Lobelia cardinalis prophouse-on-the-horizon Malvaviscus arboreus earns a place

Malvaviscus arboreus earns a place in any warm-climate garden

weeping member of the verbena family

but only female plants carry that fruit

and the long stamens and evening scent suggest a partnership with night-flying moths as well

Run a fingertip up the stipe and you will feel the bristles that named the fern: hispidulum

Lobelia cardinalis prophouse-on-the-horizon Malvaviscus arboreus earns a placeFew native perennials burn as bright as Lobelia cardinalis, the cardinal flower, whose late summer spikes of pure, velvety scarlet stop traffic in any garden. The species ranges across much of North America along stream banks, wet meadows, and ditches, and takes the common name from the vivid red of a cardinal's robes. From a low rosette of broad green leaves rises a stiff, unbranched stem hung with tubular flowers built, as luck would have it,