Physostegia correllii

Physostegia correllii, Correll's obedient plant, is a rare and handsome member of the mint family, a robust, upright, somewhat succulent perennial rising from thick, spreading rhizomes. Among the false dragonheads the species stands out for unusually dark, glossy green leaves and cool purplish-pink flowers streaked and spotted with darker purple, an inch long and packed into dense terminal spikes.

The common name obedient plant comes from a small botanical trick shared across the genus: each flower sits on a hinged stalk and stays put when nudged left or right along the spike, holding whatever position a curious finger leaves behind. Bloom runs from midsummer into early fall, the flared lower lip of each tubular flower making a small landing platform for the bumblebees that work the spikes.

In the wild Correll's obedient plant is a streamside specialist, now reduced to a scattered handful of sites in Texas, Louisiana, and northern Mexico, where the plant grows in standing water or wet soil along streams and irrigation ditches. Growing a nursery-raised plant is a small act of conservation for an increasingly uncommon Southwestern native.

Give Correll's obedient plant a sunny spot with ample and reliable moisture, a pond or stream edge, a rain garden, a bog bed, or any bed that never dries, and room for the rhizomes to travel into a colony. Pair with other moisture-loving natives such as swamp milkweed, blue flag iris, and cardinal flower, and cut the frost-killed stems to the ground in late winter.