Bigleaf Snowbell, Styrax grandifolius
We encountered this beautiful shrub on a wildflower rescue. It's a tricky area. On one hand, it's very near a creek so houses are probably not going to be built directly on top of it. On the other hand, (1) you never know, and (2) high amounts of soil runoff might kill everything here anyway. So we are just taking some of the plants.
The shrub was near this little stream. The water goes underground around the middle of the picture, and reemerges just out of the shot on the right.
I'm 98% certain that this is Bradbury's Bergamot, Monarda bradburiana. (It's not in flower yet, so I can't be 100% sure.)
A few more shots of the Bigleaf Snowbell:
Gorgeous! I got such a charge when I first spotted this plant. ("Come look! What is it, what is it, what is it?!")
The flowers look as though they should be wonderfully fragrant... they had a light scent but I wouldn't exactly call it pleasant.
A similar shrub is American Snowbell (Styrax americanus). That plant has smaller leaves and fewer flowers per raceme.
12 comments:
I love wildflowers - your photos are beautiful. How fun to "discover" these gorgeous blooms!
You're on a wildflower rescue, and I think about my careless stomping through the woods, perhaps crushing rare plants as I go. I wish I were you.
soooo pretty
They are beautiful!
Those are some beautiful blooms.
A person like you, taking some but not all, is probably the best thing that could happen to that area and to the lovely Styrax, Rurality.
Stuff happens so fast to property, with so little warning.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
I'm glad you took a picture of the plant cradled in your hand. It's so helpful to get a sense of the size. That is a beautiful plant. So sad about land development and the loss of habitat. On the other hand - thank goodness there are people trying to do whatever they can to soften the impact.
I guess everything is under development near you too. Last time I was in Bama, my grandarent's farm was surrounded by new subdivisions. All of those woods and fields are covered in houses. I hate it.
Good for you to save some of the plants and flowers. Don't you just love those little streams that run underground for awhile? My sister and I found one last year behind my grandparent's house. You can hear the trickle under the ground and follow it 'til it comes out again.
Thanks y'all. This is definitely an area that's going to be developed. They've already made lots of roads. We got permission from the developer to be there. Unfortunately most of the area away from the water have been cut for timber in the past 10 years or so, so we didn't find as much as we'd hoped.
BTW Pablo it really wasn't that long ago that I didn't even know what poison ivy looked like. :)
Great hunt- you found some real beauties. Not trying to be nosey, but you have an interesting palm too- :)
I've probably had a pic of my palm dozens of times but you're the only one to notice. Or to mention it anyway. :)
Yeah I've never seen anyone else with a very short life line. (The other hand is even worse.) Supposedly the fate line makes up for it though.
As a youngun' I was convinced that I was going to die at age 27. No idea why. Twenty years past that now though.
What a lovely stream; yes the flowers too. Sometimes developers just don't know when to quit.
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