Royal catchfly’s red flowers are eye-catching
Plant royal catchfly, and you will be rewarded with brilliant red fireworks in your summer garden. Add to the cast hummingbirds and butterflies, and this summer drama gets even more riveting.
Probably inspired by the brilliant red flowers, the plant was described by Thomas Nuttall as “one of the most splendid species in existence.” This English naturalist was the first to record and collect the royal catchfly, circa 1810 near St. Louis. He later collected more specimens of this beautiful plant from the Ohio River valley.
Royal Cctchfly is a herbaceous, taprooted perennial that belongs to the pink or carnation family. It is a slow-growing plant that can reach a height of 4 feet or more. It is upright and lanky with paired leaves. An unassuming single stem saves all the drama for later, when it branches out at the top to bear bright-red flowers.
The star-shaped flower has five petals that arise from a ridged, green tube or calyx. Press this part of the flower between your fingers, and you will experience its Royal catchfly
gluelike stickiness. Observe it closely, and you will find trapped insects. Look under a lens, and you will see the calyx is covered by sticky fine hair that traps the unfortunate victims. This also explains its common name.
Little is understood about why this plant traps insects. Perhaps it is to prevent them from entering the flower and feeding on it. Some suggest it might indicate primitive carnivorous behavior, although there is no current research to confirm the claim.
Royal catchfly is pollinated by hummingbirds. The red color of the flower cannot be perceived by many insects. Exceptions are large butterflies, such as swallowtails, and the ruby-throated hummingbird; these longtongued pollinators extract nectar from the end of the long tubes and, in exchange, pollinate the flowers.
Once the flowers are pollinated, fruit is set, and eventually a long, slender seed capsule is formed. The seeds disperse by gravity near the parent plant and germinate to form a colony. Although the plant blooms in its first year, it might need a few seasons to reach its full flowering potential.
Uses
There are no recorded medicinal or edible uses of this plant. It is a nectary plant that feeds hummingbirds, butterflies and sometimes aphids.
To create a prairie garden rich in insect and bird life, one can plant royal catchfly with other prairie forbs such as coneflowers, oxeye sunflowers, liatris, wild bergamot, tall coreopsis, rudbeckia, goldenrod and grasses such as prairie dropseed.
Growing requirements
• Hardiness: Zones 5 to 8 • Water: dry to moderately wet; extended periods of drought cause leaves to yellow.
• Sun: full sun to partial shade; will not tolerate full shade.
• Soil: average, welldrained soils but will tolerate clay
• pH: neutral to alkaline • Propagation: often selfsowing. Sow seeds on soil surface in the fall or divide clumps and plant in spring.
• Pests: No serious insect or disease problems, except for occasional aphids in its upper stems. Groundhogs might dine on the plant.
Where to see it
This summer-blooming plant is a native of the tall-grass prairies of the Midwest. Unfortunately, because of the extensive conversion of prairies to farmland, this plant either has been extirpated in some states or is endangered.
In Ohio, royal catchfly is listed as a threatened species by the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. It can be found in a few remnant prairie patches of the Darby Plains, in pioneer cemeteries and along roadsides and railway tracts and power-line rights of way.
To see it growing in its original prairie habitat, visit the Bigelow or the Smith cemetery nature preserves near Plain City each July and August. These postagestamp-sized oases, in the middle of corn-soybean monocultures, will not fail to impress you with their diversity of plants and wildlife.
Easy to grow from seed, royal catchfly is being reintroduced in restored prairies and home gardens. Some of these sites include the restored prairies at Prairie Oaks Metro Park and Battelle Darby Creek, the Huffman Prairie near Dayton and the Heritage Gardens at the Ohio Governor’s Residence in Bexley.
Fun fact
Although royal catchfly flowers are mostly scarlet, you might encounter rare specimens that bear salmonpink blooms.