Family Campanulaceae
Garden origin.
Intense, show-stopping, outrageously colour coordinated and fantastic! Few plants have such a distinctive combination of foliage and flower colour, and the Cardinal Flower adds a striking upright poise to these qualities. Nearly black, glossy purple stems and long lance shaped leaves are crowned by spikes of many brilliantly vibrant tubular red blooms. The exquisitely structured flowers have a pendulous three lobed petal, and two upright horn like petals, arranged around a white tipped protruding stamen, borne throughout summer and into autumn. Happiest in boggy soil in part shade.
Height and spread after 1 – 2 years 1m x 50cm.
