The Inside-Out-Flower
This west coast native Vancouveria hexandra is growing against a cliff wall & behind a hawthorne tree in quite a shady location. Though categorized deciduous, it is often nearly evergreen. In our garden, in December, it will have shown no signs of winter wear & tear. Not until toward the middle & end of January does it begin to drop some of its leaves; even then, it never did drop them all.
The photo at the head of this page was taken in late April with lots of new young growth. A hardy perenial herb of the barberry family, it loves rich well drained humus, & is hardy sharing space with ferns, salal, & rhodies. Ours grows in fairly deep shade with numerous trees & shrubs at the top of the wall, & around a little corner from two swordferns.
The yellow stems are rather wiry; the duckfoot-leaves dance in the slightest breeze. It spreads by undersoil rhizomes, but does so rather slowly. It gets its common name "inside-out-flower" from the unusual looking tiny white pealed-back flowers which appear (usually in trios) on stalks taller than the plant itself, each flower having six pale-purplish stamins & the pistol hanging out as temptation to insects, its seeds being dispersed by ants.The second photo taken in May is of the small blooms, which look not so much inside-out as completely backward, as though the stem were the stamen.
The third photo, taken mid July, is of the hexandra's seedpod, which is quite a hard fruit somewhat slipper-shaped. By July's end this fruit softens & unfolds up & down, looking like a split green tongues licking simultaneously up & down. Stuck to the inside of the tongues are small red-brown seeds which soon drop off.Though my mediocre photography may not make it seem like much, it really is an appealing low-maintance shade plant. Everyone who has a nice shady place for it should have it. As it's slow to establish, start with three or four pots so that it won't be too insubstantial, & save the seeds to start in pots then when big enough add those with the rest to thicken up an expanding patch. I expect over time to have a dense area of them against that cliff.