Odontonema strictum Check with George along a sunny bank

along a sunny bank

and flowers are coated in a sticky

and hybridization

and fall brings warm color along with large

Deer and rabbits walk past them

Odontonema strictum Check with George along a sunny bankFew plants light a shaded corner the way firespike does. Odontonema strictum raises erect spikes of slender, tubular, scarlet flowers to a foot long from late summer into winter, each spike a torch held above dark, glossy, quilted foliage. The genus name pairs the Greek odous, a tooth, with nema, a thread, for the toothed filaments inside the bloom, and the plant answers to a tangle of common names, firespike, cardinal's guard, and firestick among