This week: Wild Petunia, No Relation to Annual Petunias
Hello!
This summer, I’ve been experimenting with Wild Petunia (Ruellia humilis). Wild Petunia is native to the Mid-Atlantic and the Midwest. In Pennsylvania, it can be found along the Maryland border. I found some at a local nursery and decided to try them in a hanging basket. I also ordered some seeds to winter sow for next season (we’ll see how that works out).
Wild Petunia has pale lavender flowers that are shaped like the bell of a horn, just like the tropical petunias that are popular annuals. Though they look similar, the two plants are unrelated. Wild Petunias are in the Acanthaceae family, while the annual petunias are in the Solanaceae, or nightshade family. Wild Petunia’s tubular flowers are attractive to hummingbirds, and it’s also a larval host for the Buckeye butterfly.
Wild Petunia in the Garden
I planted mine in a hanging basket because they bloom from late spring to early fall, and typically only grow a foot or two tall with a two-foot spread. While the container planting is going well, I’ll transplant it from the hanging basket into my front garden this fall because it is also an excellent choice for along the front of a border or as a low-growing groundcover. It’s also adaptable: plant it in moist to dry soil, and in full sun to part shade.
What's in a name?
I think we can all guess how it got its common name. So, let’s dig into its botanical name. First, humilis means short, small, or lowly in Latin. That’s fitting for this plant’s diminutive size.
The Ruellia part is much less physically descriptive: it was coined by Charles Plumier, a French botanist, in honor of Jean Ruel. Ruel was a French botanist and physician from the 1500s who was famous for translating an encyclopedia of herbal medicine from Greek to Latin, as well as translating veterinary medicine texts. He also created anatomical fugitive sheets describing male and female anatomy—medical students would study the body by pulling up flaps of paper to reveal the skeleton and organs underneath. Here’s a video of a German example, should you like to become distracted from whatever it was you were going to do today.
Elsewhere:
Pre-orders for the Penn State Master Watershed Steward Native Tree and Shrub sale are now open! Notably, there are a few edibles on the list, including Pawpaw, Persimmon, Highbush Blueberry, and Elderberry. Check out the catalog and place your order.
Have a great week,
Julie