I. carnea and I. carnea ssp. fistulosa: Differences?

Karen - That is so funny! I was thinking Kudzu too when I read both John and Antoinette's posts! A lot of people plant plants that wind up becoming a nightmare for them and their neighbors over time!

I am still hoping to get more information about I. carnea bush. From everything I've heard and seen of it here in Florida, it just doesn't seem like that invasive, so I would really be interested to know more. Is it possible that there is more than what we know about this plant from what is posted in this thread? It might be more interesting than most of us know!

Karen, thank you for the voice of reason here..... a mini-vacation is ALWAYS good.. no matter if it is only a minute or two. Welcome Back.. and visit often..
A.

Becky & A., thank you, but I know I made zero progress toward my own personal goal for this forum and hope anyone I may have offended will accept my apologies.

Okay ... I guess that I am confused here ... I don't understand why anyone would be offended by a few people joking around in a couple of their posts. Are we not allowed to kid around on the MG forum anymore? I personally enjoy the humor!!! :-) :-) :-)

bad news about my MG...poor baby...I yanked it outta the ground yesterday..

she was just looking burnt and very unhealthy

I spent 2 hours going thru the vines yesterday, and picked off all the ripe seed pods...went thru all the chafe (sp?) and got almost a half cups worth!!

I did put in 4 new babies that I already had started, back in the same spot...we'll see if I get anything going this late in the season.

I am starting a couple of the ones that were newly shared with me by beckygardener! Any suggestions to which ones I should start first?!?!

Karen, I don't think anyone could be upset with you. Just be yourself, we can't go around trying to please everyone, if we did, we would become clones.


MY apologies to anyone that is a clone out there.


Now, doesn't that sound ridiculous? If we have to watch every word we use here, why bother posting.

This message was edited Dec 1, 2010 1:28 AM

The leaves resemble ANGEL WINGS.
Do you believe it... Gotcha!

Very nice color there...pretty in pink!

John - I take it that those leaves don't belong to the I. carnea? Pretty bloom.

I have FINALLY completed the swimming pool demolition project and have all the parts of the pool now at my house ready for the upcoming ordeal of digging a 30 ft diameter hole that will be about 2 ft deep to situate the pool in my backyard next spring. I can't rent a backhoe because I haven't left any room in my landscaping to get the heavy equipment into the backyard. My philosophy in gardening is "leave no square inch unplanted!" LOL And I don't allow lawn grass as part of my landscape choices, so I will need to dig the sink hole a little at a time over the next few months until warm weather is here for another season in March 2011. I fortunately have soil that is as sandy as any beach dune and there are no rocks in north Florida, so the digging won't be very difficult.

I've made some slight progress in answering the question about the differences between I. carnea and I. fistulosa by asking a student at the Univ. of North Florida to print out the JSTOR document. I may be getting the article tonight. My wife now works as a chef in one of the UNF restaurants and asked one of her coworkers/students to access the article for me. I will keep you updated.

Jeremy

Jeremy - Thanks for not forgetting this thread! I look forward to what that article says! :-)

Good luck with all the digging you are having to do for that pool! I hope the end results is better than you expected! I also like your philosophy of no lawn/grass... my future plans! LOL!

Here's the additional information I've gained from finally getting a copy of the JSTOR document about the I. carnea. The article basically puts forth the view that there are sufficient differences between I. carnea ssp. carnea and I. carnea ssp. fistulosa that they should be recognized as distinct subspecies.

I carnea. ssp. carnea is a vining plant with more ovate leaves.
I. carnea ssp. fistulosa is an upright plant with more rigid stems with more lance-shaped leaves.

From the illustrations provided in the article, what I (and others in my locale) have is the fistulosa subspecies. I still don't understand why it is labeled as a noxious weed because it has shown no signs of spreading much, either by the root system or by seeds. I may be able to pull my scanner out of storage and scan the illustrations to post here so that we can all see the differences.

I gave a call to the expert as Emma suggested, but didn't get a call back. I may be able to find him on other sites and ask his opinion.

I'm going to also followup with a few more botanist types and folks from the U of Fla to see what their opinions on the plant(s) may be.

Jeremy

I wonder what the professors and others from U of FL have to say. I agree with you that I don't understand why the fistulosa subspecies is considered invasive and prohibited. I had never seen one until I saw some growing at Epcot years ago and I haven't seen one anywhere else except in homeowner's yards. They are certainly not invasive like the Brazilian Pepper tree! Ack! I hope you are able to obtain further information to share with us. Thanks for investigating further into this for all of us. :-)