Acantholimon

[Nold]

They're fun to set on fire, too, when dead.

I was actually relieved when the acantholimons here decided to call it a day. They had gotten so large they were growing into each other and looked fairly disgraceful.
They make lots of acrid smoke that lasts for about half an hour.

Bob
  p.s You can tell which seeds are viable by looking at the tube; thin ones aren't viable.

 

[McDonough]

They're fun to set on fire, too, when dead.

I was actually relieved when the acantholimons here decided to call it a day. They had gotten so large they were growing into each other and looked fairly disgraceful.
They make lots of acrid smoke that lasts for about half an hour.

Bob
  p.s You can tell which seeds are viable by looking at the tube; thin ones aren't viable.

Maybe they (Acantholimon) should've duked it out with your romping out-of-control sempervivums that devoured your garden

Burning Acantholimon hummocks and acrid smoke, sounds like a nightmare.  Why were they set on fire?  At least with Dictamnus (ignitable Gas Plant), the action of ignition is not of permanent detriment to the plant.

[RickR]

Fire?
I wish I would have know that.  I just had a one foot wide one croak this winter.

It would have been fun. Setting an individual prairie plant ablaze is a blast, albeit a very short lived escapade.

[Kelaidis]

I remember a picture Jim Archibald showed of a Turkish Villager with a huge mound of dead acantholimons behind the house for winter "firewood": they do produce heat with all the resins in their foliage which can get hot indeed.

I'm off to California for a few weeks so I shan't be posting much for a while...Hope everyone is well,

PK

[Nold]

I remember a picture Jim Archibald showed of a Turkish Villager with a huge mound of dead acantholimons behind the house for winter "firewood": they do produce heat with all the resins in their foliage which can get hot indeed.   

There's the answer. There should be some fun in gardening along with all the disappointment and misery .....

They catch fire, release massive quantities of acantholimon smoke, then glow very satisfyingly for quite some time.

Bob

[Tim Ingram]

I've never grown these plants well, and hardly ever had a flower. That last photo of Panayoti's is superb and makes me want to start rock gardening all over again. Curious since all the plants are pretty much the same and there are no flowers! I think, like Mark says, it is comfortable and pleasing and you could imagine being on a hillside in Turkey.

[McDonough]

There's the answer. There should be some fun in gardening along with all the disappointment and misery .....
They catch fire, release massive quantities of acantholimon smoke, then glow very satisfyingly for quite some time.

Bob

Okay, I'll give you that one Bob, we'll add Acantholimon to the growing list of pyrotechnic plants; only Acantholimon and Dictamnus so far, I wonder if Burning Bush literally burns?  So I checked, lo and behold, check out this list of "HIGHLY flammable plants":
http://www.state.sc.us/forest/scplants.pdf

Burning Bush falls short of its namesake by being listed as "LESS Flammable Plants with some fire resistance", so is Pyracantha (firethorn)..., go figure! 

While I jest, the topic of "Firewise Landscaping" is actually a serious one, and many States and counties put out such plant lists.

[Lori S.]

This one is proving to be fairly interesting... Acantholimon kotschyi ssp. laxispicatum (seed collected by Pavelka from Kop Dag, Turkey, 1600m elev.), from seed in 2010 to bloom in 2011:

[McDonough]

Nice success story Lori, the zig-zag stems are elegant, and I like the seed heads too, a second show!

[Hoy]

Lori, that one was very nice!

Mark, even the common juniper (Juniperus communis) is highly flammable - or should I say inflammable