Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show/podcast: Indian Paintbrush
On today’s show I’m spotlighting a native plant I would love to have! Indian Paintbrush.
It blooms in part to full sun and prefers a medium wet to medium dry soil. Prairie Moon Nursery describes the plant this way: An annual or biennial, its vivid scarlet bracts nearly hide small, greenish flowers and appear to have been dipped in paint. The vivid red color is clustered at the top of the plants and looks really pretty with yellow Wood Betony.
May and June are the typical bloom time, but because of its annual or biennial nature, you can see flowers blooming as late as October. The entire plant grows to about 2 ft. tall.
This is a hemiparasitic plant. That means its roots seek out roots of host plants, usually grasses, to tap into them for nutrition. Those grasses include Pennsylvania Sedge, which I have…
and Blue Grama. I really may have to purchase a few of these to mix in with my sedge. As a native it grows in fields, prairies and open woods. If you split the US down the middle, Indian Paintbrush is native from Minnesota to the East Coast and throughout much of Canada. It is NOT rare up around the Great Lakes and in northeast Minnesota. Here is more information on Indian Paintbrush
Despite being semi parasitic during part of their lives, these plants do rely on pollinators for reproduction. A variety of insects visit paintbrush flowers, especially bees even though the color red is difficult for them to see.
Hummingbirds, however, love the color red and this species is especially adapted for pollination by those beautiful jewels. Their long bills allow them to reach the nectar at the end of long, tubular flowers.
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