False Foxglove

This fine flowering plant is the Yellow False Foxglove ,Aureolaria Flava. This plant is as tall as I am, and I have seen it bloom each fall for the past few years. It is rooted on the side of a woodland ditch on the Main Drive of Percy Warner Park. It is on a hilltop facing southwest.

But this flower, lovely as it is, is of no use to the gardener looking for plants for the edges of the shade garden. This plant, like our spring Wood Betony, is a parasite. It lives on oak roots. The hillside where I saw this plant is covered with oaks, which like the dry hilltops.

Click on these photos to enlarge.