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One of the biggest challenges of native gardening is finding out what a plant actually is.
You'd think that nurseries would have it figured out, and for certain widely bred ornamental and vegetable cultivars I'm sure they do, but once you get into less well-known species there's a lot of misinformation. Case in point: The plant sale I went to last weekend was full of people who were abnormally well informed about native plants, and yet the pussytoes was labeled "Native to NW prairies" and the internet informs me that if it is indeed antennaria dioica, the closest it actually gets is Alaska (which is better than it could be, but a lot different from something that's part of the delicate and specific prairie ecosystem ten minutes south of me). That's assuming that it actually is a. dioica, which I'm not entirely certain of. The UW herbarium lists 12 other Washington-native antennarias, and it could be one of them. The leaves don't look right, but they don't exactly match any images of dioica I can find, either.
While looking up the antennaria I realized that the plant it's replacing (which I thought was a naturalized invasive given to me as a native) actually IS a native. My paranoia got in the way of noticing plant structure, apparently. *shame* Of course I notice this AFTER I pull a bunch out, but not all is lost -- I have another bunch in the backyard, and it spreads like, well, a weed, so I'll transplant it and all will be well. The plant is orange agoseris, which is a little like a pretty miniature dandelion. I'm very happy it turns out to be one of the good guys, because it's a tough little bugger -- I had it next to my (very narrow) driveway, where it gets stepped on all the time, and it still did just fine.
Also, a correction to my last plant post -- the elderberry I bought is sambucus nigra, not sambucus cerulea. I should've known better than to google the common name. It's still known as blue elderberry even though the latin translates as 'black.' I'm really hoping elderberry isn't the Thing I'm Almost Allergic t. There's one shrub who's scent I'm sensitive to, and I don't know what it is.
You'd think that nurseries would have it figured out, and for certain widely bred ornamental and vegetable cultivars I'm sure they do, but once you get into less well-known species there's a lot of misinformation. Case in point: The plant sale I went to last weekend was full of people who were abnormally well informed about native plants, and yet the pussytoes was labeled "Native to NW prairies" and the internet informs me that if it is indeed antennaria dioica, the closest it actually gets is Alaska (which is better than it could be, but a lot different from something that's part of the delicate and specific prairie ecosystem ten minutes south of me). That's assuming that it actually is a. dioica, which I'm not entirely certain of. The UW herbarium lists 12 other Washington-native antennarias, and it could be one of them. The leaves don't look right, but they don't exactly match any images of dioica I can find, either.
While looking up the antennaria I realized that the plant it's replacing (which I thought was a naturalized invasive given to me as a native) actually IS a native. My paranoia got in the way of noticing plant structure, apparently. *shame* Of course I notice this AFTER I pull a bunch out, but not all is lost -- I have another bunch in the backyard, and it spreads like, well, a weed, so I'll transplant it and all will be well. The plant is orange agoseris, which is a little like a pretty miniature dandelion. I'm very happy it turns out to be one of the good guys, because it's a tough little bugger -- I had it next to my (very narrow) driveway, where it gets stepped on all the time, and it still did just fine.
Also, a correction to my last plant post -- the elderberry I bought is sambucus nigra, not sambucus cerulea. I should've known better than to google the common name. It's still known as blue elderberry even though the latin translates as 'black.' I'm really hoping elderberry isn't the Thing I'm Almost Allergic t. There's one shrub who's scent I'm sensitive to, and I don't know what it is.
