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Plant of the Day
Saturday 7 August 2021
Originating from North America the fast-growing annual Coreopsis tinctoria (dyer's tickseed) is flowering. From summer into early autumn, the bright yellow flowerheads with red centres produce this dazzling display as part of the Order Beds at Cambridge Botanic Garden, UK.
Jill Raggett
Plant of the Day
Saturday 4 December 2021
The annual grass Sorghum bicolor (sorghum, Egyptian rice corn, great millet, Guinea corn) is cultivated for its grain, which is used for food for humans, animal feed, and ethanol production. It comes from Africa and is cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions. Here it was growing in the Order Beds of Cambridge Botanic Garden, UK.
Jill Raggett
Plant of the Day
Monday 3 August 2020
The biennial or short-lived herbaceous perennial Scolymus hispanicus (common golden thistle, Spanish oyster thistle) grows over Southern Europe in uncultivated agricultural fields and roadsides. It is foraged as both a food and medicinal plant. Prior to cooking, the plant's spiny leaves are stripped and the roots cleaned. The plant is added to stews, roasted or used in soups, salads and egg dishes. The root has been used as a coffee substitute and its flowers as a colouring substitute for saffron.
Jill Raggett
Plant of the Day
Saturday 23 November 2019
Borders featuring grasses tend to look great at this time of year before storms flatten some of the species. Here the fine, deciduous foliage and airy, curved inflorescences of Eragrostis curvula (African love grass, weeping love grass) had faded to a pale beige making a soft foreground to this collection in the Systematic Beds at Cambridge Botanic Garden, UK.
Jill Raggett
Plant of the Day
Monday 14 January 2019
In winter the Mediterranean herbaceous perennial, Mandragora autumnalis (autumn mandrake) grows a rosette of glossy green, wrinkled leaves on the ground. Then large groups of purple flowers bloom followed in summer by poisonous tomato-like fruit which contain alkaloids. These plants thrive in alkaline, deep, sandy, moist soil in some shade.
Jill Raggett
Plant of the Day
Friday 30 June 2017
Another species flowering in the order beds of Copenhagen Botanic Garden, Denmark, was Iris orientalis (Turkish iris). This robust, semi-evergreen, herbaceous perennial reaches nearly 1m tall and in early summer produces clusters of up to 5 flowers. This plant thrives in moist, humus-rich soil in a sheltered position with full sun or partial shade.
Jill Raggett
