General Plant Information (Edit)
Plant Habit: Shrub
Life cycle: Perennial
Sun Requirements: Full Sun to Partial Shade
Water Preferences: Mesic
Soil pH Preferences: Slightly acid (6.1 – 6.5)
Neutral (6.6 – 7.3)
Slightly alkaline (7.4 – 7.8)
Minimum cold hardiness: Zone 7a -17.8 °C (0 °F) to -15 °C (5 °F)
Maximum recommended zone: Zone 9b
Plant Height: 4 to 5 feet
Plant Spread: 3 to 4 feet
Leaves: Deciduous
Fruit: Edible to birds
Flowers: Showy
Flower Color: Orange
Red
Bloom Size: Under 1"
Flower Time: Spring
Late spring or early summer
Summer
Late summer or early fall
Fall
Suitable Locations: Xeriscapic
Uses: Will Naturalize
Wildlife Attractant: Bees
Birds
Butterflies
Hummingbirds
Resistances: Drought tolerant
Propagation: Seeds: Other info: This plant self seeds.
Propagation: Other methods: Cuttings: Tip

Image
Common names
  • Flame Acanthus
  • Hummingbird Bush
  • Texas Firecracker Plant

Photo Gallery
Location: Jacksonville, TX
Date: 2012-06-06
Location: Kyle, Texas
Date: 2017-05-15
Hummingbird favorite
Location: Jacksonville, TX
Date: 2013-03-15
This is Flame Acanthus in its dormant state. Extremely high amoun
Location: Kyle, Texas
Date: 2018-06-17
A hummingbird favorite, as well as drought tolerant and easy to g
Location: Jacksonville, TX
Date: Sep 2011
Bloomed all through the worst heat wave and drought in Texas hist
Location: Jacksonville, TX
Date: 2012-06-06
Location: f
Date: Fall 2011
This is one of the most drought tolerant plants in Texas,
Location: Alexanders's Farm Market, MI
Date: 2010-05-23
Location: Medina Co., Texas
Date: August 2011
Flame Acanthus
Photo by christinereid54
Location: Alexanders's Farm Market, MI
Date: 2010-05-23
Location: Alexanders's Farm Market, MI
Date: 2010-05-23
Location: Butterfly garden
Date: 2012-08-15
Seed pod & flower bud of Flame Acanthus
Location: Jacksonville, TX
Date: 2013-08-22
Location: Jacksonville, TX
Date: 2013-08-17
Location: North Central TX Zone 8a
Date: 2017-12-18
The vibrant summer color fades and winter dormancy begins
Comments:
  • Posted by frostweed (Arlington, Texas - Zone 8a) on Dec 3, 2011 7:56 AM concerning plant:
    Flame Acanthus is a most wonderful and useful plant.

    #1 Drought tolerance, I have never seen this plants wilt even in the hottest days, and and it can go without water for at least two weeks and not suffer one bit.

    #2 Nectar for hummingbirds and butterflies, if you have this plant and they are in your area they will visit it regularly, guaranteed.

    #3 Long lasting beauty and adaptability, this plant will bloom in full sun and partial shade for a very long period of time, until frost causes it to go dormant.

    I truly couldn't do without this plant and I highly recommend it.
    Josephine.
  • Posted by Marilyn (Kentucky - Zone 6a) on May 25, 2013 5:52 AM concerning plant:
    "Anisacanthus quadrifidus, is a species flowering plant belonging to the family of the Acanthaceae . It is native to Texas in the United States to Oaxaca in Mexico.

    It is a shrub that reaches up to 3 m tall with stem branched. Young stems are green or purple, sometimes striated with white hairs usually arranged in two opposite rows. The leaves are opposite, narrowly ovate, up to 6.5 cm long, pointed, base rounded, with tiny dots on its surface and hairs. The inflorescence is a pin loose, with flowers sessile sessile or nearly all of one side of the shaft having glandular hairs. Accompanying the flowers are bracts and bracteoles deciduous.

    The flowers are showy, the calyx with apex divided into 5 lobes unequal, long triangular (growing to develop the fruit), with tufts of white hairs at the tips, the corolla red-orange to red, up to 4.5 cm long, covered with hairs, consisting of a thin tube to the apex is enlarged and split into 2 lips, the entire rear lip though sometimes with the tip slightly anterior lip divided and deeply divided into 3 lobes long, two stamens, his thick filaments attached to the anterior lip of the corolla, the slim style with stigma divided into 2 lobes.

    The fruit is a capsule more or less ovoid, somewhat compressed, tapering towards both ends. At maturity the fruit splits in half. It has 2-4 seeds, discoid, brown, each held by a kind of hook (retinaculum)."

    Taken from wikipedia's page at: http://translate.google.com/tr...
Plant Events from our members
variegatagal On May 8, 2023 Transplanted
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