Monday, April 25, 2011

Dr. Watson At Your Service

Who am I?

I ran across the beautiful specimen of a plant today and had to purchase it.  It was from a bush and tree nursery who occasionally have a smattering of ornamental plants.  This place is mainly to the trade so I wasn't immediately indignant that there wasn't a tag on it.

When a woman came up to ask me if she could help, I asked her what it was, and she said, point blank, Foxglove.

To which I said, "this cannot be foxglove."  I said it out loud too, which is highly unusual, being a relative newbie gardener, I try to keep el moutho firmly shut out in the real world so I do not look like an idiot.   For some reason, to you folks reading here, looking like an idiot is much less an obstacle.

Anyhow, she repeated, foxglove.   To which I said, "you cannot possibly convince me that this is foxglove.  First of all, it does not resemble it in the slightest, and second foxglove would be a crispy critter after a day in the full sun where it is currently sitting.  Honestly, foxgloves are 3 or 4 feet tall with bells and tall spike form.  Haven't you ever seen one?" To this she started digging around through all of the pots looking for an ID card and came up with one that said, "primrose."  Oh for heaven sake, I thought, it didn't look like primrose either.
  
I could have better accepted primrose as a possibility, yet by now I was dubious.  That this lady was seemingly convinced one minute it was foxglove and another minute it was primrose was highly suspect.   And in light of the fact that it didn't, on the face of it, resemble either, yet she seemed to be completely unaware of this fact...

I couldn't help myself.  I hauled off, gathered speed, and gave her the big fat hairy eyeball... so hairy one could reclassify it as a furry eyeball (but I would use a tag so people wouldn't be confused when choosing between hairy and furry eyeballs).

For some reason this woman was running around this nursery pretending to work here... this could be the only explanation.  As dear old Holmes would say, when you've eliminated the impossible, whatever is remaining, however improbable, is the truth.

So having solved that mystery with swift efficiency, I brought the plant home and got out my smoking jacket and pipe and weird little hat (I forwent the cocaine... you have to draw the line somewhere with these rhetorical devices.)   I began studying the facts.  The flowers, in my vastly inferior experience, resemble something like those of torenia or even more like those of a thunburgia vine (blue sky flower/blackeyed susan vine).  The habit and leaves looked nothing like either, this has simple medium green leaves, opposite, appearing from the bottom through the mid point of the stem.  The stems are blackish, stiff and thin.  The flowers are a bluish purple, non waxy, relatively small and seem to pop up one after another on each sprig, but not all together.   Its about 12 inches high, with an obvious tendency for sprawliness, and was basking in full frontal Southern sun.  It also sat for 15 minutes in the parking lot locked in the car on the way home while I stopped by Jack's Comic Dogs for an Omega Dog and a diet coke.  The steamy 115 degree sauna inside the car had no effect.  Tropical, I presume?

Foxglove indeed.  Such treatment would have surely left an ordinary foxglove looking like a wet noodle with a dress on.  Armed with my trusty pipe and MacBook I preceded to type in all descriptors I could imagine might fit this plant.  I searched for look alike flowers.  I searched for full sun tropicals that might fit the color and description.  I searched for black stemmed flowers.  I even searched for South Carolina natives hoping maybe it actually came from around here.   Zip. Zilch. Nada.

So exasperated, I finally typed into Google: primrose foxglove.  And you're not going to believe this.  7 entries down, on the first page, the very first entry that was speaking of a unique plant (not a varietal name of foxglove, or foxgloves with primroses), I see a plant called Asystasia gangetica.   Also known as Ganges Primrose, Creeping Foxglove and they've added a third name to which the generally associated plant has zero in common: Chinese Violets. Sure enough, its my plant.  It's not genetically related whatsoever to foxglove (digitalis), primrose (primula or oenothera) or violets (viola), but it hasn't stopped the official plant naming committee from trying to confuse gardeners as often and as thoroughly as possible.  Honestly people, do we lack that much in the creativity department that we have to reuse names?

The moral of this story is that I am obviously no Sherlock, but instead a total Watson.  And one should probably not be throwing around hairy eyeballs no matter how much evidence is stacked against another person.   Sorry, lady at the nursery.  You were right, on both accounts, whether you knew it or not (this is still a mystery).  I guess you probably do work there after all.  Maybe.

But I will add myself one pat on the back.. it is indeed related to thunbergia, and it is tropical.   And now that I've researched it, looking at just the stalks and form, it does look a heck of a lot like some ruellias, to which it is also related.

17 comments:

  1. Jess you know I love Holmes and Watson too ....really though your detective work was far better than the saleslady who really didn't have a clue...it was neither a foxglove or a primrose no matter what she said...they need a plant book at that nursery and someone who doesn't rely on labels..bravo for you for speaking up...

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  2. Hats off to you dear, Jess for donning your sleuthing garb and getting to the bottom of this mystery plant. You done good!! Too bad the people that grew this plant couldn't have just labeled the plant correctly in the first place. :) She is a beaut, all right. I would have been captivated by her irresistible charms too.

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  3. The moral of this story is that my Latin teacher in high school was right. Latin isn't a dead language (much though I protested it was, somewhere around the 5th declension when she herself was at the receiving end of a fuzzy eyeball or two), and as a gardener I find it to be infinitely useful! Common names be damned, they only serve to confuse us all. Excellent sleuthing there my dear Watson, a beautiful Asystasia gangetica indeed! :)

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  4. What a strange and interesting story. You really went all out to find the name of the plant and by a strange accident found it out. I would not have trusted the names and would not have combined them to get the answer. Great work. You should go back and tell the nursery worker too. I am sure she would find this really interesting.

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  5. What a find - the plant that is called both foxglove and primrose (and violet) and related to thunbergia too! Sheesh, being a gardener is tough :). It is a pretty plant and thank you for the funny story.

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  6. Hi Jess, that was a long story, whew! Did i sweat reading it, LOL. Common names are really confusing because common means common to a group, and there are many groups who can label something with how they like it, or common to them. So, much thanks to Linnaeus who eased the confusion by starting on the Scientific names! Wherever you are in the world, that name stands. BTW, since we are from a different group, your colloquial phrase might be different from mine, so i did not get the real meaning of what you said in my post. Thanks.

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  7. What a funny story! Yes, at some point we seem to know more than most of the workers at the nursery. Still, we expect them to be the expert. Glad you found the name of your plant. It drives me crazy to not have the full latin name of my plants. Of course, having all these plant tags around drives everyone else crazy - but that's a different story.

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  8. Dear Jess, You were much more persistent than I would have been, tracking down the name of this sweet plant. Well done. P x

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  9. Great solve! and now we know why latin names are so important. Obviously the lady didn't really know what the plant was or she would have been able to explain the difference between foxglove and this plant. glad you decided to go ahead and buy it anyway. We learn so much by investigating and trying new plants.

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  10. Do we lack creativity and have to reuse names?

    Yes yes yes! Do you have any idea how many Cape ... there are in the Western Cape? Settlers from Europe said Oh look what a pretty little/great Cape ... ash chestnut cowslip daisy gooseberry (which comes from Peru and WEARS a cape) honeysuckle ... Then there's Pride of De Kaap, which isn't from the Cape at all!

    Good sleuthing and a fascinating post!

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  11. What a story! It also illustrates why the botanical name should be used. If the lady had said 'Asystasia gangetica', you would have been praising her horticultural expertise. And if the plant had a proper label, you would not have had to ask at all!

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  12. The saleswoman clearly didn't know anyway---if she'd had an actual clue, she would have said "Well, I realize it looks nothing like the usual versions, but it's called a creeping foxglove..." or something akin to it.

    I've learned to be somewhat mistrustful of salespeople that do not display casual familiarity with their plants...if they're not gardeners themselves, odds are good I'll get much better info on the spot with a smartphone and some googling.

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  13. Jess, That is a very funny story. I am dying to know if the woman actually knew that it's two common names were foxglove and primrose. I am guessing yes. That's why I hate common names. There is no naming committee, someone just thought it looked like a foxglove and someone else thought it looked like a primrose. I wrote what I thought was quite a clever post about this: http://carolynsshadegardens.com/2011/01/07/i-dream-in-latin/. Carolyn

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  14. Hi All, I'm pretty convinced that if that primrose tag had been in one of the boxwoods right beside it, she'd have called that a primrose. But, you never know. My guess is someone told her it was a creeping foxglove and she remembered the foxglove part, and forgot everything else. I'm all for plant tags. I can't stand not knowing what something is in my garden. No idea why, just can't stand it!

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  15. Jess, Like you, I need to know the names of the plants in my garden. Having a plant sitting in my garden that I don't know the name of feels like having a student sitting in my class whose name I don't know. I'm not opposed to common names, but they have limitations (as you discovered here). It's fine to call that student in my 9 a.m. class Bridget, which is what she's commonly called by her friends and family; but when I need to submit her grade, I better know that she'll turn up on my grade roster under her official name of Mary Smith. I think you deserve the Sherlock award for your detective work. -Jean

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  16. Dear Jess, this would be my perfect post - funny and informative! It's time consuming but fascinating researching plants isn't it? I agree with Jean - we'll give you the 2011 Sherlock Award. cheers, catmint

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  17. Just stumbled across your blog looking for trellis ideas, then saw you are also a Blotanist! Love your writing style, keeps me smiling!

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