More from my brother's place. Near the sour cherry tree, down the steep slope toward the ravine in an impossibly dry and partly shaded slope, Apocynum androsaemifolium, spreading dogbane, blooms with consistency every year, even in this year's heat and drought. It's probably one of the most adaptable plants native to North America. It's native to every state except Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida, South Carolina, and Hawaii.
It's fragrance is permeating and pleasant, and seems all the stronger at the end of a hot, dry day. It's not cultivated much, and perhaps it's the plant's spreading nature that keeps it out of gardens. When we were collecting plants in 2010, this is one that we chose not to collect, entirely due to worries about how it might misbehave in the garden.
Plants of this species in the Black Hills are more noticeable to me, and I think they might bear more flowers than most I have seen. This species readily hybridizes with Apocynum cannabinum, Indian hemp. Don't get excited; the species name of that one relates to its use in making rope, and it contains no THC. The individual flowers are lovely and intricately flushed with pink.
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