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hybridsage

Difference between Polimintha's

hybridsage
14 years ago

I know it is not Salvia related but it is in the family

I noticed Poliomintha bustamanta or bustamante on a list is the a Orange flowered species from Mexico? I have Poliomintha longiflora(Lavender and light lavender flowers on the plant at the same time) but have heard that it was a questionable Identification. Please set me right.

My form is a possible tetraploid form much larger flowers

that the species which ever one it is.

Art

Comments (9)

  • rich_dufresne
    14 years ago

    Poliomintha bustamanta is the corrected name for P. longiflora. There are around 6 members of the genus, including P. incana (romero), from New Mexico, which can be rather tricky to grow.

    Here is a quote from an old post of mine on Alpine-L:

    The following comes from Phytologia (February 1993) 74(3) 164-167 by B. L.
    Turner:

    Poliomintha bustamanta B. L. Turner: Nuevo Leon: Bustamante, along mountain
    road to caves outside of Bustamante. Brittle stem plants to 1 meter tall.
    Leaves ovate lanceolate, glabrous (except for occasional hispid hairs along
    the margins mostly 10-14 mm long, 3-5 m wide. Corollas zygomorphic, 3-4 cm
    long, pale lavender. My observations on the flowers are that they emerge
    white and darken as they age to a rich mauve-lavender.

    Poliomintha longiflora has persistently pubescent leaves, 3-4 cm flowers and
    apparently orange-red flowers. It comes from further south than P.
    bustamanta, in the mountains along the Mexico Highway 57 on either side,
    halfway between Saltillo and Matehuala.

    Other Poliomintha worth looking at (be advised, these may be difficult to grow):

    P. incana from New Mexico and adjacent Chihuahua (white flowers)
    P. glabrescens fron Coahuila (lavender flowers)

    P. dendritica from Coahuila near Rancho de San Marcos (15 mm lavender flowers).
    P. madrensis from Coahuila (purple flowers)

    Evidently P. madrensis is in the trade.

    The herbarium at U Texas has the voucher specimens. I don't know if Billie Turner is still alive

  • hybridsage
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Thank You Rich
    Found a Poliomintha with John & Carl is was growing out of solid rock in pine forest. The plants in full bloom were less that 6" compact little things.Smothered in beautiful orange flowers took a few cuttings but nothing rooted.
    Art

  • rich_dufresne
    14 years ago

    That was probably P. grandiflora. On my trip with John & Carl, we stopped in the gypsaceous desert north of Galeana, where I found S. coulteri and a brick-red Hedeoma, probably H. ciliolatum. Smith College has the first, but I lost the Hedeoma (it would have made a terrific rock garden plant)

  • wantonamara Z8 CenTex
    14 years ago

    You guys have my attention here. I would love to see more varieties of Mex oreganos siblings. They have held their own in this horrid drought and bloomed the whole summer long. I have about twenty cuttings that I rooted to expand my bed. So P. longiflora is the wrong name?

  • rich_dufresne
    14 years ago

    P. longiflora was assigned to the orange-red one by Dr. Billie Turner of the UT Austin botany department in that article I cited. The one commonly grown in San Antonio and by many eastern US herb farms is really P. bustamanta (not bustamante, which is the name of the municipality where it was collected).

  • hybridsage
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    Rich:
    Would not be surprised if that was a hedeomo I saw.Yes it would make a great rock garden plant,absolutely stunning!
    Great claification on Poliomintha bustamanta. That is
    one plant I want to put in to the salvia look a likes.

  • rich_dufresne
    14 years ago

    The whole Satureja tribe in the mint family contains many genuses of interest besides Hedeoma and Poliomintha, including Brazoria, Conradina, Clinopdium, Monardella, and others. Some of them have flowers with the ability to change color with age, like some of the high Andean species of Satureja (yellow to orange to bright red).

  • hybridsage
    Original Author
    14 years ago

    We have several Hedeoma species here,a few Satureja that
    perform well,Brazoria ia a annual species but very uncommon.I don't know how some of the High Andean species
    would do here our dry conditions,spider mites (Which are controlable) and Heat may do them in but lots of plant material still needs trialing here.We are at the 67 day's
    of over 100 degrees(not normal). But we do have periods of 40 + days of over 100. Rich what do you think would be some better options or will those still work?I must say Navajo Bright Red is holding well in this heat and drought of record.
    Art

  • rich_dufresne
    14 years ago

    The high Andean species will be next to impossible to grow in the US, especially for you.

    Navajo Bright Red is Cherry Chief, I believe, and its parents are Furman's Red and the deltoid-leaved microphylla, which was collected by Manuel Flores and myself at a lower that usual elevation, in bloom out of season, and at the end of a drought (the Choilla cactus was wilting in the valley). Manuel caught the red flowers in the corner of his eye while driving on the Pan-Am highway in Hidalgo.

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