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It is not entirely happy outdoors in SF (presumably summer too cool and dry even with irrigation), but it comes up and increases in size slightly each year.

Sauromatum venosum (also planted out) comes up late and sometimes flowers.

Quote from: Martin Bohnet on May 27, 2022, 12:07:54 AMVery interesting Aphyllon - that Genus has been cut out of Orobanche recently iirc? I whish I could grow one of the fully parasitic Orobanchaceae, I've tried with all the stuff I could get seed from and, of course, i can grow the hosts - until now no luck with Orobanche hedereae, arenaria or kochii - So I'm limited to enjoy the wild ones here: O. lutea and carophyllacea, both grow not far from here on the swabian jura.

In the own garden I'm very happy right now with my pink elderberry (I really should try to make syrup, I wonder if the color transfers). I'm less happy with the Kiwiberries (Actinidia arguta) - mostly because it's still only him that flowers, she might need at least another year. I guess that's why the small kiwis ar so rare in fruit trade, the plants need several years in place to start flowering.

Apparently yes, Orobanche has been cut up. I found A. fascisculatum growing on both perennials (Eriodictyon) and fire follower annuals (Emmenanthe penduliflora-Whispering Bells).

Someone planted hedereae in the drifts of English ivy at UC-Berkeley where it seems to be happily established now.

Actinidia...I remember poor fruiting until they got up in the trees and got the light...of course, we couldn't pick the fruit at that point, either. Presumably, you're growing them less wild, but they do want some size.

Ty. roxburghii and rhizomatosum. 

Quote from: Arnold on May 23, 2022, 01:06:25 PMThis came as Biarum aff. dispar.

Our Wiki states all Biarum's flower in October.

What gives?

I dunno, but B. carduchorum is in spike in San Francisco right now, as the leaves are collapsing around it.

Quote from: MarkMazer on May 19, 2022, 10:34:33 AMGreat topic.... let's do religious affiliation and ethnicity next.

Go right ahead...I'm pretty sure you can set up polls with user added options in vbulletin these days.

As with another large community I am in (long hair (LHC), fwiw), I would expect the numbers to be different from the average. I would also expect people to be more willing to speak, than in everyday life.

But me? Other than being poly and a pleasure pusher, not queer.

Robert
in SF, the City I came to as soon as I could.

Phacelia viscera spotting the hillsides in a burned area.  Aphyllon fasciculatum growing in the middle of the newly exposed trail...presumably there is an Eriodiction root under there too. 

Pelargonium auritum ssp auritum, less than 2 years from seed.

And a better picture of violiflorum

Currently being annoying:
Zantedeschia aethiopica - tiny tubers will send up leaves from a foot or more buried...with years of attention I only pull a few a week.
Oxalis pes-caprae - after scorched earth methods, and 5 years of attention, I think there are only half a dozen eruptions a year.

Bulbs that are on track to be invasive:
Oxalis purpurea, obtusa, brasiliensis - I planted some of each in the ground along with other bulbs...then the gophers came and ate them all...or so I though. Actually they ate most of the bulbs, but they also carried some to food caches spotted around the garden (and into the neighbors yard), now I grow all my oxalis in pots (with those pots set in wire baskets as the gophers will eat through pots), but those three species are out of the barn. O. obtusa does poorly here without a hot dormancy, so most clones will likely dwindle away.

So far, nothing else has spread or seeded...now if some of the blue Ixias wanted to go wild, that would be hard to resist. I. polystycha Baby Blue divides vigorously and blooms quickly, and would make a delightful mass planting, we'll see how I. viridflora performs (lots of seedlings) the one blooming now is very much a light blue shade.

All the urban mammals...

Gophers - currently at bay (between repellant, poison, and neighbors who don't fight them), oppossum and striped skunks - surface digging, rats and mine - surface digging, random stem biting, vandalism, bulb burying (decorative Oxalis coming up all over from caches), raccoons - general vandalism. Humans - stepping on things (one of the substitute mailpersons seems to delight in stepping on small plants)...not theft though, Dogs - random romping, and Cats with poop burying, although no ferals, and the local roamer got moved away.

I'd like to have resident garter snakes for the slugs. There is a healthy population of the local salamander...they seem to be quite happy with all the irrigated pots set in/on the ground or in wire baskets (with air gaps for salamander living).

If the volunteer Miner's Lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata) seeds well, I'll be eating them next year. The existing plant is over grown and bitter at the moment. If allowed to escape in irrigated gopher free (hahaha) areas, Oca would definitely become weedy.

Hmm, in almost entirely man-altered San Francisco, a few natives persist. A few weeds are apparently natives! I had a volunteer Miner's Lettuce (I hope it sets seed). California Poppy (certainly from planted seed), and a tiny volunteer evergreen oak in the back yard.

I have planted a fair number of natives among the worldwide mediterranean mostly geophytes...and they do hang in there, both in the partly irrigated yard, and in the tended but not irrigated median strip, but I don't count those until they self-seed or take off after getting established. So the usual ornamental annuals.

Robert

Pelargonium violiflorum (my apologies for my phone's focus choice, I'll see if I can do better next week)