Indian Pink is a beautiful and unique herbaceous perennial which is currently enjoying great popularity among native plant gardeners. This is a good thing as North Carolina lists it as Endangered and Natureserve lists it as Critically Imperiled! This is a small, shade-loving plant, growing no higher than 30 inches, and it is late to appear in the spring. It emerges as a clump of unbranched stems with pairs of sessile, opposite leaves, supporting terminal panicles of very unusual and striking scarlet (not pink!), tubular flowers topped with bright yellow, star-shaped lobes. As one might surmise from the color and shape of the flowers, Indian Pink is a hummingbird magnet. The seed pods, later in the summer, explode, shooting seeds a good distance away. Germination rate must be fairly high, as where one plant is, whole loose colonies can be found, at the borders of rich, moist woods.
Spigelia marilandicaIndian Pink, Woodland Pinkroot, Pink Root, Worm Grass

Photo by Cure Nursery
Last Updated: June 6, 2019