Rattlebox Revisited

The yellow rattlebox is back to sprouting in the backyard.

I first blogged about this amazing orchid-like plant here.

Several have been planted next to the house

by the butterfly garden.

Something was needed to break up those blah grey walls.

Many more have been self-sown

all around the yard.

Can't ask for gardening any easier than that!

The sweet and delicate heads on the crowns of these beauties

are chartreuse-colored.

The seed pods are a similar color,

almost translucent in nature,

and yield a marvelous treasure-trove of goodies inside.

Here's what they look like after they dry on the stalk.

I harvested so many seeds last year,

yet oodles fell on the ground

and restarted themselves recently.

I'm happy to share if you'd like to

give this easy going plant a try!

The multitude of green leaves are lush and vibrant.

Climbing toward the heavens are these gorgeous

yellow blooms, just asking to be placed in a tall vase.

Like canaries spiraling toward the nest,

these gorgeous flowers just go on and on...

So delicate, yet so hearty.

Little care is given this plant and it thrives

on only the bare essentials.

Sometimes less really is more...

Wanna learn more?

http://floridanature.org/species.asp?species=Crotalaria_spectabilis

I.D.required

Thanks to Susan at Simply Susan, for helping me identify this plant

with its lovely seed pod.

She steered me toward this website: http://www.flwildflowers.com/gallery/,

which has a treasure trove of information on Florida wildflowers. Learning something new always propels me to research even more. There is so much great information on the web just for the asking. This green-thumb wannabe never tires of finding out everything I can

to enhance my daily meditative practice in the garden.

When the garden is in harmony, it can't help but envelope everything around it.

I think that's why I visit Susan's and Meem's gardens so often. They always have something to teach me and just seeing their gorgeous edens inspires me to keep learning and experimenting. Gardeners are a generous bunch in thought and deed.

The Crotalaria is a member of the pea family, and shares the name "rattlebox" with the moth. This species is Crotalaria spectabilis. It is poisonous to livestock because of its alkaloids. Its name comes from the same Latin name that rattlesnakes have. When the pods of the plant are ready to seed, one can shake the pod, which has changed from green to brown, and hear the seeds rattle around.