Adonis Blazingstar……how’s that for a name?! Latin name is Mentzelia multiflora and I first noticed it last month while hiking in the Quartz wash of the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. Blooms always get my attention but there weren’t any. Instead what caught my eye was a residue under the plant. Some of the lower leaves were shiny with it too. It looked as if someone had gone down the wash and deliberated sprayed something on each of them. I figured that was unlikely but hey….I’d never seen it before so maybe it was some kind of dangerous plant?!
So I asked my botanist guru friend, Steve Jones, about it and he said “yea, I’ve noticed that residue too”. He said he’d check it out and keep me posted. Yesterday he went to an area to check out another plant I told him about (more later) and he came back with an answer to the residue question. A very cool answer in the form of the following photograph! The residue is called Honeydew aka Aphid poop 🙂
What does an Adonis blazingstar bloom look like? Because they bloom in low light, I didn’t see one until last week while hiking late in the afternoon. I look forward to seeing one with all those buds blooming at once!
As for the name of the plant….. the BlazingStar part is understandable but where did Adonis come from? I don’t have any links to back it up but I’ve come across a couple of instances that mention Mentzelia leaves being boiled up and used as a love potion. If anyone has facts, please share. Otherwise, that explanation works for me 🙂