What's this flower?

October 25, 2005 1:31 PM

Plantfilter: Unknown (and potentially non-native) bloom found in southwest washington. Image inside. What is it?

My buddy is clearing some land to build a house. The land was owned by his future wife's mother, who had an incredible green thumb and grew all kinds of incredibly weird things. It's a very striking bloom, about the size of a quarter ... he's not sure if it's part of a vine or part of a bush with the leaves shown. Can anyone help identify this? I've attempted to google it, and can't find anything that's even close.

posted by SpecialK to Home & Garden (5 answers total)

I've seen that flower at the Bloedel Reserve on Bainbridge Island! IIRC, it is not native, but is also not invasive. The berries turn the most amazing dark cobalt blue in the dead of winter - they look like glass.
Wish I knew the name. Is there a Master Gardener nearby? Call your local library and ask them about the Master Gardener program, and they should be able to point you in the right direction.
posted by dbmcd at 1:38 PM on October 25, 2005

I can't help, but WOW is that ever a cool looking flower. I hope that your buddy isn't going to tear it up out of the ground and let it die. :(
posted by MsVader at 1:43 PM on October 25, 2005

Best answer: It looks to me like it may be a clerodendrum. Our new house has two or three of these, and they're currently wearing blossoms much like those in the photo. (If I were home, I'd check for sure.)

The top photo on this page looks like the blossom in your photo.

These are also called "peanut butter plants". When crushed, the leaves smell like peanut butter. (Although we've noticed that since the rains set in around Portland, the leaves are less pungent.)

Our clerodendrums are trees. We have an old one that is decaying, and we've allowed a sucker to take its place. The sucker is already about waist-high after just a spring and a summer.
posted by jdroth at 1:59 PM on October 25, 2005

Hey everyone! I'm "THE Buddy" mentioned in this post. I'd like to thank SpecialK for even thinking to post this here and thank the rest of you for identifying this for me. I'm rather excited about the whole thing.

And no worries, this plant is beautiful and far from where any excavation or demolition will be happening. It is most definitely safe and we will probably even try to get a few more of them to grow. (It'd be great if anyone had any suggestions like do we do cuttings or try to bury those berries?)

I'm sure I'll have more mystery plants I run into and I'll be sure to post them here since this place is obviously visited by some people who know their stuff. ;)

Thanks again!
posted by Zolan at 2:14 PM on October 25, 2005

Well, if this really is a clerodendrum (and after further review, I think it probably is), you're not going to have to worry about propogation. It's invasive. Have you every lived with a cherry tree? You know how cherry trees send out suckers for many feet in all directions? So does the clerodendum. I've spent all summer pulling up suckers, except for the one we're fostering.
posted by jdroth at 2:18 PM on October 25, 2005