Plant A: the volunteer. It has generated two fruits and Paula wants to eat them. I want to know what this plant is first. Help me not let Paula get sick.Close up of plant A leaf.Close up of Plant A young flower. A more mature flower a few months ago (see below) has more brown/purple on petals but not I think on the anthers?The north central Texas flora keys out to two main groups by hair type. These, on Plant A, appear to be simple, and possibly retrorse (curving down). No hair joints eliminates P. heterophylla.Plant A: the leaf and the two fruits. The fruit calyxes are five angled.I zoomed in on a picture of the previous flower, same plant A. I believe the anthers are yellow. I would like help with that, as it’s been a while since I’ve tried to confirm anthers. Yellow anthers and simple hairs get it to P. longifolia or P. virginiana in the NC TX Flora. The leaves for both species are are ovate to lanceolate, which seems inconsistent with Plant A. Longifolia also is said to often have purple stems. This one has stripes but not fully purple. The NC TX Flora says these two are possibly toxic. The new Foraging Texas book says all the Physalis are fine. Other sources claim virginiana’s fine or may need a frost. One of the sources is this book about Physalis and relatives so I may get it via interlibrary loan.This is the underside of Plant B. Plant B should be a cultivar of Physalis pruinosa based on its location and what I have planted there. It has similar simple, possibly retrorse hairs. Plant B is not flowering yet this year. I had a really hard time finding flower pictures for P. pruinosa, as most people sort of reasonably are interested in the fruit. It does appear to have yellow anthers. Plant C. This is from a probably perennial wild Physalis (I have never planted any Physalis that made it to fruiting in the backyard). Its hairs are distinctly stellate. None of the individuals in the cluster of 2-4 Plant C individuals were flowering, but the hairs seem to narrow it to P. cinerascens or P. mollis. I think P. cinerascens seems more likely on leaf shape, but both are edible and neither have simple leaf hairs.Plant C leaf (left) and plants A (upper right leaf, bigger) and B (lower right leaf, smaller – it’s from a younger plant), and plant A fruits.
So, am I missing anything obvious here? Is this identifiable? Have any of you consumed P. longifolia or P. virginiana and lived?
Update: Mom showed me a few other keys and they get it to P. virginiana too. None of the keys contain P. pruinosa. P. virginiana is also a perennial while P. pruinosa is an annual, so maybe next year will also provide a clue.
I realized today that these funny friends near the dining room window were blooming.It turns out they are a native Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum biflorum)!!! Thanks to Abby for confirming the identification.Apparently they do grow in the wild in Cleveland county, so these could be volunteers or they could be planted. Apparently the native species (as well as some non native species in the same genus) used to be more popular as a shade plant. The Chef mentioned seeing them in older people’s gardens in his home town in northeastern Oklahoma. The linked website also says one of the non native species has a strong odor to the flower, and these had no particular smell for either of us.There is also a clump of them near the compost bin, shaded by the house most of the day.They do have fun leaves, and have never spread far, so I had never bothered to pull them up before. (Having never seen them in the wild before, I had assumed these leaves were something non native.)Sure glad I didn’t!!
This rose came with the yard. A lot of branches died back in the February cold spell and then I pruned the dead branches off in April.Echinacea slowly unfurling!Purple lady bok choy. I love the green and purple veins!
Englemann Daisy blooming.Bachelor’s buttons are not native but were in a mix I got and do get some nice little bees.I believe this is greeneyes from seed from Mom.Hedeoma seedling from seed from Paula in western Oklahoma. It’s in the cactus planter. You can also see a baby moss rose and some widow sedum.I think this is going to be an Echineacea, could be either the purple or pale one as I’ve planted seeds of both.Rudbeckia (I think?) leaves are wonderfully soft.Cilantro is blooming beautifully! Future coriander.One parsley is thinking about blooming.Walking onions are so cool.Gaillardia blooming!Sooooo many evening primroses! Last week only a few were open!This mound of Oxalis was here when we moved in and it just gets showier all the time.
When putting in edging yesterday, we dug up and divided a cluster of non blooming daffodils. From reading the daffodil people’s website, either they hate me or need more sun. It took two hours to get them all in.
It took a long time also because i needed to fill in the dirt along the edging more tidily. You can see the clumpy spot on the sunny side in the middle. I didn’t want to step on the daffodils later, so that needed to happen first. All the daffodils in place between each Salvia and all the front edging with tidier fill.
