Plant Name
Scientific Name: Plumbago auriculata
Synonym: Plumbago capensis
Common Names: Plumbago, Cape Leadwort, Cape Plumbago
Plant Characteristics
Duration: Perennial, Evergreen
Growth Habit: Shrub, Vine, Herb/Forb
Hawaii Native Status: Introduced. This minimally naturalized and widely cultivated ornamental garden plant is native to southern Africa.
Flower Color: Pale blue, White
Flowering Season: Year-round
Height: Up to 10 feet (3 m) tall, but usually much less
Description: The phlox-like flowers are in rounded clusters at the branched stem tips. The individual flowers are tubular, 1 inch (2.5 cm) long, and have 5 spreading, round-tipped lobes. There are sticky, glandular hairs at the base of the flowers. The flowers are followed by sticky seed capsules. The leaves are yellowish green and elliptic, oblanceolate, or spoon-shaped. The stems are weak, green to woody, and erect, sprawling, or climbing.
The native Wild Leadwort (Plumbago zeylanica) has white flowers and much looser flower clusters.
Special Characteristics
Poisonous – The plants are poisonous.
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae – Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta – Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta – Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta – Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida – Dicotyledons
Subclass: Caryophyllidae
Order: Plumbaginales
Family: Plumbaginaceae – Leadwort family
Genus: Plumbago L. – leadwort
Species: Plumbago auriculata Lam. – Cape leadwort