Stachytarpheta Species, Changeable Velvetberry, Pink Rat Tail, Pink Snakeweed, Red Porterweed

Based on my observations of porterweed in my Port St John and Titusville gardens, the coral is a hummingbird and butterfly magnet. It get...Read Mores the largest, 6ft x 6ft, so give it plenty of space. The red stays small, usually about 3ft x 3ft.

Cold hardiness: The coral may freeze to the ground in a hard freeze, but will come back. The red won't survive.

I've never had any issues with either of these colors being invasive or aggressive re-seeders.

This was our first time to use this plant in Lake Jackson, TX. We planted about 30 of these last weekend in a public butterfly garden an...Read Mored are waiting to see how they come out in the spring. From others' comments, we believe we should have no problem with them.

I have several red porter weed plants that have been beautiful in past years with an abundance of flowers. In past years they have grown...Read More to a height of 5 to 6 ft and very robust. This year the plants have not gotten any taller than 3 ft., showing flowering stems but no flowers. Additionally, the leaves are very hard, almost like a holly plant. Any ideas what may be going on? The leaves are large and mostly the correct dark green as they have been years prior.

This plant will not survive our winters in Virginia, but I am thrilled with it! On top of being beautiful and everblooming, the hummingb...Read Moreirds swarm to it, over everything else in my garden!

Pink porterweed is a robust South American species that can reach 6' tall and 8' wide or more. It's correctly called Stachytarpheta mutab...Read Moreilis var. mutabilis, but there is a violet-flowered variety in the nursery trade called S. mutabilis var. violacea. The red-flowered species that only grows to about 3' tall is S. miniacea, native to Mexico and Honduras. There is much confusion about what is native to Florida, and it's already been noted by someone else that the only Florida native species is S. jamaicensis, which is a blue-flowered low-growing species with mostly horizontal stems and coarsely toothed leaves. Another blue-flowered species in the nursery trade has deep blue flowers and attains a height of about 5' with dark green leaves that have a quilted appearance. It is correctly called S. cayennensis, but is often referred to by the botanical synonym S. urticifolia. It not only has been erroneously sold as a Florida native, it has also been reported erroneously as being native to the Old World. There are no Old World members of this genus.

It's interesting to note that S. jamaicensis and S. cayennensis flowers last only part of a day, while S. mutabilis flowers last for several days each. All members of this genus are superb attractors of butterflies, but S. mutabilis (both pink and violet varieties) is a favorite of hummingbirds as well.

Actually this is the regular Rare Pink Porterweed. There is a red one that is a dwarf of this Pink but the flower is red.

There have been many publications and plant nurseries claiming that Stachytarpheta mutabilis is native to Florida. Stachytarpheta mutabil...Read Moreis is actually native to South America, not Florida. The only native 'porterweed' is Stachytarpheta jamaicensis, which only has blue/purple flowers. There is not a pink variety of Stachytarpheta jamaicensis.

This amazing plant grows very fast in gardens on the east coast of South Africa. It is perpetually in bloom and attracts large numbers of...Read More bumble bees, honey bees, butterflies and birds - outdoing even the pentas. It is best grown in clusters to avoid that leggy look and once established is a colourful addition to the garden requiring little maintenance. I have both pink and purple ones but have difficulty in telling the varieties of stachytarpheta apart since s. mutabilis, s. urticifolia and s.cayennensis are so similar.

I planted 7 of these in a partial shade area of my backyard. I now have 13 from the "babies" as I call them. I've also given several I've...Read More grown from the babies to friends. The ones I planted originally 2 years ago grow to at least 6 ft. tall. I cut them back in the early spring. They are one of my favorite plants, very low maintenance. I have the purple or blue variety. I'm very interested in obtaining different colors. I've only seen the purple ones in our local nurseries or garden centers. Does anyone know where I might obtain different colors? I live in Brandon Florida. I was very pleased to discover it is a Florida native as I'm trying to eliminate any non native and invasive plants from the many plants I have in our very large backyard.

Great plant I was fairly dissappointed by its not returning I guess it is not an perennial here in zone 7, and we even had a extra mild w...Read Moreinter, and it was mulched very well. I did save some seeds though and I am going to give it a try in some pots next week.
Great for hummingbirds and butterflies, even for one season it is very rewarding.
The seeds are inside the long tubular florer stalks that are left on the bush. They are thinner than a grain of rice and dark colored.

2005 came back like a champ from the seeds I collected, fed the hummers and butterflies all summer and way into the fall. I love this plant and will try it again later in the garden, I did not get to collect seeds in 2005, for 2006