Some of Muffin's flower jungle
Much to my consternation, Muffin likes flower jungles. Mostly a jumble of various flowers. (and weeds) To her thinking if it blooms it's a flower. I suppose she has a point but I keep thinking about the weed whacker or Amine 2-4-D brush killer. She likes old time flowers & plants if they're not annuals or come back up from seeds from last summer. Even the sage plants aren't the annual variety. A couple of her favorites that come back from seeds are cleome and castor beans. Both have a list of different names
I have no idea where either one originated and don't really care. Apparently the castor bean came from the orient. The redneck name is "dog tick" because the seeds resemble a bloated tick. When the seed pods start drying out they burst & shoot seeds as far as 30 or 40 feet. They will grow most anywhere. Especially where you don't want them. The seeds produce arsenic therefore deadly poison. I understand another deadly poison comes from castor bean seeds, (ricin) ??? In good soil & conditions the leaves can reach 2 feet in width and the plant can grow to 14-15 feet tall or more.
I like the cleome. They apparently came from central and south America around 1800. Not a fact but just my understanding. They're another plant that come back each year from seed that fall on the ground. They can be a nuisance if not controlled. They produce flowers & seed all summer long. They have a slew of names. The most common generic names are grandfather's whiskers, old man's whiskers, spider legs, spider plants and the one most common in the Appalachian region is pole cat flower. It got this name because like skunks, it uses chemical warfare when molested that smells like a polecat. (Don't ask me how a skunk got the name "polecat." I have no idea.) .......I noticed the leaves on Gitano's Lupines are almost identical to polecat flower leaves. ........Incidentally, the smell from polecat flowers isn't long lasting like a polecat. It usually dissipates on it's own in an hour or two. The odor from both are almost identical. If your dawg gets sprayed by a skunk, spray it with the stuff you get in sporting goods stores to kill your scant when deer hunting. It works pretty good on skunked dogs too. ........Paul H
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