Red Bear's Breeches for those in the know

In early May this year, on the way to Clunes Booktown (the annual writers festival held in the central Victorian town of Clunes), I dropped in for my first visit to Lambley Gardens and Nursery. It won't be my last.

Apart from the gorgeous dry climate and Mediterranean gardens, the enticing selection of plants for sale and the very informative staff and signage, I was intrigued by one plant. As can happen. 

It's a prickly thing with red flowers. The flower parts are floppy and obscure, and I couldn't tell what family or kind of plant it might be. So I pulled out my phone and ran it through my Pl@ntNet and iNaturalist apps, neither of which was willing to give a high probably identification. Instead the only plant suggested was Acanthus mollis, also called Oyster Plant or Bear's Breeches. Which it clearly wasn't. 

When I got home I thought that's not such a crazy connection and I was keen to see what family Acanthus is in, which turned out to be the rather useless for this purpose, Acanthaceae. 

As I learn, Acanthaceae includes about 250 genera and up to 3000 species, so perhaps I should know more about the family. Acanthus itself has about 30 species, from tropical and warm temperate parts of the world, with most found around the Mediterranean.

The plant was growing in the Lambley's Mediterranean Garden, so I do the obvious thing and search for Acanthus and red flowers on my internet search engine. I quickly spot the (non-Mediterranean) Ethiopean Acanthus, Acanthus sennii, with its bright red flowers.

When I go to search further what should pop up but Lambley Nursery, proudly extolling this 'rare and extraordinary plant'. It comes from the Ethiopian highlands, at above 1700 metres, and is, according to the nursery site, used as a protective hedge around vegetable gardens there.

Despite that, Kew Gardens have heard that the natural habitat of the species is under some threat from clearing for farmland and the removal of species like this prickly one to improve the land for livestock grazing. In addition, and I not sure if this helps or hinders its conservation, its roots are used to treat scorpion stings and paste of its leaves applied to stop bleeding.

I'm afraid I fall into the great unwashed when it comes to recognising this plant. The nursery site reveals that only two visitors recognised the plant as an Acanthus, one a professor of botany (not me obviously), the other an English nurseryman. Everyone else couldn't place it. 

Thank goodness for identification apps and google. Although it was only when I looked at my photos at home I noticed the owners David Glenn and Criss Canning had helpfully planted Acanthus mollis next to it, as you can see in this picture. A clue for those more observant than me.

So thank you David and Criss, for the plant puzzle and all this autumn colour...

...and a bird bathing...