Top - Kirengeshoma palmata koreana & Ligularia dentata 'Desdemona' 10 August 2025

 

 Gerald Bane Straley and the Ponderosa Pine

 Gerald Bane Straley and Julio Cortázar

A Kirengeshoma through a pinhole 

While walking in my garden I noticed two plants with yellow flowers that were quite close to each other. I remembered the name of one of them Kirengeshoma palmata koreana but the other escaped me. When Rosemary was alive between us we could always remember the names of plants.

I have written before how Rosemary did not like yellow in the garden. Her attraction to rare plants (who has K

kirengeshomas?) softened her stance.

The Ligularia dentate ‘Desdemona’ is called dentata because of the toothed edges of its leaves. The leaves are green but are a nice magenta on the underside.

That kirengeshoma to me has the face of a botanist from UBC who died of AIDS many years ago. His favourite plant was the Kirengeshoma. I will include a few previous blogs where I mention him. I had also forgotten that I had photographed the plant with my Mamiya with its pinhole body cap.

And of course the ligularia has Rosemary’s face on it. I wonder why its cultivar name is Desdemona as she was a tragic figure.