Above: Obedient Plant along Ho-Nee-Um boardwalk by Dancing Sands Spring. (8/02/19). NOTE: Same location as where Blue Flag Iris was in bloom back in June.
Obedient Plant - Physostegia virginiana
Obedient Plant is a species of flowering plant in the mint family. It is native to North America, where it is distributed from eastern Canada to northern Mexico.
Physostegia are known commonly as obedient plants because a flower pushed to one side will often stay in that position. The name “false dragonhead” refers to the dragonheads of the related Dracocephalum,[3] a genus to which the plant once belonged.
This plant is often grown in flower gardens, and some populations may represent escaped plants from cultivation.
Other names include: obedience, false dragonhead.
For more information on Obedient Plant, visit Wikipedia.
Or, visit the Wisconsin State Herbarium.
Obedient Plant
Physostegia virginiana
Above: Obedient Plant (False Dragonhead) along Ho-Nee-Um boardwalk by Dancing Sands Spring in U.W. Arboretum (8/02/19).
Above: Obedient Plant on shore of Lake Wingra in Vilas Park (9/02/21).
Above: Obedient Plant (False Dragonhead) in Thoreau rain garden (8/15/18).
Above: Obedient Plant (False Dragonhead) in Thoreau rain garden (7/27/20).
Above: Obedient Plant illustration by Alice Lounsberry circa 1899.