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Bluet

Houstonia

Bluet
Photo: Linda M Morgan, CC BY-SA 3.0

Bluets (Houstonia) are a genus of small, delicate native North American wildflowers, such as the common bluet (H. caerulea) and H. rosea, grown for their dainty blue, lavender, white or rose flowers. They do best in cool, moist, lightly shaded spots with good drainage.

Family
Rubiaceae (Coffee family)
Light
Part shade, Full sun
Water
Keep soil evenly moist during the growing season and avoid waterlogging.
Soil
Moist, well-drained loam or sandy loam, slightly acidic to neutral.
Temperature
10–24 °C; protect from heat above 30 °C
How easy
Moderate

About

Houstonia (bluet) is a genus of plants in the family Rubiaceae. Many species were formerly classified, along with other genera since segregated elsewhere, in a more inclusive genus Hedyotis.

Bluets are often small and delicate. For example, H. rosea may grow only one inch tall. Some species are single stemmed and others have multiple stems in bunches. Flowers are blue, purple, lavender, white, or rose, often with shades of one color present in an individual population. Flowers have 4 sepals, colloquially denominated "petals", a salverform corolla with 4 lobes, and an inferior ovary. Some species exhibit heterostyly. The fruit is an often roughly cordate capsule enclosing many seeds and which usually dehisces via a suture across its apex.

Other Houstonia plants

Azure bluet

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Houstonia (plant) by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

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