Well, it’s kind of a little bit sad that our weeks of flower Fridays are eventually going to come to an end for the season. But, we’ve going to keep them going as long as we can! Today’s focus is going to be a fairly obscure flower that we grow called salpiglossis!
Salpiglossis is a rather interesting genus, technically hailing from the Solanaceae family. This might not be immediately obvious to you, but it’s one you know very well – nightshades! Yes, this flower is directly related to tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, peppers and the many lovely fruits in this family. It’s a very tiny genus, with only three known species belonging to the flower type.
An exclusive native to South America, you’d find wild salpiglossis growing in places like Mexico, Argentina and Chile. This specific species, salpiglossis sinuata, was originally found in Chile and was only introduced into North America around 1820. We love that we can grow such a southern species all the way at 65 degrees north!
The word salpiglossis is originally rooted in Greek, essentially meaning “trumpet tongue.” The species we’re growing here translates to “painted tongue.” This species has a few other informal names like velvet trumpet flower and scalloped tube tongue.
While we often talk about culinary and medicinal uses of the flowers we share, salpiglossis isn’t particularly well known for either. In fact, the plant is extremely bitter. This explains why in Portuguese they call this flower “palito amargo” which basically means bitter little stick or bitter toothpick. Given the small species size, there also hasn’t been much interest in studying its bioactivity, either.
But, salpiglossis makes for an excellent ornamental addition to the northern flower garden. It’s rather cool tolerant and has put on fantastic flower displays, despite our cool and wet summer. We’ve had a lot of “mixed success” with species out of south America, since our worlds are night and day different. But, this one has proven its worth in our northern gardens!
We can easily get lost in this flowers patterns and colors. It has found its way into our flower arrangements, providing a rather diametric look compared to many of our other flowers. It’s also been a favorite of many bees, pulling them in with heavy pollen production and sizeable flowers.
We’ve enjoyed having this flower in our gardens, so we hope that you enjoy our expose on it!
