Hesperis matronalis

Hesperis matronalis is a species of herbaceous flowering plants belonging to the family Brassicaceae.

The plants are biennial or short-lived perennial native to Eurasia and grown in many other parts of the world for its attractive flowers bloom in spring quer. In some of these areas, have escaped cultivation and become weeds.

The genus Hesperis derives from the Greek name for the night, and was probably given because the scent of the flowers is more pronounced at night.

Features

Hesperis matronalis grows 100 cm or more in height, with multiple hair shafts in vertical position. Normally the first year of growth produces a large foliage and flowering occurs in the second year, plants are usually biennial, but in a number of places may be short-lived perennial.

The plants have showy flowers in early to mid spring. The leaves are arranged alternately upright stems and lance-shaped, generally have few or short petioles and have toothed margins. The foliage has short hairs on the upper and lower leaf surface and feels a little rough.

The leaves are large, about 12 cm long and up to 4cm wide. In early spring, during flowering the bottoms of the stems are generally unbranched and devoid of leaves and the top of the flowering plants ending in inflorescences.

The abundance of fragrant flowers are produced in large and showy terminal clusters that can have up to 30 cm in height. As with flowers and fruit at some point may bend under their weight.

Each flower is large (2 cm in diameter), with four petals in colors ranging from white, pink shades of lilac and purple, some plants have flowers that are a mixture of different colors.

The flowers have six stamens in two groups, the four closest to the ovaries are longer than the two opposites. The four sepals are erect and form a mock tube around the claws of the petals and are also colored like petals.

Some plants may bloom until August, but warm weather greatly shortens the duration of each flower that blooms. The seeds are produced in fine fruit pods that are 5-14 cm long, containing two separate rows of seeds.



Source: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesperis_matronalis

See Also: International Flower Delivery, Florist