolium is the current accepted name. I made the mistake once of planting them in a bed in the open garden and the white one was just as bad. I then grew "alba" and another form with strongly contrasting buds and flower petals which I called "Smalfjord", the name of the place where it was found. This clone contrasted on the hillside where it was growing in a dense stand of other Willowherbs that it was growing with. Both are shown below (taken from slides, so sorry for the quality). Have since seen similar pictures to Smalfjord, so its probably not that unusual.
I subsequently grew them in pots, but these "wild roaming plants" didn't like being restrained and died after a few years of captivity. Despite several attempts I failed to get a single seed that I had collected to germinate(maybe I should have simulated a fire).
I often use the shoots in spring as a vegetable mixed with other perennial spring greens and a friend of mine makes a pleasant fermented tea from it from a Russian recipe, Kaporski (Kaporie) tea - Копорский чай
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Oh thankyou - such a pretty plant has some uses to redeem it in our plant kingdom - it can be brewed or eaten. :)
But Salvation Jane/Patterson's Curse aka Echium ....... on the other hand ................ :-\ the purple paddocks can look pretty spectacular but it takes over in our hot dry climate. At least we would not have trouble with the Fireweed as we are too dry here.
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Never seen a use for the "Curse", sorry :( Echium vulgare is supposed to be OK in a salad (too coarse for my liking) and also supposedly stimulates "Desire" - haven't dared try (yet)....
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Oh thankyou - such a pretty plant has some uses to redeem it in our plant kingdom - it can be brewed or eaten. :)
The First Nations used it here, mostly the seed fluff for weaving or padding.
Several ate the central pith in early spring. The Haida made twine for fishing
nets from it.
It was French Canadian voyageurs who called it asperge and cooked it.
I have a little patch growing in my garden. It has not spread much in the 20
years or so it has been there.
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I think the location is the River Tay where the A9 runs alongside just to the south of Ballinluig.
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All the Epilobiums virtually, are listed on our Bio Index as "requires assessment." They'd get a rude shock if they started to assess E. angustifolium! It would quickly be prohibited I'm sure. Years ago when one could, I brought home the white form from the UK but it didn't survive quarantine.
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Love this thread. As I recall from from a holiday spent there Epilobium (Fire Weed) is the State flower of Alaska ::) ::) ::)
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the best thing about willow herb is that its one of the food plants for the elephant hawk moth lovely thing