This pretty little native flower with the charming name Barbara's buttons, Marshallia caespitosa, has become a springtime favorite with pollinators in my garden. I doubt their is a plant anywhere that attracts as many diverse pollinators as this flower.
No one seems to know who Barbara was but the plant itself is named for the the botanist Moses Marshall. The grassy, compact rosette of leaves appear over the winter sending up bloom stalks around April. Through the summer the perennial plant dies back below the ground. It has naturalized very well in my front courtyard and is now ready to be moved to other places.
The flowers have a wonderful fragrance. Is it this that attracts all manner of flying insects? I counted no less than 12 insects on the flowers one afternoon and many of them are new to me.
 |
There must be something really good in there to attract so many.
My original plants came from the LBJ Wildflower Center but since then I have both transplanted and scattered seeds in my front courtyard to increase their numbers.
The two B's: beautiful and beneficial.
ReplyDeleteI love them for their usefulness in the landscape to us and to others.
DeleteWhat a lovely, dainty little plant--and that it supports so many pollinator insects is a big bonus. The fresh grass green paired with snowy white flowers is so pure and fresh.
ReplyDeleteThe plant completely mobbed in my yard is an exotic (Australia), Grevillea 'Superb'. Multiple species of nectar-feeding birds and every bee within a mile. The plant hums and wiggles with life all day long, 365 days a year.
I would love that plant but I fear too hot and humid here. I think they grow it on the west coast. Zone 8b but clearly a different 8b from ours!
DeleteI love it too! (Even if I can't smell it from here.) Regrettably, it doesn't appear to be well-suited to my climate.
ReplyDeleteOh well! Every part of the USA has its own diverse plant collection and that is fine with me. It's what makes America.
DeleteIf you find you have extra seeds, I would love to start some growing in my "meadow" :)
ReplyDeleteI certainly will. You might take a walk up Mirador. Just before you get to the top the spare ground on the left had lots of this plant. However, the people who cut the sides of the culvert scalped them last year so they may be gone.
Delete