Phlox pungens redux

Submitted by penstemon on Fri, 10/17/2014 - 15:25

This is Phlox pungens. Picture taken today. 

It is not a particularly pleasant thing to weed around, or even to touch. Not a cushion phlox. More of a wanderer. Flowers white. 

"Perennial forming loose mats, 5cm or less high .....leaves very stiff and pungent, mostly lanceolate or lance-linear. 4-8mm long, 1-1.5 (2mm) wide, pubescent. often glandular, ciliate, punctate, the margins and dorsal midrib strongly thickened, gradually tapering into a sharp terminal bristle..."). (From Dorn's Vascular Plants of Wyoming, 1988.)

 

Bob

Comments


Submitted by Lori S. on Fri, 10/17/2014 - 20:02

Looks like it should be reasonably able to discourage grazers.


It's in a trough, with the similarly wandering Penstemon thompsoniae, and I've never seen a rabbit hop onto the trough and start grazing. They do do that, here. 


They started doing that here too a few years ago, unfortunately... had no idea how lucky I'd been to that point!  

Penstemon thompsoniae looks like another little charmer.