Saturday, August 15, 2009

Today's Flowers: Dame's Rocket

Dame's Rocket is another invasive perennial that can be found in many places through out North America. A member of the mustard family Dame's Rocket is often confused as a type of phlox but upon closer examination you can see that Dame's Rocket has four pedals where phlox flowers are comprised of five.
Originally from Europe Dame' Rocket is a member of the genus Hesperis which means evening in Greek. This is appropriate since the Dame's Rocket blooms seem to get more fragrant in the evening. I photographed these Dame's Rockets at Dodge Nature Center back in June.

18 comments:

Helen said...

Beautiful flower. It does resemble the Phlox in color and flower. Helen

Dan Huber said...

good information. Lovely photos
thsnks

dan

Marju said...

Just a wonderful purple color!

mimi said...

wow how i love purple flowers. great entry.

Tulip said...

wonderful shot of this purple flowers.

my entry http://southbrowneyes.blogspot.com/

Leora said...

What a pretty invasive - too bad it's one of those things that doesn't belong.

Minie said...

pretty flowers.

Maria said...

It's a really pretty flower, I love the coours very much!

DeniseinVA said...

I thoroughly enjoyed learning about the Dame's Rocket. Thank you for sharing these beautiful photos.

Sandy Kessler said...

is it in the stock family I wonder??Sandy

http://graceolsson.com/blog said...

In Sweden, where I live we have the same flowers..in my garden too.
nice macro shot. dear
graceolsson.com/blog

Lavender and Vanilla Friends of the Gardens said...

It is such a subtle flower similar to the salad rocket flower which has the same flowers in white with very fine purple lines. The leaves are delicious peppery in salads and I always let them flower and seed. I guess this is just a very pretty ornamental!
Your photos of birds animals and insects are spectacular.

Pat - Arkansas said...

Lovely photos! I enjoyed the information about Dame's Rocket. Thanks for sharing both with us.

Judy said...

Thanks for explaining the difference! Now if I can only remember that while I am out taking photos...

Arija said...

So many plants have a stronger scent in the cool moint evenings. Your posts are ever a joy to visit, they are always so well researched and well spotted and beautifully photograped, as are the Butterflies above and the Fox family below..a sheer delight.

Anonymous said...

Great pictures and excellent information!!
Love to visit your blog.

Mia N said...

..like you say, four pedals is not very usually..nice flowers in any way.

Kathie Brown said...

The color and detail are wonderful. It's hard to be mad at such a pretty plant!