Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Twin Leaf

It seems like everyday now something new is flowering out in the yard. I have a serious succession of blooms happening. While I have the diversity though I seriously lack the quantity. In a few years that should change.

Jeffersonia diphylla, aka twin leaf gets it's name from it's mirrored leaves that always open in pairs. It's a low growing ground cover, similar to violets when not mowed, but slightly taller. They form mound like clusters of leaves. I planted four of these last year. Immediately three of them crapped out and the fourth slowly died over the summer. It appears this plant is similar to other native rhizome wildflowers. A lot of them will happily divide underground on their own and one plant will happily clone itself into a little patch of wildflowers. Since this is done by the roots the need for green growth over most of the year isn't needed. Flowering is even less needed but they do it all the same.

Here is some young growth to one of the plants that came back. Three have come back but only one of those has flowered. Not sure on the fourth one, hopefully it's a late bloomer.

My ant garden is really coming together this year. Twin Leaf is among those plants who's seeds are distributed by ants. With so many of these types of plants around I'm bound to get a picture of the ants in action.