Apr
When I moved to Charlottesville in retirement, I began growing a native plant garden. At first, plant selection was mostly random, driven by availability and by the sunny dry conditions of my selected garden patch. Based on internet research, it became clear that I must have the pollinator-friendly mountain-mint (Pycnanthemum). I found one at a local nursery; it turned out to be Pycnanthemum muticum (clustered mountain-mint). It was a rapidly growing, broad-leafed variety with bow-tie-shaped “bracts” (specially adapted leaves just below the inflorescence). It smelled nice too. For good measure, I got a pair. Later in the summer I was surprised to see that one plant had formed a neat clump, while the other, in addition to its clump, had sent out a perfect ring of bright red runners (stolons) extending outward, up to a foot or more. It turns out that this is a commonly observed phenomenon in some Pycnanthemum species. Why it happened in one plant and not the other may have been related to “ploidy” (some P. muticums are diploid, others tetraploid, others possibly pentaploid). Alternatively, it could simply have been due to differences in growing conditions.
