#asparagaceae

[faguscarolinensis]

Agave x 'Kissho Kan' / 'Kissho Kan' Agave at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Duke University in Durham, NC

[ruthbancroftgarden]

Yucca gloriosa 'Bright Star'

This yucca is native to the southeastern United States, with the cultivar 'Bright Star' being a selection with vivid yellow margins on the leaves. It is a very attractive plant at all times, but even more so when it puts forth its panicle of bell-like waxy white flowers. Yuccas are related to the agaves, and have traditionally been placed in the family Agavaceae. In recent years, however, these plants have been moved into the large Asparagus Family, in the subfamily Agavoideae.

-Brian

[francescointoppa]

Scilla autunnale (Prospero autumnale (L.) Speta, Asparagaceae)

[snototter]

A mat-rush flower (Lomandra sp.) in Lane Cove River Park, Australia

by John Turnbull

[syngoniums]

Yucca treculeana in Uvalde County.

[wildflowers-of-southern-ontario]

False Solomon's Seal Maianthemum racemosum Asparagaceae

Photograph taken on August 13, 2023, at Pinery Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada.

[wenbochenphoto]

Stilted Paper-lily （Laxmannia brachyphylla）. A small tufted, stilt-rooted perennial herb from the south coast of SW Western Australia.

[kararadaygum]

..

[drhoz]

#1931 - Cordyline australis - Cabbage Tree

AKA tī kōuka or cabbage-palm. Originally Dracaena australis, when it was described by Georg Forster in 1786, after Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander collected some in 1769.

Another of Aotearoa’s most iconic plants. The binomial refers to the shape of the rhizomes - club-like - and the southern distribution. The common name name is likely down to Georg Forster again, writing in his Voyage round the World (1777) who discusses the edibility of the central shoot in comparison to the ‘true cabbage palm’ - probably the cabbage palmetto (Sabal palmetto) of Florida.

It’s certainly edible - not only do a wide variety of New Zealand native fauna love the stuff, the Māori cultivated it for the rhizomes and growing shoots. The meter-long leaves were also collected for the very strong fibres they contained, which were used as rope and as protective capes and legwear when travelling anywhere Matagouri and Spaniard Grass grows. You’ll recall those from earlier posts - protective legwear is strongly recommended.

The Cordylines of NZ were probably derived from an influx of tropical plants some 15 million years ago, and promptly diversified. They certainly thrive in cool climates much better than similar-looking plants - they’re now grown as far north as Scotland, and one common name in use in the UK is Torquay Palm. 

A healthy Cabbage Tree can be as tall as 20m, but there’s not many of those left. That’s partly down to land clearance, Rural Decline where a lone Cabbage Palm that was lucky enough to be left behind by land clearance is slowly killed by livestock and rabbits, and Sudden Decline caused by the bacterium Phytoplasma australiense, which may be spread from tree to tree by the introduced passionvine hopper from Australia.

[faguscarolinensis]

Agave lophantha / Thorn-Crested Agave at the JC Raulston Arboretum at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC

[ruthbancroftgarden]

Agave parrasana × salmiana

This is a hybrid I made back in the 90's, combining the enormous green-leaved Agave salmiana with the more compact blue-gray Agave parrasana. They combined nicely, with a large artichoke-like blue-green rosette of leaves, and I was especially pleased to see that when it came time to flower the buds proved to be red-tinged (this is a trait seen in Agave parrasana, but not in Agave salmiana). The plant pictured has a couple of offsets, so we be able to keep it going when the mother plant dies after flowering.

-Brian

[francescointoppa]

Scilla silvestre (Scilla bifolia L., Asparagaceae)

[deathtek]

5/5/24

[syngoniums]

Blue funnel-lily (Androstephium coeruleum) is one of the earliest blooming wildflowers in this region. This cemetery population is just kicking off. This is in fact a fairly uncommon plant to run across in my experience, though that may simply be a factor of not looking early enough. The corms are apparently edible, but it would be a shame to dig them up. They appear to be nearly nonexistent in cultivation, outside the collections of the most obsessive bulbaholics.

[wildflowers-of-southern-ontario]

Star-flowered Lily-of-the-Valley Maianthemum stellatum Asparagaceae

Photographs taken on August 13, 2023, at Pinery Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada.