# Anyone know what this flower is .......Texas unmowed area? Bees are working it.



## lupester (Mar 12, 2008)

I found this growing in my unmowed are near my pond for a second year in a row.






Anyone know what it is? It kind of looks like rocket larkspar but the little flowers are bigger than my larkspar.


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## Cris (Mar 10, 2011)

it's a bloody lupin; they grow Everywhere
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lupinus


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## lupester (Mar 12, 2008)

I know it is a lupin....what specific one. Texas Bluebonnets are lupins but it is not a Bluebonnet.


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## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

Uh, not a lupin, silly, it's foxglove (Digitalis).

Beautiful, but deadly.


Or it might be a variety of penstemon.

Need some close-ups of flowers.


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## SRBrooks (Jun 24, 2012)

My vote was for digitalis, too. But does it have "spotty" pattern inside the blooms? Most digitalis (foxglove) does.


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## lupester (Mar 12, 2008)

I zoomed in on the pic and it looks like they do but I'll look at the plant tonight. Does foxglove seed naturally?


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## KQ6AR (May 13, 2008)

I don't think its either one. Wild snapdragon would be closer but not correct either.


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## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

Snapdragon, antirrhinum has a kind or exserted pouch. Really need some good close-ups of flowers and other plant parts.


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## robherc (Mar 17, 2012)

actually, it *does* look a lot like my snapdragons, once I open the pic separately & zoom in.


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## Ccarter (Nov 29, 2012)

It looks like "fall obedient plant," physostegia virginiana. In my yard it is not obedient (spreads like crazy) and blooms in spring as well as fall. See http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=PHVI8.

If you twist the bloom stalk it will stay in the new position. It likes a damp ditch and wilts if it gets too dry or too hot.


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## ChasWG (Apr 29, 2013)

That's a penstemon. Look at the spear shaped leaves that are across from each other going up the stalk. The color of the flowers is a give away as well. Wild penstemon usually comes in blue to purple-ish shades.

Snapdragons are hard for smaller honeybees to get into the "mouth" of the flower to get at the nectar. I have only ever seen bumble bees able to pry open the snaps in my yard. And Snapdragons blooms are much more tightly packed together.

Digitalis has a much, much larger blooms (though there are couple hybridized pestemons that have very large blooms, but they usually come in shades of red) with the tell tale dots on the inside of the flower.


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