Sasha's Flower Garden

Lamium album (White Deadnettle) is a flowering plant in the family Lamiaceae, native throughout Europe and western Asia, growing in a variety of habitats from open grassland to woodland, generally on moist, fertile soils. It is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 50-100 cm tall, with green, four-angled stems. The leaves are 3-8 cm long and 2-5 cm broad, triangular with a rounded base, softly hairy, and with a serrated margin and a petiole up to 5 cm long; like many other members of the Lamiaceae, they appear superficially similar to those of the Stinging nettle Urtica dioica but do not sting, hence the common name “dead nettle”. The flowers are white, produced in whorls (‘verticillasters’) on the upper part of the stem, the individual flowers 1.5-2.5 cm long. The young leaves are edible, and can be used in salads or cooked as a vegetable. The plant is also used in herbal medicine, for example as a dermatological remedy. Bees ar... read more

Echinacea tennesseensis (Tennessee coneflower) is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, endemic to the cedar glades of the central portion of the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is also known as the Tennessee purple coneflower. It is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 75 cm tall. The leaves are hairy, lanceolate, and arranged in a basal whorl with only a few small leaves on the flower stems. The flowers are produced in a capitulum (flowerhead) up to 8 cm broad, with a ring of purple ray florets surrounding the brown disc florets. E. tennesseensis is a federally listed endangered species and is found in fewer than 10 locations in Davidson, Wilson, and Rutherford Counties. A noticeable characteristic is its generally erect ray flowers, in contrast to the more drooping rays of its most similar congener, E. angustifolia (widespread throughout the prairie of the central U.S.) and other common Echinacea species such as E. purpurea. It has been hypothesiz... read more

Astragalus jaegerianus is a rare species of milkvetch known by the common name Lane Mountain milkvetch. It is endemic to San Bernardino County, California, where it is known from only four populations in the vicinity of Fort Irwin in the Mojave Desert. It is a federally listed endangered species. This is a perennial herb with thin stems coated in scaly hairs. The stems reach 30 to 70 centimeters in length and grow tangled in the herbage of adjacent shrubs. In dry years the plant grows only a few centimeters long before flowering, but after abundant rain it may climb to the tops of neighboring shrubs. The leaves are 2 to 5 centimeters long and are made up of several widely spaced narrow leaflets with hairy upper surfaces. The inflorescence is an open array of up to 15 pale purple, dark veined flowers. Each flower is up to one centimeter in length. The flowers are insect-pollinated, with the most common pollinator being the megachilid bee Anth... read more