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July 18, 2009 : Origanum 'Barbara Tingey'
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Plant Family / Families: Lamiaceae
Scientific Name and Author: Origanum 'Barbara Tingey'
Institution: UBC Botanical Garden
Accession Number: 035141-0628-2004
Name Location: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
About 3 years ago, on 3 August 2006, Daniel selected today's plant for Botany Photo of the Day. As I passed the cultivar’s modest flowers in our E.H. Lohbrunner Alpine Garden earlier this week, it seemed time to feature the small oregano species once again.
Lamiaceae (mint family) consists of between 223 and 263 genera and between 6900 and 7200 species, most of which are distributed throughout the Mediterranean basin and southwestern Asia. Generally speaking, the annual or perennial family members are aromatic shrubs, trees, or vines equipped with square stems dressed in whorled leaves. The family produces bilaterally symmetrical, bisexual flowers that exhibit 5 united sepals and 5 united petals.
The genus Origanum includes 44 herbaceous perennial and sub-shrubby species and a broad diversity of lower taxa (6 subspecies, 3 varieties, 18 naturally occurring hybrids). Species—which are notoriously difficult to label correctly—are native to the dry, warm, and rocky-soiled alpine habitats of the Mediterranean and Eurasia, but can survive in a wide range of soils and are variously hardy to zones 5 through 9. In order to encourage healthy growth and development, gardeners often create environments that simulate the species' native habitat, siting plants in soils mixed with sand, shells, or gravel in garden areas that are exposed to full sun or partial shade. Species exhibit ovate-leaved stems that are either trailing or erect, and they variously put forth flowers of pink, purple, or white. Some Origanum species contain the sharply sapid chemical carvacrol, for which they are included in many forms of cuisine that originate around the Mediterranean Sea (Italy, Greece). Outside of the kitchen, species extracts have long served as active ingredients in folk treatments for colds, coughs, and gastro-intestinal problems, and several are reputed to have antibacterial, antifungal, and antimicrobial properties. Linnaeus first described the cultivar genus (19/07/2009), which is featured in today's photo of the cultivar 'Barbara Tingey', in the 18th century.
This evergreen specimen—which here seems to glow like a vast network of purple, candle-lit lanterns—grows easily in containers stocked with well-drained soil, and it propagates from cuttings with similar facility. The small, layered flowers press out from in between the hanging bracts and remain in bloom for the majority of the summer.
Posted by Stephen Coughlin (summer student 2009) at July 18, 2009 7:00 AM
Comments
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Posted by: Carole Miller at July 18, 2009 7:09 AM
Thank You! I'd just seen this in bloom yesterday and wanted to know what it was. Perfect timing, excellent picture and info as always.
Posted by: Susan Hall at July 18, 2009 8:06 AM
Hmm. I wonder if the Friends of the Garden propagate it for sale in the shop...
Posted by: Debby at July 18, 2009 9:45 AM
What I would give to have the seeds for that!
: O
Posted by: Sherry at July 18, 2009 10:10 AM
Please remove my subscription to the daily Botany photo of the day.Thank you
Ann Minasola
Posted by: Ann Minasola at July 18, 2009 12:07 PM
What a delightful photo!!!
Posted by: Louise at July 18, 2009 12:53 PM
That is a beauty! I've never seen anything like it, would also love to grow some of these too.
Posted by: Cambree at July 18, 2009 1:37 PM
Very pretty -- "purple, candle-lit lanterns" indeed. I'd love to have these in my garden.
I'm guessing, are the flowers about the size of chick-peas?
Posted by: Mary Ann, in Toronto at July 18, 2009 3:29 PM
I have known this as 'Ditttany of Crete". Are we talking about the same plant> the ones I have seen have lavender colored bracts.
I have wanted to get a start of this for a long time. They are popular and available in the Seattle area. But not on the eat coast as far as I can tell.
Posted by: Lj Orlin at July 18, 2009 4:00 PM
lovely plant
from what i have read the flowers
may be picked just as start
to bloom and be dried
lovely photo to end the night with
thank you as always
hello daniel
Posted by: elizabeth a airhart at July 18, 2009 5:06 PM
So pretty.
If I may ask. "Sometimes" like this species it may help to show another photo to set the volume/space of a plant. This one to me looks like Fuchsia in size but as I read is chick pee size? That is tiny :-) But still gorgeous. Is it available in Vancouver stores ?
What I also would like to suggest. Wouldn't it obe helpful to have on this sn the right side
a map of UBC gardens with a X were the plant of the day can be found in case some of us want to see them "life on site" ...hint hint techno babble this is UBC right ? Thank you.
Posted by: Vic Stapel at July 18, 2009 7:29 PM
Can anyone point me in the right direction to purchase Origanum 'Barbara Tingey' or the seed for it? PLEASE???
Posted by: onlyheaven at July 19, 2009 1:10 AM
Lovely. Mint family…never would have guessed!
Posted by: SoapySophia at July 19, 2009 6:53 PM
My Oragano's do not produce bracts! A friend gave me a plant which had beautiful bracts, but when it flowered, it too, was bractless! I have grown quite a few distinct varieties [probably species] but never a bract!
Posted by: Don Fenton at July 20, 2009 1:54 AM
This bears a very strong resemblance to another named cultivar of oreganum, called Kent Beauty, which also throws lovely bracts and purple flowers. Regularly available as a tender annual here in central Pennsylvania.
Posted by: Deb at July 20, 2009 11:14 AM
que coisa mais infinitamente linda
Posted by: siusi at July 21, 2009 8:51 AM
Colours.
Here at home these flowers are a pale pink rose with pale green hint.
At camp they are deep reddish purple almost maroon with dark green roots or bases.
Cant wait for the office will they be red pink puce salmon or rusty?
So it depends on the setting of each computer.
What might be done and what I couldnt do is to have a colour border which would adjust or at least identify the real colour.
Posted by: Alexander Jablanczy at July 22, 2009 7:51 AM
Please share your comments about the photograph(s) and accompanying write-up. Telling a story about the subject of the photograph(s) is also much appreciated! If you have a gardening question, the best place to ask is on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums. Thank you!
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Botany Photo of the Day and associated images by UBC Botanical Garden staff are licensed under a Creative Commons License. Images and text by non-UBC contributors are copyright the respective photographers / authors (but often have Creative Commons licenses if contributed via Flickr).
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Botany Photo of the Day is a project of the UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research, located in Vancouver, British Columbia Canada. UBC BGCPR is a department of the Faculty of Land and Food Systems within The University of British Columbia.
So sweet and delightful. Thank you for a cheery picture.