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 ============================================== >> web site under construction - http://www.plantbuzz.com/ << alliums, bulbs, penstemons, hardy hibiscus, western american alpines, iris, plants of all types!