The bushes outside of my classroom are blooming. They are normally just a hedge of purple leaves, but now they have beautiful speckled flowers on them:
They are tiny though. You have to be pretty close to them to get a good look.
I went searching on the internet for the name of the plant, but I couldn’t find it. They’re a pretty common hedge here… purple leaf form and green leaf form.
What? A plant that you don’t know the name of? That is rare indeed.
Those are quite striking. They look like tiny trumpets to me. (Bear in mind that I know nothing about plants.)
Hi, Brad! You are indeed a man after my own heart – I, too, can’t just walk by a plant that really grabs my attention and not know its name. In this case, it also bring out a pet peeve of mine. The name of the plant that makes up that beautiful hedge in front of the porch at the portables is Pseuderanthemum (soo-der-RANTH-ee-mum) or purple false eranthemum. Now, that’s my pet peeve. Why would anyone choose to call such an amazing shrub “false” anything. OK, so it kind of looks like an eranthemum (which are also very common on Maui), but they were having a bad day and couldn’t come up with a new plant name?
Here in the Pacific Northwest we have False Solomon’s Seal and False Cypress. Both of these are – in my eyes – more beautiful than their non-false counterparts, but are forever relegated to the ranks of wannabes.
I therefore propose that we no longer call your beautiful hedge false anything, but hereby christen it Bradroyukum magnificatum or in common parlance Brad’s Magnificent Purple Shrub. There, that’s better!
Excellent!
Thanks for the name, Paul! I should have just asked you. Hehe…
I wonder what the rest of the Latin name means. “Anthus” in Latin is “flower”, right? I don’t know the other parts…