Codonopsis sp. - need an identification
Antennaria@aol.com (Sun, 27 Aug 2006 12:16:34 PDT)

Hello,

Spontaneously appearing in my garden, twining up through a rhododendron, is a
Codonopsis species. I don't have any Codonopsis in the garden, so its
appearance is somewhat of a mystery. Possibly I tossed out some old seed, or dumped
some soil from ungerminated seed flats. The leaves are glabrous, widely
elliptical, and arranged in 4-part whorls. The large, waxy, egg-like buds started
opening just last week, near the end of August 2006. The flowers are milky
green-white on the outside, and dull purplish inside (with a faint bluish
sheen)... solid purplish on the upper half, white heavily spotted purple in the
lower half.

Two photos taken in the rain today (8/27/2006):
http://www.plantbuzz.com/buzz/im_codonopsis.htm

Anyone know what species it might be?

I tried to make an identification online using a Google search, but find
there are many, many species, it's rather confusing, and I haven't been able to
pinpoint an ID.

PS. This message also sent to Alpine-L. Since there is a wiki page for
Codonopsis, I thought I'd post this to PBS as well.

Mark McDonough Pepperell, Massachusetts, United States
antennaria@aol.com "New England" USDA Zone 5
==============================================

alliums, bulbs, penstemons, hardy hibiscus, western
american alpines, iris, plants of all types!