Consider-the-Lilies Web Gallery
Longleaf Summer Bluet
This native wildflower once grew throughout the eastern half of North America, but in recent years has declined in some parts of Canada and New England to the point where it has been declared an endangered flora.
Fortunately, it is not categorized as a threatened variety in Virginia. Although not seen as often as the more familiar varieties of its family, when found, it is worth a closer look.
The prefix Houstonia was given to this plant family by Linnaeus, the father of the botanic binomial naming system.
He did this to honor his friend, William Houston, Scottish surgeon and botanist, who died in 1733 while on an extended expedition to find new flora in the tropics of South America.
The common name is derived from a more familiar member of this family, Bluet (Houstonia caerulea), which has flowers of a more decided shade of blue.
The most visible distinction for Houstonia longifolia , reflected in the botanic and common names, is the spiky foliage arching out below the blossoms.
I found this plant flourishing on a rough, disturbed ground along a fence line that did not look like it could support any plant, let alone this succulent wildflower.
This delicate native flora—Does it look like an Easter lily to you?—prefers such dry, gravelly soil.
In fact, I often find this xeric wildflower flourishing on seemingly barren ground in the Blue Ridge Mountains where little else will grow.
(Heal-all and Golden Ragwort require just the opposite habitat: damp soil and semi-shade of a forested wetland.)
Go to the Main Directory to consider more lilies of the field.