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Dicliptera squarrosa (Firecracker Plant) - A clump forming perennial to nearly 2 feet tall to about 3 feet wide with upright stems clothed with attractive broadly shaped triangular leaves that are covered with soft gray velvety hairs. The bright coral-colored tubular flowers, with protruding stamens, bloom in compact terminal clusters rising above the foliage starting in early summer and the show lasts well into the fall when the plant then goes somewhat dormant through winter, though in our climate it remains evergreen.
Plant in full sun in a decently well-draining soil and irrigate only occasionally to very little – it is a pretty tough drought tolerant plant! With mulch protection it is root hardy to just below 0°F with new growth emerging in spring and evergreen in California gardens unless temperatures drop much below 25°F . This is a great small showy plant with attractive foliage even before coral flowers dance above, making for an even more beautiful show and attracting hummingbirds and bees to the garden. It is so attractive to hummers that some call this plant Hummingbird Plant and because of the fuzzy leaves, deer and rabbits tend to leave it alone.
Dicliptera squarrosa has a widespread distribution from Brazil south of the Amazon region west to the eastern slopes of the Andes in Bolivia and south into Uruguay and central Argentina. There seems to be much confusion on the correct specific epithet for this plant, but it appears that the plant in cultivation is Dicliptera squarrosa, though it is often listed as Dicliptera suberecta or D. sericea and previous names include Jacobinia suberecta and Justicia suberecta. The name for the genus comes from the Greek words 'diklis' meaning "double-folding" and 'pteron' meaning a wing in reference to the two wing-like divisions in the capsule. The specific epithet "squarrosa" references the 4-sided projecting flowers.
We first got our stock of this plant at the 1984 Huntington Botanic Gardens plant sale as Dicliptera suberecta and offered it under this name in our 1990 through 1999 catalogs. All of us at the nursery like this plant, but it has never continuously sold that all that well so it comes and goes in our production cycles. Since it is still a favorite here, and the color oranges seems popular again, we again decided to grow this plant in 2022!
Information displayed on this page about Dicliptera squarrosa is based on our research conducted about this plant in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about it as it has grown in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.
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