A foxglove with a split personality?

[shelagh]

Hi there,

Can anyone help me identify this stranger in my garden?  I thought it was going to be a foxglove, though I don't know where it came from. It's about 4 feet tall, three stems, all flowering in the same way.

[Corinne]

 
Aconitum?

[bdp]

Shelagh,

It appear foxglove like enough in the foliage but the flowers look more like one of the terrestrial orchids....I have seen something similar but have to dig through my files....where is the plant located and is it local?

[Maggi Young]

I reckon you have a distorted foxglove there, Shelagh.  Whether it will be a permanent change is open to question... and time, I suppose!  I did see something about a new form of Foxglove that some growers was pushing, it had a sort of open exploded flower too.... couldn't see the point in it... it ceases to be a foxglove then, doesn't it?
I think yours will be a freak event... not sure I'd bother keeping seed to see if it persisits??!!

[Paddy Tobin]

Shelagh,

I has all the looks of a foxglove though with this unusual flower.

Maggi, there is a form of foxglove where the top flower stand on the top of the plant and opens flat.

Paddy

[razvan chisu]

I think it is peloria, a condition which sometimes affects flowers in the Scrophulariaceae family. Characters are often hereditary.

[Snowman 54]

Hi,

this is mutation is not peloria but does look like heptandra.  Both are well documented, with heptandra first recorded in 1826.  These variants are due to 'recessive' genes ... like blue eyes in people, only much rarer.  

Regards.

[bdp]

Hi Shelagh,

I am not an expert (a landscape architect) but while visiting a residential site found a similar form of plant growing throughout the clients property....was a few years back but asking a few local experts was led to believe that it was an introduced terrestrial orchid...European in origin...looking in the provincial flora I cannot find anything noted as introduced but seems similar to genus either Spiranthes or Platanthera.   It was definitely an orchid though but at first viewing I also thought it one of the more common garden perennials..hope this helps a bit..

Brian in New Brunswick

[Maggi Young]

Hi, Brian, and, belatedly, Snowman54! Welcome to the forum.

Thanks for your contributions.

[bdp]

Hi again...S......was looking again at the provincial flora book and found the reference that I thought I remembered...the plant was Epipactus helleborine...a Eurasian introduction to much of Canada...or enough of Canada...apparently is very common though it was the first time I ever noticed it.  The following web page is a description from Ontario and the flowers certainly are similar....take care.


Brian


http://ontariowildflowers.com/main/species.php?id=93

[shelagh]

One of the things I love about the Forum is that nothing ever dies.  Topics you think have gone by the board forever suddenly spring up again just like plants.  Hurrah for the Forum and all it's dedicated followers.

[HClase]

I don't think it's Epipactis, we have that as a weed in our garden.  I agree that it's some dort of distorted Foxglove.

[Maggi Young]

I don't think it's Epipactis, we have that as a weed in our garden

Howard, given the trouble we have with getting Epipactis to regard life here as worth living, when there are folks like you boasting about it being aweed, is really NOT FAIR!! 

[HClase]

Why would anyone want that Maggy?  It's a scrawny, unattractive thing with small greenish flowers - at least our E. helleborine is, I believe there are more attractive species.  It first appeared in Newfoundland on the bank between us and our neighbour about 10 years ago and is clearly spreading.  I'll post a picture when it opens in a week or so, there are still a few around that we haven't pulled up!   By the way, the leaf veining pattern in the original picture shows that is must be a dicot; monocots, like orchids, all have parallel veins.

(Living right by a nursery -owner by said neighbour - that imports plants from "up-along" we tend to get a more interesting selection of weeds than most people - including several first records for the Island.)

[gote]

Howard,
We want to grow it because here it is rare and difficult and protected (and an orchid.)
It is really strange that it has became a weed in north America.
I would like to know why.
Göte