Common name:
Tubular bluestar
Family:
Scientific name:
Amsonia longiflora
Main flower color:
Range:
South New Mexico, central and west Texas
Height:
Up to 2 feet
Habitat:
Dry, rocky, limestone hills and flats, 300 to 5,000 feet
Leaves:
Alternate, linear, thread-like, up to 3 inches long
Season:
March to June
Leaves of amsonia longiflora are very narrow, linear to slightly lanceolate, on branched stems up to 2 feet tall. The flowers are relatively large, with a tubular corolla up to 1.5 inches long, and five lobes, angled back when mature. The tube is purplish towards the base, pale yellow or greenish above, while the lobes are white, pale yellow or pale blue. The five sepals are narrowly triangular, and their tips tend to curve sideways.
Two varieties are var longiflora, limited in distribution to west Texas, for which plants are hairless and the leaf margins are not curved inwards along the margins, and the more widespread var salpignantha, for which calyces, petioles, stems, leaves and leaf margins are sparsely hairy, and leaf margins are usually curved inwards.
Two varieties are var longiflora, limited in distribution to west Texas, for which plants are hairless and the leaf margins are not curved inwards along the margins, and the more widespread var salpignantha, for which calyces, petioles, stems, leaves and leaf margins are sparsely hairy, and leaf margins are usually curved inwards.
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