June 2020 Prairie Rose Chapter Native Plant Society of Texas

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JUNE 2020 NEWSLETTER

JUNE ACTIVITIES

 

To revisit this wonderful event just go to the FaceBook page and find previous events

https://www.facebook.com/events/710052706478070

JUNE 11, 5 p.m.

WATER UNIVERSITY

TEXAS A&M AGRI-LIFE DALLAS CENTER

VIRTUAL MEETING, FREE

There’s a growing trend to incorporate native plants in landscapes not only for their ability to save water, but also for the incredible beauty and the countless ecosystem services they provide! Learn how to grow our favorite native wildflowers, trees, shrubs as well as perennials with lush vibrant colors and textures to make your garden the envy of the neighborhood. We’ll also talk proper soil preparation, proper installation, and provide tips for long term maintenance to keep your native landscape looking its best. You’ll be provided a plant list as big as the Lone Star State.
Cost: FREE

Thursday, June 11, 2020
5:00pm – 6:00pm

This class will be LIVE on the Facebook page of AgriLife Water University.  Our staff horticulturalist and water resource professionals will be online taking and answering your questions.

https://www.facebook.com/events/710052706478070

 

WHITE MILKWORT
Polygalaccae, Polygaia alba

I think this is one of my favorite wildflowers.  OK, everyone who knows me can stop laughing now as you know that almost every wildflower I see I always say “I love that plant”.  This plant always strikes me as perky for some reason and I like its spiky inflorescence.

Polygaia, commonly known as White Milkwort is a perennial in the Milkwort family. It begins to bloom in the late spring and it can continue until November under favorable conditions. It’s found in depressions, thickets, and ravines across the Great Plains from Canada through northern Mexico. White Milk is an erect, small plant about 12 – 16 inches tall with numerous slender, erect, unbranched stems.

Each stem Is topped with an elongated spikelet of white flowers (racemes).  These racemes can be up to 3 ½ inches long with many small flowers, each about ¼ inch long with 5 sepals.  The inner two are much larger and look like petals.  There are whorls of leaves at the stem base with a few alternate linear leaves up the stem.  This plant likes part shade, low soil moisture and requires little water.  White Milkwort is also highly deer resistant.  The flowers are followed by rounded or oval-shaped seed pods.

The Sioux made a decoction of the root to treat ear aches.  Polygala is from the Greek “polys”, many or much, and gala, milk for a European species said to increase milk production in lactating mothers.  Alba means white, referring to the flowers.

The Deep Dive from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

 

ROCK ROSE
Pavonia lasiopetala

Mallow Family

Last month we included an in-depth look at Mexican Hat from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.  We’re pleased to bring you another fabulous article this month from them – a deeper look at our wonderful Rock Rose, a staple of many of our gardens.

Deep Dive: Rock Rose
Pavonia lasiopetala

Anyone feel like some tacos and a drink? You’re in luck: Rock roses have both — okay, not exactly, but stay with us.

These perennial shrubs provide valuable nectar to all types of flying fauna. Visits from bees, butterflies and hummingbirds, in turn, help the plants reproduce. Rock roses are also eye-catching (that’s what wearing fuchsia to the party gets you) and highly drought-tolerant, making them a great choice for challenging garden settings. Add sunny yellow pollen to the mix, which feeds bee larvae, and you’ve got a full meal deal. Now that you’ve got food and sex on the brain, let’s take a deep dive into the plant also known as Pavonia lasiopetala and get to know these blooming beauties a little better.

If you’ve ever wondered how pollen gets from one plant to another of the same species, here’s your answer: pollinators. Wind can do it, too, but rock rose pollen is a bit heavy for wind to carry. So the plants rely on insects. This (non-native) honeybee, for one, is coming in for a soft landing, covered in bright yellow, sticky pollen that’s easily seen by the naked eye

Here’s where your tasty beverage comes in: This honeybee is collecting nectar using its proboscis (a strawlike tongue) at the base of the flower petals. As you can see, pollen is to bees as sand is to humans: It gets everywhere. It’s not uncommon to see a bee standing on rock rose petals, scraping pollen off its antennae, face and and body with its legs. (It’s also not hard to imagine them saying, “Come on! Even in my eyes!”) Fun fact: Many bees have comblike features on their legs for this very purpose; female honeybees push pollen into special baskets (called “corbiculae”) for transport to the hive.

And now for your serving of pollen tacos: This image shows an early stage of a rock rose bloom. The anthers (which resemble little yellow tacos) have just opened, exposing their pollen-grain filling (take that, picadillo!). The tacolike anthers are connected to the staminal column by filaments. The style (a female reproductive part) has pushed out through that column (more on that in a sec), exposing sticky-tipped stigmas (the small, fuzzy pink balls at the tips).

When a rock rose bloom first opens, the staminal column with its male filaments and anthers (our tacos on sticks) can be seen. The end of the staminal column is simply an open tube. In this image, the female parts of the flower haven’t yet pushed up and out (as they have in previous and subsquent images).

Here, you can see a newly emerged, multibranched style with stigmas, like natural pink dusters or dainty maces, on its tips.

This image clearly shows the attraction between the sticky stigmas and likewise clingy pollen grains. A subsequent series of events is required in order to complete fertilization, including pollen germination, a pollen tube growing down through the style to the ovary, and male and female gametes teaming up to form a zygote and the seed’s endosperm (among other details). What’s more: In the greater world of nature, this miraculous series happens billions of times every day. Turns out plant procreation isn’t quite as simple as dinner and drinks. But it sure is wonderful. Click on the image below to visit the Website

 

DEMONSTRATION GARDEN

Our garden is looking a little shaggy, but it’s still beautiful with so many plants blooming.  If you have spare time, please help us maintain it.  Even just 30 minutes occasionally helps keep paths clear and dead plants and weeds removed.

 

 

 

FALL PLANT SALE I wanted to comment that we will definitely have a fall plant sale.  We will figure out ways to make this happen, even if we have to take orders and deliver plants curbside.  As we move through summer and into the fall, start making your wish list.

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**ARCHIVED POST AUTHOR: prairierose