Unusual plant to see in Portland's Park Blocks

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on September 02, 2008 at 8:00 AM, updated September 03, 2008 at 5:41 PM
A fascinating plant, Caesalpinia gilliesii (desert bird of paradise) not only has beauty going for it, but also a doctor's bag full of medicinal uses.

As you walk west on Southwest Jefferson from Broadway there's a plant in a city flower bed in the Park Blocks that is so unusual as to be startling. Tall and airy, it's got foliage like a mimosa, but is much thinner and more vertical. Plus, it's obviously not a tree.

As if its form and foliage aren't enough, the flowers are the kind you look at (or at least I do) and wonder how something like it evolved that way and why.

Obviously, the flowers attract pollinators. But I think they developed to attract humans as well so that we're so dazzled we'll keep planting it and therefore assure its survival.

Although I look forward to seeing it every time I pass by, I made no effort to identify it. Fortunately, my colleague, Pat Jeffries, did.

The mystery plant is Caesalpinia gilliesii, native to South America and a seemingly perfect plant (except that the seedpods are poisonous, which makes the fact that it was used medicinally a bit of a mystery).

A cool tidbit is that it was named after Andreas Caesalpini, an Italian botanist and chief physician to Pope Clement VIII in the late 1580s. He was one of the first to identify plants by their reproductive parts, which was quite scandalous because "many staunch theologians of the time vigorously denounced sexuality in plants."

Reasons to like:
Attractive to bees, butterflies and birds
Blooms early spring to late fall
Hardy down to 15 degrees
Grows quickly up to 8 feet
Gorgeous flowers

Give it full sun, well-drained soil (how many times have you heard that?), and water deeply but infrequently.