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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.

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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.

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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.

 
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Wednesday - January 13, 2016

From: KATY, TX
Region: Other
Topic: Non-Natives, Plant Identification
Title: ID for Caribbean mystery plants.
Answered by: Joe Marcus

QUESTION:

I AM TRYING TO FIND THE COMMON NAME FOR TWO FLOWERS I TOOK PICTURES OF ON A CARIBBEAN CRUISE. I TOOK ONE IN HONDURAS AND ONE IN GRAND CAYMAN. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHERE I CAN GO TO TO GET HELP IN IDENTIFYING THE TWO FLOWER?

ANSWER:

Mr. Smarty Plants loves a good botanical mystery!  Unfortunately, his knowledge of plants that are not native to North America is pretty limited.  Your best resource for finding the identity of your mystery plants is probably the UBC (University of British Columbia) Botanical Garden Forums.  They have an excellent track record of identifying plants from all over the world, especially tropicals.  Good luck!
 

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