Native Plants

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 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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Friday - November 14, 2008

From: North Wilkesboro, NC
Region: Southeast
Topic: Plant Identification
Title: Plant identification
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

On our farm we found a plant that we had never seen before. It has long stems coming from center ground level and is about 3 feet tall, looks like a fern from far off. The leaves (length of finger) are in pairs all the way up the stem from ground to tip. Each set of leaves has a set of purple berries(size of berries--cluster is about 1 in size and 40 to 50 berries in each cluster. We noticed the plant only because of the berries. We have a photo of berries and plant if that would help in the identification of the plant.

ANSWER:

Mr. Smarty Plants loves identifying plants and would be happy to try to identify yours. Please follow the instructions below to submit your photos for identification.

PLANT IDENTIFICATION

Need help with a plant ID? Send us an email following the instructions below.

1. Tell us where and when you found the plant and describe the site where it occurred.

2. Take several high resolution images including details of leaves, stems, flowers, fruit, and the overall plant.

3. Save images in JPEG format.