Can anyone ID this plant? (2)
By Balcony
Cambs, United Kingdom
This white star shaped flower was growing up a big bush. It's a twining plant & the flower only measures an inch or so across. It has very small, light green, heart shaped leaves but it reaches about 8 feet above ground level!
- 18 Sep, 2009
Answers
If the flowers are fragrant, could be Trachleospermum jasminoides?
18 Sep, 2009
Well now, I do like a challenge!
It's not an Ipomea or Calystegia thats for sure with gappy petals like that. I would hazard a guess that it's some sort of Codonopsis.
18 Sep, 2009
Have a look at some of the species on here and see if any match up.
http://www.codonopsis.co.uk/
18 Sep, 2009
And it isn't what I suggested earlier - the leaves aren't right.
18 Sep, 2009
C. forrestii looks a possibility? Yours does appear to have narrower petals though.
The calyx at the back of that bud does look like Calystegia though??????
I wonder if it is a mutant flower? You havn't been at it with the scissors have you, trying to trick us?
18 Sep, 2009
Incidentally, the "big bush" it's growing up is a Prunus (Cherry). The glands at the base of the leaf blade at the junction of the leaf stalk are the give away.
18 Sep, 2009
Doh - I thought they were the leaves of the climber! So that bindweed lookalike leaf is the climber ...
18 Sep, 2009
Isn't it late for codonopsis to be flowering? Our are all over
19 Sep, 2009
That might be where you live, Moongrower - you've got the same trouble with your Sissyrinchums...;-)
19 Sep, 2009
Must be... we had a wonderful show of them earlier only the last week that all the flowers have gone over so yes, down south they would still be flowering
19 Sep, 2009
Thank you all so much for all your comments, it´s been amazing the comments this little flower has generated!!!
It´s probably a weed, some form of bindweed. I did describe the leaves as they weren't too clear in the photo. I can't go back & get any more photos because it was attached to a branch that was cut off the bush it was climbing through!
I was helping a friend who was tidying up a big garden that has been rather neglected for some years & the owner of the house wanted all the bushes cut (hacked!) back.
That flower was on one of the highest shoots & was the only one I saw. I was able to "rescue" the branch it was climbing up before it went to the "compost heap" (a pile of branches & other vegetation dumped at the end of the garden).
I took the photo with my mobile's camera.
Thank you, Fractal, for the Codonopsis webpage but the flowers don't look remotely similar!
The person I was helping thought it was a bindweed but I said I wasn't sure as I'd never seen a bindweed like that, with star-shaped flowers. I wouldn't mind it on my balcony, in a pot. LOL!
19 Sep, 2009
Ah well there you go... one man's weed is another man's flower :-)
19 Sep, 2009
That's sooo true, MG! Many of our choicest plants are weeds in their countries of origin while some of our weeds are probably choice plants in somebody's else garden in a far off country!
19 Sep, 2009
And the official definition of a weed is simply "any plant growing where you don't want it".
19 Sep, 2009
Exactly! By that definition a rose growing in your cabbage patch is a weed or a cabbage growing amongst your roses would therefore count as a weed, too!
The tomato plant that got into my hanging basket of Fuchsias was a weed, as well!
19 Sep, 2009
That rose would be a species rose of course as to count as a weed, it would have to self sow into the area rather than be planted :-)..........
.......I'll get my coat.....
20 Sep, 2009
oh alright, Fractal, good point - lol;-))))
20 Sep, 2009
Sorry Balcony not a clue...
18 Sep, 2009