Stokesia laevis

This is Stokes' aster, Stokesia laevis. Picture taken September 27, 2009.

Link to Stokesia laevis:

Link to Stokesia laevis:

Link to Stokesia laevis:

Scabiosa caucasica

This is Caucasian pincushion flower (Scabiosa caucasica 'Fama'). Picture taken September 27, 2009.

Link to Scabiosa:

Link to Scabiosa caucasica:

Ornamental rhubarb

Here is an ornamental rhubarb plant at Purdue Horticulture Gardens, Rheum palmatum var. tanguticum 'Red Selections'. Picture taken September 21, 2009.

Link to Rheum palmatum:

Link to Rheum palmatum var. tanguticum:

Amethyst flower

Amethyst flower, Browallia viscosa 'Saphir'. Like tomatoes and potatoes, Browallia is in the Solanaceae family. Picture taken September 24, 2009.

Link to Browallia:

Ageratum (Floss flower)

This is floss flower, Ageratum houstonianum 'Leilani Blue'. Picture taken September 24, 2009. Be careful, there is another plant at Purdue Memorial Gardens that looks much like this and has a similar looking but different name, that is the Hardy Ageratum (Blue mistflower). This is confusing! Considering the potential for Ageratum houstonianum for invasiveness, it would make sense to be sure to only plant our native blue mistflower.

Link to previous post on blue mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum):

Link to Ageratum houstonianum:

Link to Ageratum houstonianum:

Link to Ageratum houstonianum:

Link to Ageratum houstonianum:

Showy Autumn Crocus

Showy Autumn Crocus (Colchicum speciosum). The flowers on these plants extend into the ground, which is where the ovaries are. At Purdue Horticulture Gardens, September 24, 2009.

Link to Colchicum:

Link to Colchicum speciosum:

Gaillardia 'Mesa Yellow'

This is a hybrid Gaillardia, 'Mesa Yellow'. Picture taken September 21, 2009.

Link to Gaillardia x grandiflora:

Link to previous post on Gaillardia:

Blackberry lily fruits

The blackberry lily (Iris domestica (syn. Belamcanda chinensis)) at Horticulture Gardens is now showing its blackberry-like fruits. Picture taken September 21, 2009.

Link to earlier view of this blackberry lily:

Gazania

This is Gazania rigens 'Daybreak Pink Shades'.

Picture taken September 21, 2009.

Link to Gazania rigens:

Link to Gazania rigens:

Globe amaranth

The globe amaranth in the first two pictures was attracting a lot of insects like this monarch butterfly. Gomphrena sp. 'Fireworks'.




The globe amaranth in the last picture is Gomphrena globosa 'Las Vegas Pink'.

Pictures taken September 21, 2009.

Link to Gomphrena globosa:

Link to Gomphrena:

Link to Gomphrena:

Rough Heliopsis

This is Rough Heliopsis (Heliopsis helianthoides subsp. scabra 'Giant Double Hybrids'). Picture taken September 10, 2009.

Link to Heliopsis helianthoides:

Link to Heliopsis helianthoides:

Link to Heliopsis helianthoides subsp. scabra:

New England aster

What we call the New England aster is native to Indiana too. It appears in old fields and woods edges as clumps of purple flowers in a perfect complement to the yellows of the goldenrod that grow there too, and nobody plants it. It's just there, as much a part of the Indiana season as the red leaves of sumac or football.

Aster novae-angliae is an obsolete botanical name for the New England aster, recently botanists have decided that the North American asters should be pretty much placed into a separate genus from Aster, that genus is Symphyotrichum. The current name of the New England aster is now Symphyotrichum novae-angliae (L.) G.L. Nesom. The L. in parentheses stands for Linnaeus who gave this plant the original name of Aster novae-angliae. The G.L. Nesom outside the parentheses is the guy you can blame for having to change all the paperwork referring to this plant.

Link to taxonomy of Symphyotrichum novae-angliae (L.) G.L. Nesom:

Link to treatment of Symphyotrichum novae-angliae in Flora of North America:

Link to Symphyotrichum genus:

The pictures here are of a dwarf commercial cultivar of New England aster called 'Purple Dome'. You can find the plant in the pictures at the Purdue Horticulture Gardens behind the Horticulture Building on campus. These pictures were taken September 10, 2009, and the plant is just beginning to flower, the flowers should be more profuse by now.

Link to Symphyotrichum novae-angliae 'Purple dome':

Another link to Symphyotrichum novae-angliae:

Kousa dogwood with fruits

This Kousa dogwood (Cornus kousa) is just outside the front door of the greenhouse. In the springtime Cornus kousa has showy white bracts around the flowers that look much like the native flowering dogwood common in our woodlands. The fruit is said to be edible but it doesn't appeal to my taste. Maybe yours. Picture taken September 10, 2009.

Link to Cornus kousa:

Link to Cornus kousa:

The bark of Cornus kousa has a nice look to it. Here is a link to some pictures of the bark on this same tree here in Horticulture Gardens:

Dusty Miller Sagewort and Lavandin

Picture taken September 9, 2009.

Dusty Miller Sagewort (Artemisia stelleriana 'Silver Cascade').

Link to Artemisia stelleriana:

Lavandin (Lavandula x intermedia 'Provence').

Link to Lavandula x intermedia 'Provence':

Link to lavandin:

Dwarf goldenrod

Dwarf goldenrod, Solidago 'Golden Baby'.

Many plants in the sunflower family bloom in the late summer, the goldenrods included.

Picture taken September 8, 2009.

Link to goldenrod:

Link to Solidago 'Golden Baby':

Haws on hawthorn tree

Here is a picture of the fruits on the hawthorn tree (Crataegus mollis) at the southeast corner of the Horticulture Building. Picture taken August 31, 2009.

Link to previous post on this hawthorn tree:

Sedum 'Autumn Joy'

This is Showy Stonecrop 'Autumn Joy'.

Hylotelephium is the currently used genus name for these plants, formerly they were called Sedum.

Link to Hylotelephium telephium:

Link to Hylotelephium:

This sedum is planted outside the west entrance to the Horticulture Building. Picture taken September 1, 2009.

Link to Sedum telephium:

Link to Sedum telephium:

Cosmos

Cosmos bipinnatus at Purdue Horticulture Gardens. The first picture is Cosmos bipinnatus 'Versailles Tetra'. The second picture is Cosmos bipinnatus 'Double Click Rose Bonbon'. Find these Cosmos planted outside the west entrance of the Horticulture Building. A third variety planted there is Cosmos bipinnatus 'Sweet Dreams'. Pictures taken September 1, 2009.


Link to Cosmos bipinnatus:

Link to Cosmos bipinnatus:

Link to Cosmos in Lafayette:

Great blue lobelia

Great blue lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica), at Purdue Horticulture Gardens, September 1, 2009. Lobelia siphilitica grows as a native wildflower in Indiana.

Link to Lobelia siphilitica:

Link to Lobelia siphilitica growing wild:

Moon Vine

The morning glory vine with the big white flowers and cordate leaves is Moon Vine, Ipomoea alba. Picture taken at Purdue Horticulture Gardens, September 1, 2009.

There's another plant that's commonly grown in these parts that we call moonflower, it has big white flowers too, but that's a Datura, not an Ipomoea. Don't get the two confused, they're completely different plants.

Link to Ipomoea alba:

Link to Ipomoea alba:

Sweet Autumn Clematis

Sweet Autumn Clematis (Clematis terniflora), at Purdue Horticulture Gardens. Clematis terniflora looks a lot like the native Virgin's Bower (Clematis virginiana) that grows wild in both the city and the country, the leaves mark the difference.

Picture taken August 31, 2009.

Link to Clematis terniflora:

Link to Clematis terniflora:

Link to Virgin's Bower (Clematis virginiana):

Link to Virgin's Bower (Clematis virginiana):

Lavender

Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia 'Munstead') grows at Purdue Horticulture Gardens. Picture taken August 31, 2009.

Link to Lavandula angustifolia 'Munstead':

Link to lavender: