Fun Plants to grow

[TheOnionMan]

One of my favorite plants is Dictamnus albus, the fabulous Gas Plant.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictamnus

This a great garden plant... drought tolerant, slow growing and well-behaved, neat and trim, beautiful in flower and foliage, even handsome in seed.  But I really like plants that give more and provide additional gardening pleasures.

1.  The plants are sticky-glandular, the volatile oils exuding off a rich lemony-spicy perfume.  Some people react negatively to the scent, but I find it irresistible.  It is a garden ritual whenever walking by, to gently handle or caress the plant and enjoy the spicy fragrance in the air and on one's hand.  Warning: some people report being allergic to the aromatic oil, fortunately I'm not among them.  Visiting several gardens this year, with a number of color forms seen and experienced, each it seems has it's own olfactory nuance.  Now I want to grow more forms, to enjoy the subtle yet distinctive differences in heady aroma.

2.  This is among the first plants I ever grew as a young boy. A favorite ritual that the whole family could get a kick out of, on hot or warm balmy nights, when the air is still, light a match and touch it to the base of the flower stem to watch a fiery flash of combustion sizzle right up the stem.  Can only do this once a day, to give time for the glandular hairs to re-emit the volatile oils.  Such fun playing with the "burning bush" or "gas plant".

3.  Something new I discovered this year.  With the heat this summer, the pods ripened quickly, and one day I noticed most of the glandular pods were either splitting or already empty, so I wanted to collect seed.  Touching the star shaped pods, much to my surprise the pods are spring-loaded and shot seed up into my face.  The pods have a spring-loaded inner lining, a beige curled vee-shaped affair squished into the pod begging to straighten itself out.  I sat on the ground and watched for a while, and some pods spontaneously popped, flinging the seed around by several feet.  What a cool plant this is!  Or should I say, a HOT combustible one?

[gote]

In Sweden they are called "Mose brinnande buske" meaning the burning shrub of Mose.
Very interesting to hear from someone who actually tested to set them on fire Thank you !!
Göte

[Stephenb]

Yes, totally agree, Mark - I love plants that like to be caressed   (I don't have pets). I've  read that you can make a refreshing lemon-scented tea from the dried leaves, but I've never got round to trying (I will now - thanks for the reminder!)

I tried setting light to my plant some years ago (the most common European name seems to be Burning Bush), but no success, probably just not hot enough here to produce enough of those volatile oils! Will try again now as we're having quite hot weather.

I've always wondered what colour the flowers are on the species - I'd imagined with the epithet albus they would be white, but the pictures I've seen have been pinkish. My plant is white (see pictures, taken about a month ago) - is this the form "Albiflorus"?

[TheOnionMan]

Yes, totally agree, Mark - I love plants that like to be caressed   (I don't have pets). I've  read that you can make a refreshing lemon-scented tea from the dried leaves, but I've never got round to trying (I will now - thanks for the reminder!)

I tried setting light to my plant some years ago (the most common European name seems to be Burning Bush), but no success, probably just not hot enough here to produce enough of those volatile oils! Will try again now as we're having quite hot weather.

I've always wondered what colour the flowers are on the species - I'd imagined with the epithet albus they would be white, but the pictures I've seen have been pinkish. My plant is white (see pictures, taken about a month ago) - is this the form "Albiflorus"?

Stephen, I know this is an old topic at this point, but was wondering if you made tea with the leaves, and did you ever get a successful pyrotechnic display with the match trick 

[Stephenb]

Must admit I didn't get round to trying the tea.

Imagine for a moment, a warm summer day in Malvik, Norway. I'm dressed in flame resistent clothing. I've called the fire services to warn them just in case the flames get out of hand (strictly one has to apply for a license for pyrotechnical events). I have my camera in one hand, match and matchbox in the other - strictly you need 4 hands for this. I lit the match keeping as far away as possible, camera at the ready, I move the match to the leaves, there's a flash as the Dictamnus oils ignite, but it lasts less than a second and the flame is no more than a couple of centimetres high and I don't manage to press the camera shutter in time. I repeat several times and the same happens. Somehow I manage to coordinate the camera and match (no idea how I managed) and this is the best shot of Malvik's burning bush  

I presume that the inflammble oils are created in larger quantities in higher temperatures than I can offer...

[Paul T]

Cool looking plant, yet another I've never heard of before.  The flowers remind me a bit of a Cleome?

McMark, you're comment about the ritual of brushing the plant to release the scent..... I can't resist doing that every time I walk past the Lemon Verbena.  That glorious lemony perfume is heavenly.  Interestingly, if you cut lemon verbena and dry it, the scent is retained and you can release it by just lightly brushing the dried stems/leaves.  You don't need to crush it, like you do for most dried things to release the scent.  It last for months and perhaps even years (although it ends up pretty dusty!!  ).

Interesting about the flammable oils on this plant.... perhaps a reason for me to not search it out like my first thoughts were.  We already have enough bushfire risk here in summer.   Very cool seedpods though.

[Lori S.]

Dictamnus albus is a spectacular plant in its own right but it doesn't put on much of a show when set "ablaze" here either!  (I'm sure everyone who grows one has to try this.  )

[Maggi Young]

Must admit I didn't get round to trying the tea.

  I can't believe it! You have let us down.... 'Hungry Man' indeed!

Too busy making fancy salads with 250 ingredients, I'll be bound?

[TheOnionMan]

Hmmm, Stephen, maybe your Gas Plant is confused and isn't aware of the common misunderstanding that inflammable and flammable are synonyms, but most people (and maybe some plants too) incorrectly believe inflammable means that something isn't flammable.  You've probably been walking around the garden muttering disparaging inflammatory comments at your gas plant for not being very flammable...or is it inflammable, thus it's inhibited
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/flammable

The stems on your pyromanius Dictamnus look rather nudum; the ones that are most inflammable and flammable are densely glandular on the stems.  The match is touched to the base of stem, not on the pods themselves.  They also lose some volatility when in seed; I usually explode my Dictamnus plants when they're in flower

[Paul T]

McMark,

Way to make your plants feel loved....... explode them when they're in flower. 

 

[Stephenb]

Must admit I didn't get round to trying the tea.

  I can't believe it! You have let us down.... 'Hungry Man' indeed!

Too busy making fancy salads with 250 ingredients, I'll be bound?

Don't exaggerate, Maggi. I didn't get over 150 this year  I'm probably losing it....

[Stephenb]

Hmmm, Stephen, maybe your Gas Plant is confused and isn't aware of the common misunderstanding that inflammable and flammable are synonyms, but most people (and maybe some plants too) incorrectly believe inflammable means that something isn't flammable.  You've probably been walking around the garden muttering disparaging inflammatory comments at your gas plant for not being very flammable...or is it inflammable, thus it's inhibited
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/flammable

Anyone know what McMark is on about?

[Stephenb]

The stems on your pyromanius Dictamnus look rather nudum; the ones that are most inflammable and flammable are densely glandular on the stems.  The match is touched to the base of stem, not on the pods themselves.  They also lose some volatility when in seed; I usually explode my Dictamnus plants when they're in flower

OK, I'll try again next year at flowering time and abstain from shaving the stems....

[Hoy]

Hmmm, Stephen, maybe your Gas Plant is confused and isn't aware of the common misunderstanding that inflammable and flammable are synonyms, but most people (and maybe some plants too) incorrectly believe inflammable means that something isn't flammable.  You've probably been walking around the garden muttering disparaging inflammatory comments at your gas plant for not being very flammable...or is it inflammable, thus it's inhibited
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/flammable

Anyone know what McMark is on about?

Think he tries to enlighten us ignorants by illuminating a bright spot.

[TheOnionMan]

Hmmm, Stephen, maybe your Gas Plant is confused and isn't aware of the common misunderstanding that inflammable and flammable are synonyms, but most people (and maybe some plants too) incorrectly believe inflammable means that something isn't flammable.  You've probably been walking around the garden muttering disparaging inflammatory comments at your gas plant for not being very flammable...or is it inflammable, thus it's inhibited
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/flammable

Anyone know what McMark is on about?

Think he tries to enlighten us ignorants by illuminating a bright spot.

Exactly Trond, just some fun word play   But I was juxtaposing my own instincts and ignorance; once again had to look up "inflammable" versus "flammable", to remind myself that most American English speakers incorrectly believe that the "in" prefix of "inflammable" translates to "not flammable, when in fact it means the opposite; inflammable and flammable are the same.  So, I used words to play up this often-held American misconception.