The Cardinal Flower: Reddest of the Reds

By Charles Seabrook

For the AJC

The cardinal flower, now blooming across Georgia, is, in my mind, the signature plant of summer. It is the reddest of Georgia’s red wildflowers, redder than the Indian paintbrush, fire pink and beebalm.

Botanists say the flower got its name from the red robes of Roman Catholic cardinals, the same garments for which our common bird, the northern cardinal, is named.

But it is another all-red bird, the male summer tanager, whose brilliant color perhaps best matches the cardinal flower's. The tanager’s vibrant redness is considered to be even more intense than the male cardinal’s.

The summer tanager nests all over Georgia -- except in the highest mountains -- in forested areas and along streams. Its cousin, the scarlet tanager, whose plumage also is a stunning red, nests mostly in north Georgia. Both species are neo-tropical migrants and will start returning to their winter homes in Latin America around late August.

The cardinal flower, though, will bloom through October in moist to wet areas -- stream banks, damp meadows, low woodlands, roadside ditches -- across Georgia. The Georgia Native Plant Society, which named the cardinal flower its plant of the year in 2006, calls it one of Georgia's most recognizable wildflowers. Its “stunning, upright, three-foot-tall stalk of brilliant red blooms is a standout ... in its native habitat,” the society said.

In his "Field Guide to Wildflowers," Roger Tory Peterson described the cardinal flower as “America’s favorite.” Early European explorers of North America so admired the cardinal flower that it was sent to Europe for cultivation.

Each individual cardinal flower is a tube about two inches long with noticeable white-tipped stamens. Ruby-throated hummingbirds find the bright red blooms -- and the nectar -- irresistible. In return, the hummingbird is the cardinal flower’s main pollinator. The flower also is a favorite of long-tongued butterflies, such as the painted lady, spicebush swallowtail, eastern tiger swallowtail and cloudless sulfur.

The cardinal flower’s benefits to hummingbirds and butterflies is the main reason the National Wildlife Federation lists it as one of the top 10 native plants that homeowners can plant to make their yards havens for wildlife.

Native Americans and early colonists used the cardinal flower for medicinal purposes, especially to rid the body of worms. However, used in the wrong way the plant can be poisonous, so it is best to admire it for its beauty and environmental benefits.

In the sky: The moon is in first quarter, rising out of the east around lunch time and setting in the west around midnight, says David Dundee, astronomer at Tellus Science Museum. By Friday, the moon will be full -- the Ripe Corn Moon, as the Cherokee people called it. Mercury is low in the west just after dark. Mars is low in the east about three hours before sunrise. Jupiter rises out of the east after midnight. Saturn is high in the west at dark and sets in the west around midnight.