Does anyone know what this pretty little plant is?
Here’s a better picture of it, in the pot where it volunteered. Click on the image for a larger view.
A flurry of these things popped up in the El Niño rains this spring. I thought they were weeds and was about to extirpate them, but the seedlings are so pretty I relented and decided to see what they’d do. As fresh young babes, they have striking foliage: deep green trimmed in red. Here’s some that volunteered between the flags in the courtyard.
When they were younger, they had more red on them. It’s hard to see, in this picture, just how much red they have around the outside of the leaves and the stems.
Anybody know what it is?
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I can’t tell for sure, but it looks like what my Mom used to call a ‘snap dragon’. If you can squeeze the outside and the smaller, lower bit snaps out and back like a jaw, that’s it. Happy snapping!
They look like snap dragons to me as well, but I’ve never actually seen them reseed themselves. Congratulations!
I don’t know if this is relevant, as I live in a large city in one of the mid-Atlantic states. But I’ve certainly seen snap dragons self-seed – from window boxes to brick sidewalks, or even cracks in cement sidewalks. Ditto with petunias, impatiens, begonias, and even the occasional tomato plant – I love happening upon these “volunteers”!
Hm. It does look like one of the Home Depot specials that went into that pot a year or two ago. I’ll bet those were snap dragons, and I’ll bet their seeds went all over the courtyard and finally germinated after all the rain.
That must be one hardy little plant! The seeds have baked in 118-degree heat between frying-hot flagstones, and I put those stones between the flags, adding a new dimension to the heat factor.
Around here you’ll occasionally see petunias and violas self-seed. But I don’t recall ever seeing impatiens or begonias come back after a season.
Interesting…first you get chickweed, and now self-sowing heat-hardy snapdragons. Will there be no end of botanical wonders…
@ Vickey: Global warming, no doubt of it!
Definitely looks like snapdragons!