Nigella??

11 years ago

last modified: 11 years ago

Hi - I bought this plant as a seedling and it is supposed to be Nigella, which I believe it is. But I keep thinking that there are two plants in this bunch, since it appears that there are two types of leaves growing. Picture here.

Also, every once in a while, it has tiny flowers that bloom for a day and then go away. These flowers do NOT look like the nigella flower I'm used to seeing. Link here for the picture.

Any ideas as to what is going on - or is this normal? Thanks!

Featured Answer

floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK

11 years ago

I thought I had made myself clear but it seems I haven't explained well enough. You definitely have two separate plants there. One is an absolutely typical Nigella damascena. They don't have separate male and female flowers. That's not what hermaphrodite means. It means that each individual flower has both male and female parts. Some cultivars have single flowers, some have double and they come in a variety of riffs on blue/pink/white but mostly blue.

The second plant with the small pink flowers and different leaves and stems is absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the Nigella. It is a separate plant , probably a Spergularia, or possibly an Arennaria, species. If you look carefully you will see that the leaves are actually nothing like the Nigella leaves in form, being single bladed whereas the Nigella leaves are multiply lobed. If you Google Spergularia and you'll see similar plants.

Nigella damascena is an easy, fast growing annual usually started from seed sown straight into the garden rather than from transplants. It will not live beyond the end of this year. But it might well self sow. The seed pods are very attractive. It is virtually a weed on my allotment.

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Comments (6)

Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
11 years ago
That's not Nigella, in either pic. Someone should be able to tell you what they are on "name that plant" section.
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
11 years ago
I can only see one picture.The feathery plant looks like Nigella to me. A very robust specimen. There also appear to be seed pods of something else but it's hard to make out the detail. Possibly a weedy Arenaria species or similar. If you get down and follow the stems to their bases you'll be able to see which plant is which.
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Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
11 years ago
In the 1st paragraph, the green word "here" is a link. Paragraph 2, a
pic is attached to green words "link here." When I clicked on them, I
got much enlarged, very clear pics.

I was assuming Nigella damascena, which has much bigger flowers of a totally diff shape than the little purple flowers shown in A_shau's pics.
http://allthingsplants.com/plants/view/78011/Love-in-a-Mist-Nigella-damascena/

Maybe it's another kind of Nigella, or the basal leaves are really different from the more mature foliage? (And if so, most of the basal leaves seem to be only on 1 side of the main stem for some reason?) Maybe there are 3 plants, not just 2?
floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK
11 years ago
OK - I only saw the first link. I find the green very hard to distinguish.

Anyway, now I've looked at the second picture it just confirms my view that the feathery foliage is Nigella damascena. There is basal foliage and flower stems. The Nigella has not yet flowered but will soon. The small pinkish flowers are an Arenaria or Spergularia type weed species. I don't know which sandworts or spurries would be likely in SF. It is probably not worth trying to disentangle the two plants.
a_shau
Original Author
11 years ago
hey all -thanks for helping me investigate! so after some searching on the google, i read somewhere that Nigella is a hermaphrodite plant, and among the many images of the bloom that I am expecting to see, there are a couple of photos of this bloom:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/53/Smithsoniangardens7.jpg/220px-Smithsoniangardens7.jpg

Which is from this page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigella

So I'm guessing that perhaps there are "male" and "female" flowers that the nigella throws off?! Hard to find anyone writing to support that idea. The funny thing is the leaves of this small bud look just like the leaves of the Nigella. I'll go back and see if I can get a clearer picture of the base of the plant, to see if they are growing from the same spot or not (or just completely tangled up, if in fact it really is another plant).