Welcome to the Kentucky Native Plant and Wildlife Blog.

Welcome to the Kentucky Native Plant and Wildlife Blog.
The purpose of this blog is to provide information on using native plants in the landscape, issues related to invasive exotic plants, urban wildlife management, and wildlife damage management. It is my intention that this information will assist you in deciphering the multitude of information circulating around the web and condense in some meaningful method as it relates to Kentucky. In addition, I hope to highlight a native plant that can be used in the landscape.



Monday, June 17, 2013

Plant of the Week: Sundrops (Oenothera fruiticosa)

Sundrops or Southern Sundrops as it is sometimes called is a delightful, bright, showy member of the evening primrose family. It is a day flowering, not evening or night flowering member of the Onagraceae.  This is a tough plant that likes average soil and moderate moisture, but will do just fine and can tolerate poor soils.  It likes sun but can tolerate some shade.  It grows to about 18" tall and will slowly spread via rhizomes. This is quite a showy plant with 4 bright yellow petals in the flower that only persist a day or so but new flowers appear daily for a continuous show for several months.  It has 1 - 3" lance shaped leaves.  It is, for the most part, disease, deer and insect pest resistant. If it likes where it has been planted and the conditions are good, it can spread aggressively, though this is usually not a problem.  The genus name of Oenothera comes from the Greek "Oïnos" meaning wine and "ther" meaning wild animal.  One of the interesting pieces of folklore is that this plant has magical powers that made hunters lucky and the American Indians used to rub their moccasins in it to mask their smell to get closer to game.  The Germans felt when the roots were soaked in wine you could tame wild animals and the roots were thought to be very nutritious.  I love this plant growing with purple coneflowers and butterfly milkweed.  There are several varieties on the market including 'fireworks'  which is a more compact form. The variety 'Youngii' is a bit more showy with bright red buds and leaves that turn scarlet red in the fall.

2 comments:

  1. Is this plant widely available? I'd love to have some in my garden--- I'm just beginning to transition my flower beds to all native plants. Sadly I was away most of May when so many plants take best to planting.

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  2. Is this plant widely available? I'd love to have some in my garden--- I'm just beginning to transition my flower beds to all native plants. Sadly I was away most of May when so many plants take best to planting.

    June 17, 2013

    ReplyDelete