Host an Event Volunteer Join Tickets

Support the plant database you love!

Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?

A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.

Help us grow by giving to the Plant Database Fund or by becoming a member

Did you know you can access the Native Plant Information Network with your web-enabled smartphone?

Share

Ask Mr. Smarty Plants

Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

Search Smarty Plants
See a list of all Smarty Plants questions

Please forgive us, but Mr. Smarty Plants has been overwhelmed by a flood of mail and must take a break for awhile to catch up. We hope to be accepting new questions again soon. Thank you!

Need help with plant identification, visit the plant identification page.

 
rate this answer
Not Yet Rated

Tuesday - June 12, 2012

From: Etowah, NC
Region: Southeast
Topic: Plant Identification
Title: Identification of flower that looks like Callirhoe in NC
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

Have a flower similar to callirhoe, but the blossum is fuchia, not purple and the foliage is light sage in color and fuzzy. It is very invasive. What is it? If you have an email address, I can send a picture.

ANSWER:

Interesting! I always thought of Callirhoe species as being sort of fuschia- or magenta-colored rather than purple, but then colors are in the eye of the beholder, I suppose.

The one plant that most resembles your description is a Papaver species that is a non-native introduced species that occurs in North Carolina, Papaver dubium (Blindeyes).  Here are photos and more information from the Virginia Tech Weed Identification Guide.  Its leaves are lighter green and covered with hairs.  Its blossoms are an orangish-red.  It is on the list of Weeds of Tennessee.

There are several Callirhoe species that occur in or near North Carolina:

Callirhoe involucrata (Winecup), according to the USDA Plants Database, occurs in adjacent Virginia.  Illinois Wildflowers talks about the stems being covered with spreading white hairs and you can see some hairs on the leaves in their photos.

Callirhoe papaver (Woodland poppy-mallow) occurs in Georgia.  It is described by Wildflowers of the Escambia (Alabama and Florida) as being hairy.

Callirhoe alcaeoides (Light poppy-mallow) occurs in Tennessee with pale pink blossoms. Here are more photos and information.

Callirhoe triangulata (clustered poppymallow) grows in North Carolina.  Here are more photos and information from Plants of Wisconsin.

Other members of the Family Malvaceae that somewhat resemble your description:

Anoda cristata (Crested anoda) occurs in North Carolina and is considered a weed by some.  Here is a description and photos from Virginia Tech Weed Identification Guide.

Modiola caroliniana (Carolina bristlemallow) has been characterized as a lawn weed. Here are more photos.

Geranium maculatum (Spotted geranium) occurs in North Carolina.

Geranium carolinianum (Carolina geranium) occurs in North Carolina but its flowers are pink or white.  Here are photos from Virginia Tech Weed Identification Guide.

Erodium texanum (Fillaree) has been reported from South Carolina, but not from North Carolina according to the USDA Plants Database.  In the spring in Texas they can seem almost invasive carpeting some areas.

If none of the above plants is the one that you are seeing, please visit our Plant Identification page to find links to several Plant Identification forums that accept photos of plants for identification.

 

 

More Plant Identification Questions

Plant identification of vine in Tennessee
January 06, 2012 - I have this vine that grows in my backyard and on the vine there are green balls about half the size of a hedge apple and inside balls are a bunch of seeds. The deer love to eat these. Do you know wha...
view the full question and answer

Plant identification of a potted vine in California
October 04, 2011 - Hi, we have a tropical vine growing in a pot on our patio that my wife bought at the county fair. We've had it for a couple of years but I just noticed it now has a sort of pear like fruit on it. It ...
view the full question and answer

Identity of an Astragalus species near Terlingua, TX
May 14, 2013 - I have been photographing as many of the wildflowers that I can this Spring 2013 season here in the Big Bend Area between BBNP, Terlingua and Alpine, TX. Two days ago I took a drive from Terlingua to ...
view the full question and answer

Learning to identify native plants in backyard
June 28, 2011 - Please let me know how a layman like myself can identify native plants in my backyard. I don't know the plant names and don't know if they are dicots or any other technical terms (that some websites...
view the full question and answer

Plant identification
October 06, 2009 - We have a large bush type plant, about 4 feet tall, fragant voilet flowers, large dark green leaves and spiney seed pods (about the size of golf balls) that have many seeds inside. They started growi...
view the full question and answer

Support the Wildflower Center by Donating Online or Becoming a Member today.