Ruellia standing tall in ditch in lower Bynum. Photo by Ken Moore
By Ken Moore
I spied it three weeks ago along a roadside ditch in lower Bynum while helping volunteers clear a site for the Haw River Assembly’s new storage building. Then, this past week, some of us were back down there helping move stuff into the new shed.
There it was again, and this time there were more lining the weedy roadside.
I’ve been happy to spot it here and there in my yard, at the edge of the back steps and along the edge of the house foundation where the mower blade seldom travels.
I spy it throughout Carrboro where mowing activity is not too frequent. It is frequently seen along woods edges and in sunny spots in the forest.
Two weeks ago I was stopped in my tracks while enjoying Marie Weiden’s “always something in flower†curbside garden along the intersection of Boundary and North streets in our neighboring community to the east. Upon voicing my enthusiasm, Marie calmly described that, “Oh yes, they volunteer in and they are most welcome scattered throughout my curb garden and are easily maintained.†Some of the specimens in her garden displayed numerous flowers, some plants with significantly larger flowers than other plants. A real thrill in allowing nature to establish seedlings in a garden is the variety of flower size and color tones produced as one surveys the results.
The almost bashful presence of this diminutive wildflower is reason enough for it being seldom noticed by today’s rushed humanity. However, I know folks in our community who are as enthusiastic as I whenever this wildflower appears. To have one or more appear in one’s own yard or garden is really special.
This wildflower is Ruellia caroliniensis; most simply, it’s named Ruellia. So there, you folks who don’t think you can pronounce, much less remember, a plant’s official Latin name, here you’ve done it. It’s pronounced like it looks, so you have just crossed over from the ranks of all those of us who prefer the common name. One common name is Wild-petunia, though it looks nothing at all like the floppy petunias I see in gardens everywhere. The common name, Twin Bluebells, seems more descriptive. It is pale blue and shaped something like a handbell in upright position.
This upright plant stands from one to two feet tall and has one or two, sometimes more, blue flowers clustered in the upper axils of opposite-paired stem leaves.
Individual trumpet-shaped flowers can be from one to two inches long and the open bell positioned right up toward your face is usually the size of a nickel or quarter, though occasionally you’ll find one the size of a half dollar.
You won’t spy this beautiful native perennial speeding along our roadways, but you will most likely find it along your walking routes, wherever they may be, if you remember to look along the un-mowed edges.