Help Identifying My Flowers?

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

This summer I've been making a beginner's effort at growing wildflowers from seed in my tiny front yard. We used to have the ugliest yard on the street, but the rugged little wildflowers are improving it. I put down a Northeastern seed mixture that I bought online of about 30 different wildflower species, and so far 6 varieties have bloomed. I've been able to identify all of them except this one:



Does anyone know what it is? This individual one is silver dollar sized, but there are others of it's kind that are smaller, or less ornate with the red. They're on fuzzy, sturdy stalks, and grow low to the ground. It's lovely, but I've found nothing online to match it up to.

Thanks for any help!

Comments

[koloratur.livejournal.com]

Looks like some kind of anemone?

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I looked, but didn't see any anemone's like that. There sure are some beautiful ones, though. (mixed in with the sea anemone!)

[koloratur.livejournal.com]

Anemone blanda, maybe? Not that I'm a flower person by any means...I just like a good mystery :)

http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/930/687997.JPG

http://www.co.st-louis.mo.us/parks/photos/cg-photos/anemoneblanda.jpg

http://www.grooms-flowers.co.uk/product_images/150_6_1_1.gif

[ah42.livejournal.com]

It's most likely a variety of Rudbeckia , or coneflower. (Not to be confused with the sister plant, Echinacea, aka purple coneflower)

A common type of Rudbeckia is called Black-eyed Susan...

[ah42.livejournal.com]

I'm having trouble locating an image that matches that... between the red colouring (seems to mostly match some Rudbeckia hirta varieties) and the number and shapes of petals (seems only Rudbecia triloba has fewer than 10 petals) so I'm thinking it's a hybrid, and not a natural variety... wildflower, huh?

Also, many wildflowers won't bloom their first year when grown from seed. (echinacea, for example won't flower from seed unless it's started *really* early. I started some this year, and just now they've only started getting full-sized leaves. They'll start dying back for the winter soon enough.)

As far as maintaining the wildflowers, when everything dries up, make sure to rescatter the seeds! I made the mistake once of cutting a wildflower garden down, and then raking it all up, instead of just leaving the cuttings on the ground. We had to reseed it the next year :/

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Oooh, that might be it. I did see some fairly close matches!

Dracopis amplexicaulis

[medyani.livejournal.com]

Sigh. I posted an answer once -- and something made it disappear!

Anyway, I'm pretty sure your specimen is a Dracopis amplexicaulis, or "Clasping Coneflower" which is a native wildflower, related to Rudbeckia (in fact sometimes called Rudbeckia amplexicaulis), and will in fact grow from seed in the first year. If you have other photos that would help in the identification.

Meanwhile, I second the suggestion that you harvest seed and scatter it yourself-- although I let my "dead" stalks stand until spring because they provide a good food source for a number of native birds (particularly goldfinches and chickadees).

And if you want a great resource for seeds, for information (great experts and really helpful), for buying plants, etc. check out the New England Wildflower Society (http://newfs.org/). It is a great place to go and visit -- Garden in the Woods!-- in any season whether you are new to native plant conservation or an "old-timer." And they also have very good classes - such as "how to propagate wildflowers" -- I've taken a few.

Re: Dracopis amplexicaulis

[ah42.livejournal.com]

GitW is *beautiful*! The first time I visited it, everything was dying off and it was still gorgeous. It was their last open weekend of the year, a few years ago.

And yeah, leaving them up over winter is a great idea, especially if the stalks are strong enough to withstand the winter itself... I'm usually only used to leaving things like ornamental grasses and sedums up for the winter.

I never would've thought of Dracopis, although I did look at it when trying to answer... the Wikipedia merely has a b+w line-drawn sketch of it, and it doesn't resemble certain details of the plant much!

BTW, according to USDA (http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=DRAM), Dracopis isn't native to this area, but it's native to North America. Apparently it's a weed in the south. Let's hope it doesn't become a pest up here! I hate dealing with invasives.

Re: Dracopis amplexicaulis

[medyani.livejournal.com]

BTW, according to USDA, Dracopis isn't native to this area

Yes, I am like-minded in showing caution about what is a "native" -- especially as I spend hours of volunteer time trying to remove nasty invasives like glossy buckthorn, purple loosestrife and garlic mustard from native habitats! Still I think some species, depending on their history, integration and habitat value is acceptable. For example, all that "native" bluestem grass that's really only native to mid-west prairies as of say 200 years ago, but is now found regularly in New England in former pasture/farm land. It has integrated successfully and all types of birds and insects etc. rely on it, while it doesn't out compete anything else. A tougher question would be something like the Black Locust tree, listed as an invasive in some states of New England even though it's native to the Southeast/Midatlantic. I haven't made up my own mind on that debate, have you?

And yes, I wax rhapsodic about Garden In The Woods-- such a wonderful place-- and I have yet to get to Nasami Farm but it is on my to-do list! :)

Re: Dracopis amplexicaulis

[ah42.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, black locusts... I definitely consider them invasive! When I was landscaping, I had more than a couple properties where the things were *very* annoying, although not as much as bittersweet or mustard or knotweed (evil! burn! burn!) or norways. Never actually had to deal with loostrife on a property, though. That's rather unusual, now that I think back.

Re: Dracopis amplexicaulis

[medyani.livejournal.com]

Yes-- knotweed is VERY evil-- everyone should eat the yummy shoots in early spring and then BURN it down! I think glossy buckthorn is also VERY EVIL -- the birds eat the berries and get a laxative effect causing a negative caloric intake and sometimes starvation! Grrrr.....

Re: Dracopis amplexicaulis

[julishka.livejournal.com]

i think it's actually a coreopsis variety:

Coreopsis tinctoria (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coreopsis_tinctoria)

[pearlythebunny.livejournal.com]

There's a house on Willow Ave., near Porter Square (approximately number 13) that has these growing in the front yard. Perhaps you can ask there what these are?