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obedient plant
Physostegia virginiana
Physostegia virginiana, the obedient plant, obedience or false dragonhead, is a species of flowering plant in the mint family, Lamiaceae. It is native to North America, where it is distributed from eastern Canada to northern Mexico. Physostegia are known commonly as obedient plants because a flower pushed to one side will often stay in that position. The name “false dragonhead” refers to the dragonheads of the related Dracocephalum, a genus to which the plant once belonged.
From the article Physostegia virginiana on Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), quoted section by section
Description
It is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial producing clumps of stiff, squared stems 2–4 ft (0.61–1.22 m) tall. The leaves are lanceolate and toothed. The inflorescence is a long, dense raceme containing many tubular pink flowers which resemble snapdragons. The open fruit is shaped like a vase and contains four triangular, black seeds.
How it is grown
It is considered a good plant for adding late-season flowers to a garden. Fertile soils produce robust growth and wide spreading, and the plant may require staking. When it grows tall it has a "tendency toward floppiness" that can be controlled with pruning. It can be aggressive and dominate a landscape.
Cultivars. Several cultivars have been bred for color variety. Some (agm) have earned the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit. Cultivars include.
'Alba' - white flowers. 'Crown of Snow' - white flowers 'Pink Bouquet' - rose pink flowers 'Rosea' - pink flowers 'Rosy Spire' - lavender-pink flowers 'Summer Snow' (agm) - pure white flowers 'Variegata' - pink flowers, green and white variegated leaves 'Vivid' (agm) - bright pink flowers
Wikipedia: “Cultivation”
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Physostegia virginiana in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 85313.