Plant Information A cactus (plural cacti, cactuses, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the flowering plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 139 genera with nearly 2,000 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word “cactus” derives, through Latin, from the ancient ancient Greek, kaktos, a name originally used for a spiny plant […]
Category: Crop Vignette
Crop Vignette: Daylilies
Daylilies are flowering plants in the genus Hemerocallis, a member of the family Asphodelaceae. Their scientific name, Hemerocallis, is from the Greek hemeros, a day, and kallos, meaning beauty, because the flowers are only open a single day.
Crop Vignette: Crapemyrtle
Plant Information Lagerstroemia or crape myrtle is a genus of about 50 species of deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs in the family Lythraceae, that are native to the Indian subcontinent, southeast Asia, northern Australia and parts of Oceania, cultivated in warmer climates around the world. The most popular species, Lagerstroemia indica, arrived in England […]
Crop Vignette: Impatiens
Plant Information Impatiens is a genus of more than 1,000 flowering plants in the family Balsaminaceae widely distributed throughout the Northern Hemisphere and the tropics. Most Impatiens species occur in the tropical and subtropical mountain forests in Africa, Madagascar, the Himalayas, the Western Ghats (southwest India), and Southeast Asia. Two species (I. turrialbana and I. […]
Crop Vignette: Holly
Plant Information Ilex or holly is a genus of about 480 species of flowering plants in the family Aquifoliaceae, and the only living genus in that family. The species are evergreen or deciduous trees, shrubs, and climbers from the tropics to temperate zones worldwide. The common ancestor of most of the extant species probably appeared […]
Crop Vignette: Flowering Cherry
Plant Information Ornamental flowering cherries belong to the genus Prunus in the rose family Rosacea, consisting primarily of species native to Asia. The majority of the flowering species are native to Japan and Korea, where centuries of propagation and cultivation have led to the selection of hundreds of genotypes. The most well-known ornamental cherry is […]
Crop Vignette: Ferns
Plant Information Ferns first appear in the fossil record about 360 million years ago in the middle Devonian period, but many of the current families and species did not appear until roughly 145 million years ago in the early Cretaceous, after flowering plants came to dominate many environments. Along with club mosses, spikemosses, horsetails, and […]
Crop Vignette: Hosta
Plant Information Hosta is a genus of plants commonly known as hostas, plantain lilies and occasionally by the Japanese name giboshi. The genus is currently placed in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae, and is native to northeast Asia (China, Japan, Korea and the Russian Far East). Hostas are widely cultivated as shade-tolerant foliage plants. Hybridization […]
Crop Vignette: Hydrangea
Plant Information The genus Hydrangea is expansive and includes approximately 1,000 species, hybrids, and cultivars, which can be deciduous or evergreen shrubs up to 10 ft tall, small trees or climbers reaching up to 98 ft. They are native to Asia and the Americas, with the greatest species diversity in eastern Asia, notably Korea, China, […]
Crop Vignette: Salvia
Plant Information Salvia is the largest genus of plants in the family Lamiaceae, with the number of species estimated to range from 700 to 1,000. There are 3 main regions for radiation of Salvia: Central and South America with approximately 500 species, Central Asia and the Mediterranean with approximately 250 species, and eastern Asia with […]