(Petite Butterfly Sweet Pea Shrub, Sweet Pea Shrub)

A beautiful, long-lasting flowering display of purplish magenta or violet blooms is produced by the Petite Butterfly sweet pea shrub. This evergreen shrub is native to South Africa on mountain slopes and coastal hills. It attains a bushy, rounded habit about waist high.

Unlike most other members of the Polygala genus, this species has opposite-arranged leaves on its branches. Moreover, the gray-green leaves of 'Petite Butterfly' are shaped like rounded hearts. The main flowering season...

(Myrtle-leaf Milkwort)

In its native South Africa, this wispy, pretty-flowering shrub is called September bush, referring to the peak flowering season in the Southern Hemisphere's spring. A fast-growing, drought-tolerant evergreen, the myrtle-leaf milkwort attains a rather upright and open habit, usually with barren lower branches.

The physical characteristics of this shrub varies greatly across its native range. It may be more of a shrub, but it's possible some become much more like very small trees. Some plants have...

(Hybrid Sweet Pea Shrub, Low Pinebarren Milkwort)

Red-purple to rose-violet blossoms decorate the hybrid sweet pea shrub's branches most heavily in midsummer to the end of fall. This erect, rounded evergreen shrub is the result of crossing the myrtle-leaf milkwort (Polygala myrtifolia) with the sweet pea shrub (P. fruticosa). Both of these parent species are native to South Africa.

Medium to deep gray-green leaves occur both in an alternating and opposite pattern on branches. The leaf blades are elliptical, oval or lance-shaped....

(Hardy Orange)

Densely filled with spiny branches and three-lobed leaves, hardy orange also bears lemon-flavored, small golden fruits that persist into winter. A large shrub to small deciduous tree that is rounded, it is native to northern China and Korea. The fruits are loaded with seeds and will self-sow in landscapes, and with a viciously spined canopy, makes it difficult and unpleasant to remove. It is considered an invasive woodland intruder in some parts of the eastern United States.

The compound leaves...

(Contorted Hardy Orange, Flying Dragon Hardy Orange)

Densely filled with twisted branches covered in sharp spines and three-lobed leaves, the Flying Dragon hardy orange also bears lemon-flavored, small golden fruits that persist into winter. A large deciduous shrub that is rounded, irregular and architecturally interesting, it is native to northern China and Korea. The fruits are loaded with seeds and will self-sow in landscapes, and with a viciously spined canopy, makes it difficult and unpleasant to remove. It is considered an invasive woodland intruder...

(Fremont's Cottonwood)

The cottonwood tree is one of the most enduring icons of the American West. Its range extends from the Midwestern plains to the Pacific Coast, with the trees concentrated at or close to rivers and creeks. It is often the only broadleaf tree in the dry regions of the Southwest. Golden fall color and a compatibility with livestock have made this one of the mot popular ranch trees west of the Rockies.

Cottonwood has both male and female trees. The females produce the cottony mass of fibers associated...

(Lanceleaf Cottonwood)

This deciduous tree is believed to be a naturally occurring hybrid of two or three cottonwood species native to the western U.S. Its range is limited to a strip of states that covers the Rockies from Canada to the Texas, but at higher elevations than other cottonwoods. This hybrid grows beside streams, in riverine habitats, and in wetland fringes, sites where it thrives on ground water. Its extensive, fibrous roots help to hold stream banks during periods of high water. The leaves are narrow, and...

(Carolina Poplar)

This hybrid between the American eastern cottonwood and the European black poplar is a hardy fast-growing deciduous tree that typically attains immense size. Its upswept branches are clad with glossy triangular leaves that may be coppery colored when new. They turn yellow in fall. Long drooping tassel-like catkins appear in early spring on female trees, eventually releasing clouds of airborne seeds embedded in cottony fluff. Male trees have shorter catkins and do not shed messy fuzz. The bark is...

(Carolina Poplar, Nor'Easter Carolina Poplar)

This hybrid between the American eastern cottonwood and the European black poplar is a hardy fast-growing deciduous tree that typically attains immense size. Its upswept branches are clad with glossy triangular leaves that may be coppery colored when new. They turn yellow in fall. Long drooping tassel-like catkins appear in early spring on female trees, eventually releasing clouds of airborne seeds embedded in cottony fluff. Male trees have shorter catkins and do not shed messy fuzz. The bark is...

(Carolina Poplar, Prairie Sky Carolina Poplar)

One of a number of named crosses between the American eastern cottonwood and the European black poplar, this tall narrow male cultivar eventually forms a massive tree. Developed at the Morden Research Station in Canada as a disease-resistant, longer lived alternative to Lombardy poplar, it is well suited for use as a windbreak in the cold harsh environs of the prairies. The glossy triangular leaves turn yellow before dropping in fall. The bark is gray and furrowed.

Like most of its clan this...