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

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!

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Wednesday - May 06, 2009

From: Guyton, GA
Region: Southeast
Topic: Plant Identification
Title: Identity of a plant in SE Georgia
Answered by: Jimmy Mills

QUESTION:

Identity of a plant- This plant is growing wild in SE GA, but I have never seen it before until this year. The plant has a stolon "root" system it forms an upright stem and a cluster of flowers begin to bloom, the cluster is in a cone shape, about 5 to 6 inches long. The flowers are small,individual and each are colored both white and purple. The leaves are about 2 to 4 inches long and have a velvet feel. I hope you can help, Thanks, Karen

ANSWER:

Mr. Smarty Plants loves doing plant identifications; however, doing them from a description alone is difficult, if not impossible, no matter how thorough the description. Please send us photos and we will do our very best to identify your plant. Visit the Ask Mr. Smarty Plants Plant Identification page to read instructions for submitting photos for identification.

Another approach is to go to the Native Plant Database page and scroll down to the COMBINATION SEARCH box. Enter the information that fits your plant in the each of categories. Click on the "submit combination search" button, and you will get a list of plants, along with images, that match your criteria. Clicking on the name of each plant will pull up its NPIN page with details about it, and often more images. You can get other lists by changing your criteria.