By the 1000... Hieracium spp.
Hieracium is a huge genus in Norway with many 1000 mostly apomictic species.
Here is one common representative of Hieracium alpinum (coll.)
This one grows on dry places often with lichens.
Hieracium is a huge genus in Norway with many 1000 mostly apomictic species.
Here is one common representative of Hieracium alpinum (coll.)
This one grows on dry places often with lichens.
Hello all, I am starting this thread to highlight good photos of Townsendia, whether found on the web, taken in the wild or in your garden... feel free to contribute.
Not exactly a rock-garden-sized Aster (yes, I still call them Aster) is Aster pilosus (Symphyotrichum pilosum), native to eastern North American and disjunctly in British Columbia. Typically growing to 3' or more, the species is highly variable and I have plants that reach 6' tall, and as well, have observed plants growing only 18" tall and could be admissible to a larger rock garden.
Map: http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=SYPIP3
You don't often see Old man of the Mountain in Gardens: this picture shows it in the Mount Evans trough in our Denver Botanic Gardens trough display. Alas, it is monocarpic--so no show the next year.
I think I planted over a hundred of this in my gardens at home (especially in troughs). Should make for an interesting look this summer!
More armchair botanizing today. I was going to add to the Parry's Easter Daisy thread, but we're starting to talk about Townsendia in general, so I started this thread which features a rare Utah endemic, Townsendia aprica. I also uploaded a photo to the Image of the Day thread, as I had found a gorgeous photo that embodies Townsendia.
http://nargs.org/smf/index.php?topic=24.msg722#msg722
I think this one has to be among my favourite fleabanes...it blooms all summer long in Newfoundland.
I love coming upon Erigeron humilis on alpine slopes, growing in scree or more stable substrates. Note the spectacularly woolly involucres and the wonderful contrast with the flowers, which are snowy white or sometimes tinged with purple. Now, does this little plant say "alpine" or not?
I think the ONLY way to grow townsendias well is in troughs. In fact I think all my best ones are in pots, which is the only way they are reliably perennial. In fact, even the biennials and annuals, like Townsendia parryi, come back reliably from seed in troughs. This is yet another trough in Wildflower Treasures at Denver Botanic Gardens (or in this case, it's actually an antique Indian mortar (or is it pestle?) that has had a hole drilled through the bottom.
I can't think of a better Erigeron to launch this discussion than E. scopulinus, which is still relatively new both to science and cultivation in the broadest sense. This is not only one of the toughest, one of the daintiest and most beautiful of tiny mat formers, it is very rare in nature--only known from a few spots on the Mogollon rim of New Mexico and Arizona. It was introduced to cultivation by Sonia Lowzow, a remarkable woman and grower who lived in Showlow Arizona (Lowzow from Showlow was quite the tongue twister).