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December 2004 Telesonix jamesii November 2004 Ranunculus eschscholtzii October 2004 Crocus speciosus September 2004 Arenaria 'Wallowas' August 2004 Scilla autumnalis July 2004 Leontopodium souliei June 2004 Penstemon pinifolius May 2004 Draba rigida v. bryoides April 2004 Vitaliana primuliflora March 2004 Clematis hirsutissima February 2004 Lewisia pygmaea January 2004 Hymenoxis grandiflora Archive 2003 Archive 2002 Archive 2001 Archive 2000 Archive 1999 Archive 1998 Archive 1997

Plant of the Month January 2004 Hymenoxis grandiflora by Iza Goroff Hymenoxis grandiflora is a member of the Asteraceae, the Composites, the family with the largest number of species, estimated at well over 20,000 species. A few botanists split the genus Hymenoxis into several genera; the one applied to this species alone is Rydbergia. Other rock garden species in the unsplit genus include Hymenoxis acaulis and its near relative Hymenoxis herbaceae. Unlike most alpine plants Hymenoxis grandiflora has a well-recognized popular name - Old Man of the Mountain, although some botanists, while retaining the botanical name as Hymenoxis grandiflora, use Rydbergia as a common name, commemorating Per Axel Rydberg, an early Rocky Mountain botanist. Hymenoxis grandiflora is native to gravely slopes of tundra areas of the Rocky Mountains, extending from Montana and Idaho south into Colorado. It is one of the showiest plants of the alpine flora with shaggy, orange-yellow centered bright yellow flower heads 3" (8 cm) or more in diameter on a short ~7" (18 cm) plant. Its foliage is gray and pinnatifid or bipinnatifid. Although sometimes listed as a perennial, it is not that at all. It grows for a number of years without flowering. In its last year it flowers, produces seeds, and dies, a true monocarp. One experiment claimed a life of exactly four years, although I do not know if that experiment has been duplicated. Hymenoxis grandiflora is growable, but not easy. Based on where it's found, the ideal environment would have a cool but sunny exposure, an open, gravely soil, and regular watering - not on its foliage. Propagation is only from seed which germinate easily at room temperature.