# Help me identify this (unseen) plant

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-unseen-plant/578255>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 13, 2011, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-unseen-plant/578255 "2011-04-13T18:35:14Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-unseen-plant/578255/1 "2011-04-13T18:35:14Z")

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Well, I’ve tried taking pictures of a plant for identification purposes with my flipcam before, but while it’s an awesome camera, it isn’t good with closeups.

So we’re gonna try this text-based.

I’m not sure if it’s a wildflower, or a cultivated plant. I am in Northern California. It looks like it may be in the sweetpea family because of its round-lobed leaves and the peculiar purply-blue of the blossom. The whole plant, in fact, has sort of a bluish caste.

The flower is a long cyanomorphic thing, magenta fading to perriwinkle, with blossom proceeding from blossom proceeding from blossom, almost like rattlesnake grass. The flower entire is shaped much like a caterpillar, or a shrimp. The flowers have long white antennae… er, pistils?

It grows fairly close to the ground, maybe a foot tall. No woody stem, i.e., not a bush or shrub.

But wait! My boyfriend has a better cameraphone than I, and [here is a picture.](http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd69/brujaja/13042011_003.jpg)

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**Author:** ![Curious3d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Curious3d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Curious3d)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-unseen-plant/578255/2 "2011-04-13T20:51:37Z")

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Hmmm. Can you snap a shot with blossoms visible? Maybe some kind of Justicia…

There is a ‘shrimp flower’ plant, but that doesn’t look like it.

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**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-unseen-plant/578255/3 "2011-04-13T22:47:51Z")

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[Cerinthe major](http://www.google.com/search?q=cerinthe&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hs=mNU&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=ivnsfd&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=-yemTeasM4aPtwfxyriFAQ&ved=0CB4QsAQ&biw=1600&bih=840), Blue Shrimp Plant?

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**Author:** ![Curious3d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Curious3d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Curious3d)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2011, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-unseen-plant/578255/4 "2011-04-13T23:51:54Z")

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Nice one, Jayjay. That’s clearly it.

[another photo of blossom head(s)](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3331/3634803468_88ed0d6d15.jpg)

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**Author:** ![brujaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@brujaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brujaja)\
**Post date:** [April 14, 2011, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-unseen-plant/578255/5 "2011-04-14T15:35:24Z")

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Yes, thank you, **jayjay.** That’s it. So, so beautiful!