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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Thursday - August 05, 2010

From: marlboro, NJ
Region: Northeast
Topic: Vines
Title: Mystery vine in Marlboro NJ
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

I have a patch in my backyard where we planted pumpkins last year but it does not look like pumpkin vines to me. The vine is smooth and the leaves are long and oval that come to a point. There are skinny stems branching off the main with several white tiny flowers, 5 petals, with a green center. Help me identify this please.

ANSWER:

Since at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center we specialize in plants native to North America, we don't have much expertise in vegetables. Even those that are native to North America have been hybridized so much that they are no longer recognizable as native. That is the case with the pumpkin, so we won't have information on it in our Native Plant Database.

We love identifying native plants for folks! Do you have a picture of a plant found growing in the wild somewhere in North America and you would like to know its name? Send us an email following the instructions below. Please do not send pictures of house plants, office plants, garden plants, plants seen on your vacation to Costa Rica or other clearly non-native species. For identification of non-native plants you might consider visiting the UBC Botanical Gardens Forums website.