DESKTOP 3128 - TRACHELIUM

Trachelium caeruleum (common name blue throatwort) is a species of flowering plant in the family Campanulaceae native to the Mediterranean, where its native range includes Algeria, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, and Sicily. It has also become naturalised in a few areas, including New Zealand, the Azores, and parts of mainland Europe. 

 

Growing to 120 cm tall by 30 cm wide, it is a woody-based erect herbaceous perennial, with oval leaves and dense cushions of violet-purple flowers in summer. The specific epithet caeruleum means "dark blue". In temperate climates this plant is usually grown as a half-hardy annual for summer bedding schemes or planters. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. There are many cultivars with a variety of flower colours, including white, red, pink, and dark purple.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme

DESKTOP 2086 - AUSTRALIAN BLUEBELL

Wahlenbergia stricta, or Australian Bluebell, Tall or Austral Bluebell, is an Australian wildflower from the Campanulaceae family. It is considered the most commonly encountered of the Wahlenbergias] It is found in all Australian states but not the Northern Territory. It is often seen growing by the side of the road, enjoying the extra runoff.

W. stricta is a perennial herb flowering mainly in spring or summer with pale blue bell-like flowers. The leaves are long and linear, 5–70 millimetres long. The five-petalled flowers are erect on long, slender stems and about 6–20 millimetres in diameter. It forms thin, carrot shaped tubers.

Australian bluebells are generally easily propagated by division or root cutting. The seed is a very fine, black powder. It germinates readily in a few weeks and is best directly sown into tubes or cells as the seed and plant are very small and hard to separate and prick out. There are a number of common cultivars, including various shades of blue from a saturated blue similar to #00f through to white. Various double forms are available.

To maintain a cultivar propagation must be by vegetative means (division or cuttings). Once established W. stricta is very hardy - the pot can be dried out completely and the plant reduced to a tuber, yet it will reshoot when the rain comes. It is hardy in a range of soils from sand to gravel, clay to humus.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

DESKTOP 982 - WAHLENBERGIA

Wahlenbergia is a genus of between 150–270 species of flowering plants in the family Campanulaceae, with a cosmopolitan distribution except for North America; the highest species diversity is in Africa and Australasia. Wahlenbergia species have dispersed widely, even to oceanic islands, and there are four species known from the island of Saint Helena, including the now extinct species W. roxburghii. The genus was named after Göran Wahlenberg (a Swedish botanist who taught at Uppsala University) by German botanist H. A. Schrader (Heinrich Schrader), in 1814.

This post is part of the Nature Footstep Digital Art Meme,
and also part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

DESKTOP 692 - TRACHELIUM

Trachelium caeruleum (common name blue throatwort) is a species of flowering plant in the family Campanulaceae native to the Mediterranean, where its native range includes Algeria, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, and Sicily. It has also become naturalised in a few areas, including New Zealand, the Azores, and parts of mainland Europe.
 
Growing to 120 cm tall by 30 cm wide, it is a woody-based erect herbaceous perennial, with oval leaves and dense cushions of violet-purple flowers in summer. The specific epithet caeruleum means "dark blue".
 
In temperate climates this plant is usually grown as a half-hardy annual for summer bedding schemes or planters. It has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. There are many cultivars with a variety of flower colours, including white, red, pink, and dark purple.

This post is part of the Blue Monday meme,
and also part of the Macro Monday meme.