Etlingera elatior (also known as torch ginger, ginger flower, red ginger lily, torch lily, wild ginger, combrang, bunga kantan, Philippine wax flower, xiang bao jiaing, Indonesian tall ginger, boca de dragón, rose de porcelaine, and porcelain rose) is a species of herbaceous perennial plant. Botanical synonyms include Nicolaia elatior, Phaeomeria magnifica, Nicolaia speciosa, Phaeomeria speciosa, Alpinia elatior, and Alpinia magnifica.
The showy pink flowers are used in decorative arrangements, while the flower buds are an important ingredient in the Nonya dish laksa. In North Sumatra, the flower buds are used for a dish called arsik ikan mas (Andaliman/Szechuan pepper-spiced carp).
It is known in Indonesian as bunga kecombrang or honje, Malay as bunga kantan and Thai as ดาหลา , daalaa. In Thailand, it is eaten in a kind of Thai salad preparation.
In Karo, it is known as asam cekala (asam meaning 'sour'), and the flower buds, but more importantly the ripe seed pods, which are packed with small black seeds, are an essential ingredient of the Karo version of sayur asam, and are particularly suited to cooking fresh fish.
From the leaves of E. elatior, three caffeoylquinic acids, including chlorogenic acid (CGA), and three flavonoids, quercitrin, isoquercitrin and catechin, have been isolated.Content of CGA was significantly higher than flowers of Lonicera japonica (Japanese honeysuckle), the commercial source. A protocol for producing a standardized herbal extract of CGA from leaves of E. elatior (40%) has been developed, compared to commercial CGA extracts from honeysuckle flowers (25%).
Gaillardia aristata is a North American species of flowering plants in the sunflower family known by the common names common blanketflower and common gaillardia. This perennial wildflower is widespread across much of North America, from Yukon east to Québec and south as far as California, Arizona, Illinois, and Connecticut, although it may be naturalized rather than native in parts of that range. It is also naturalized in scattered locations in Europe, Australia, and South America.
Gaillardia aristata grows in many habitats. It is a perennial herb reaching maximum heights of anywhere between 20–70 centimetres (7.9–27.6 in). It has lance-shaped leaves near the base and several erect, naked stems holding the flowers.
Easily grown in average, dry to medium, well-drained soils in full sun. Prefers moist, organically rich soils that drain well but tolerates dry soils and drought. Performs poorly in unamended, heavy clay soils typically found in the St. Louis area.
Deadheading spent flowers is not necessary, but will tidy the planting and may encourage additional bloom. If flowering declines or stops in summer, consider cutting back plants to encourage a fall bloom. ‘Bijou’ is a seed strain that will self-seed in optimum growing conditions if flowers are not deadheaded.
Each flower head has a center of brownish or reddish purple disc florets and a fringe of ray florets which are about one to three centimeters (0.4-1.2 inches) long and yellow to reddish with dark bases.
The fruit is a stout, hairy achene which may be over a centimeter (>0.4 inches) long including the long, spiky pappus.
Gaillardia aristata is a species of blanket flower that is native from North Dakota to Colorado west to California and British Columbia. It typically grows in clumps to 30” tall and is found primarily in dry sites on meadows, prairies, grasslands, mountain foothills and at lower mountain elevations to 9000’. ‘Bijou’ is a dwarf seed strain that typically grows to only 10-12” tall. It features orange-red daisy-like flowers (to 3” diameter) with yellow tipped rays.
Blooms late spring to fall. Lance-shaped gray-green leaves may be pinnately lobed near the base of the plant. Flowers are attractive to butterflies. In areas where goldfinches are present, gardeners should consider leaving some spent flowerheads for the birds.
Gaillardia is sometimes commonly called blanket flower in probable reference to the resemblance of its rich and warm flower colors and patterns to blankets woven by Native Americans.
However, some authorities suggest that the name blanket flower was originally derived from the habit of wild species plants to form colonies that blanket the ground. Specific epithet means bristly in reference to the hairs that cover the flowerhead receptacles, stems and leaves. The popular but short lived gaillardia hybrid sold in commerce as G. x grandiflora are crosses between perennial G. aristata and annual G. pulchella.
Polygonum aviculare or common knotgrass is a plant related to buckwheat and dock. It is also called prostrate knotweed, birdweed, pigweed and lowgrass. It is an annual found in fields and wasteland, with white flowers from June to October. It is widespread across many countries in temperate regions, apparently native to Eurasia and North America, naturalized in temperate parts of the Southern Hemisphere.
Common knotgrass is an annual herb with a semi-erect stem that may grow to 10 to 40 cm (4 to 16 in) high. The leaves are hairless and short-stalked. They are longish-elliptical with short stalks and rounded bases; the upper ones are few and are linear and stalkless.
The stipules are fused into a stem-enclosing, translucent sheath known as an ochrea that is membranous and silvery. The flowers are regular, green with white or pink margins. Each has five perianth segments, overlapping at the base, five to eight stamens and three fused carpels. The fruit is a dark brown, three-edged nut. The seeds need light to germinate which is why this plant appears in disturbed soil in locations where its seeds may have lain dormant for years.
Widespread and common in Great Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavia.
Chenopodium album is a fast-growing weedy annual plant in the genus Chenopodium.
Though cultivated in some regions, the plant is elsewhere considered a weed. Common names include lamb's quarters, melde, goosefoot and fat-hen, though the latter two are also applied to other species of the genus Chenopodium, for which reason it is often distinguished as white goosefoot. It is sometimes also called pigweed, however, pigweed is also a name for a few weeds in the family Amaranthaceae, it is for example used for the redroot pigweed (Amaranthus albus).
Chenopodium album is extensively cultivated and consumed in Northern India as a food crop.
Its native range is obscure due to extensive cultivation, but includes most of Europe, from where Linnaeus described the species in 1753. Plants native in eastern Asia are included under C. album, but often differ from European specimens.It is widely introduced elsewhere, e.g. Africa, Australasia, North America, and Oceania,and now occurs almost everywhere in soils rich in nitrogen, especially on wasteland.
It tends to grow upright at first, reaching heights of 10–150 cm (rarely to 3 m), but typically becomes recumbent after flowering (due to the weight of the foliage and seeds) unless supported by other plants. The leaves are alternate and can be varied in appearance.
The first leaves, near the base of the plant, are toothed and roughly diamond-shaped, 3–7 cm long and 3–6 cm broad. The leaves on the upper part of the flowering stems are entire and lanceolate-rhomboid, 1–5 cm long and 0.4–2 cm broad; they are waxy-coated, unwettable and mealy in appearance, with a whitish coat on the underside. The small flowers are radially symmetrical and grow in small cymes on a dense branched inflorescence 10–40 cm long.
Campanula portenschlagiana syn. C. muralis, is a species of flowering plant in the family Campanulaceae, native to the Dalmatian Mountains in Croatia. It is a vigorous, low-growing, mound-forming evergreen perennial with deep purple flowers in summer. Common names include Dalmatian bellflower, Adria bellflower and wall bellflower.
Description
The plant forms a mat of foliage about 10 cm (4 in) high and 50 cm (20 in) or more wide, with many heart- or kidney-shaped leaves. Deep purple or blue, funnel-shaped, 5-petalled flowers, 2 cm long, are borne in profusion, completely covering the plant from mid- to late summer.
Flowers may be pollinated by beetles, flies, bees and butterflies, but are also capable of self-pollinating.
C. portenschlagiana is a low-growing perennial quickly forming an evergreen mat of small, rounded leaves.
As an alpine plant, it requires sharp drainage, so is suitable for an alpine garden, rock garden, or as groundcover, in sun or partial shade. Given suitable conditions, it will rapidly colonize cracks and crevices in walls and pavements. It is hardy at least to USDA hardiness zone 4 (−30 °F or −34 °C).
Aralia californica, known by the common name elk clover though not actually a clover, is a large herb in the family Araliaceae, the only member of the ginseng family native to California and southwestern Oregon. It is also called California aralia and California spikenard.
It is a deciduous, herbaceous, perennial plant growing to a height of 2–3 m on stems which are thick but not woody. The stems bear large green pinnately compound or tri-pinnately compound leaves 1–2 m long and 1 m broad, the leaflets 15–30 cm long and 7–15 cm broad. The leaflets are arranged opposite with an odd terminal leaflet. The greenish white flowers are produced in large compound racemes of umbels 30–45 cm in diameter at the stem apex; each flower is 2–3 mm in diameter, and matures to small (3–5 mm) dark purple or black fruit, each berry containing 3–5 seeds.
It is distributed throughout western and central California and into Oregon. It is more common in cooler, moister areas in northern California, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area.
This plant is sometimes substituted for other species of its genus which are used as herbal remedies, such as American spikenard and Japanese spikenard. A preparation of the root has traditionally been used as an anti-inflammatory, douche, and cough suppressant.
Stachys byzantina (syn. S. lanata; lamb's-earor woolly hedgenettle) is a species of Stachys, native to Turkey, Armenia, and Iran. It is cultivated over much of the temperate world as an ornamental plant, and is naturalised in some locations as an escapee from gardens. Plants are very often found under the synonym Stachys lanata or Stachys olympica.
Lamb's-ear flowers in late spring and early summer; plants produce tall spike-like stems with a few reduced leaves. The flowers are small and either white[citation needed] or purple. The plants tend to be evergreen but can "die" back during cold winters and regenerate new growth from the crowns.
Lamb's-ear plants are perennial herbs usually densely covered with gray or silver-white, silky-lanate hairs. They are named lamb's ears because of the leaves curved shape and white, soft, fur-like hair coating. Flowering stems are erect, often branched, and tend to be 4-angled, growing 40–80 cm tall. The leaves are thick and somewhat wrinkled, densely covered on both sides with gray-silver colored, silky-lanate hairs; the under sides are more silver-white in color than the top surfaces. The leaves are arranged oppositely on the stems and 5 to 10 cm long. The leaf petioles are semiamplexicaul (the bases wrapping half way around the stem) with the basal leaves having blades oblong-elliptic in shape, measuring 10 cm long and 2.5 cm wide (though variation exists in cultivated forms). The leaf margins are crenulate but covered with dense hairs, the leaf apexes attenuate, gradually narrowing to a rounded point.
The flowering spikes are 10–22 cm long, producing verticillasters that each have many flowers and are crowded together over most of the length on the spike-like stem. The leaves produced on the flowering stems are greatly reduced in size and subsessile, the lower ones slightly longer than the interscholastic and the upper ones shorter than the verticillasters. The leaf bracteoles are linear to linear-lanceolate in shape and 6 mm long.
The flowers have no pedicels (sessile) and the calyx is tubular-campanulate in shape, being slightly curved and 1.2 cm long. The calyx is glabrous except for the inside surface of the teeth, having 10 veins with the accessory veins inconspicuous. The 2–3 mm long calyx teeth are ovate-triangular in shape and are subequal or the posterior teeth larger, with rigid apices. The corollas have some darker purple tinted veins inside; they are 1.2 cm long with silky-lanate hairs but bases that are glabrous.
The corolla tubes are about 6 mm long with the upper lip ovate in shape with entire margins; the lower lips are subpatent with the middle lobe broadly ovate in shape, lateral lobes oblong. The stamen filaments are densely villous from the base to the middle. The styles are exserted much past the corolla. There are immature nutlets without hairs, brown in color and oblong in shape.
Vinca minor (common names lesser periwinkle or dwarf periwinkle) is a species of flowering plant native to central and southern Europe, from Portugal and France north to the Netherlands and the Baltic States, east to the Caucasus, and also southwestern Asia in Turkey. Other vernacular names used in cultivation include small periwinkle, common periwinkle, and sometimes in the United States, myrtle or creeping myrtle.
Vinca minor is a trailing, viny subshrub, spreading along the ground and rooting along the stems to form large clonal colonies and occasionally scrambling up to 40 centimetres (16 in) high but never twining or climbing. The leaves are evergreen, opposite, 2–4.5 centimetres (0.79–1.77 in) long and 1–2.5 centimetres (0.39–0.98 in) broad, glossy dark green with a leathery texture and an entire margin.
The flowers are solitary in the leaf axils and are produced mainly from early spring to mid summer but with a few flowers still produced into the autumn; they are violet-purple (pale purple or white in some cultivated selections), 2–3 centimetres (0.79–1.18 in) diameter, with a five-lobed corolla. The fruit is a pair of follicles 2.5 centimetres (0.98 in) long, containing numerous seeds.
The closely related species Vinca major is similar, but larger in all parts, and also has relatively broader leaves with a hairy margin.
The species is commonly grown as a groundcover in temperate gardens for its evergreen foliage, spring and summer flowers, ease of culture, and dense habit that smothers most weeds. The species has few pests or diseases outside its native range and is widely naturalized and classified as an invasive species in parts of North America. Invasion can be restricted by removal of rooting stems in spring.
Once established, it is difficult to eradicate, as its waxy leaves shed most water-based herbicide sprays. Removal involves cutting, followed by immediate application of concentrated glyphosate or triclopyr to the cut stems. Repeated chemical treatments may be necessary, along with digging up the roots where feasible.
Etlingera elatior (also known as torch ginger, ginger flower, red ginger lily, torch lily, wild ginger, combrang, bunga kantan, Philippine wax flower, xiang bao jiaing, Indonesian tall ginger, boca de dragón, rose de porcelaine, and porcelain rose) is a species of herbaceous perennial plant. Botanical synonyms include Nicolaia elatior, Phaeomeria magnifica, Nicolaia speciosa, Phaeomeria speciosa, Alpinia elatior, and Alpinia magnifica.
From the leaves of E. elatior, three caffeoylquinic acids, including chlorogenic acid (CGA), and three flavonoids, quercitrin, isoquercitrin and catechin, have been isolated.Content of CGA was significantly higher than flowers of Lonicera japonica (Japanese honeysuckle), the commercial source. A protocol for producing a standardized herbal extract of CGA from leaves of E. elatior (40%) has been developed, compared to commercial CGA extracts from honeysuckle flowers (25%).
