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Indian Pink

Spigelia marilandica

Indian pink holds upright red tubes in a one-sided row along the stem tip, each flaring at the mouth into a five-pointed yellow star — a combination shared by almost nothing else in an eastern woodland. The tube is sized almost exactly to a ruby-throated hummingbird's bill and effectively closed to everything else, which is why the plant is one of the most reliable hummingbird draws for a shaded bed. It is slow, clump-forming and very long-lived, gradually building a substantial mound that never runs. Cutting the stems back after the first flush usually brings a second, lighter bloom later in the season. It takes more sun than its woodland reputation suggests, as long as the soil never bakes dry. The plant is poisonous in quantity; it was once used medicinally as a vermifuge, at doses close enough to dangerous that the practice was abandoned.

Family

Loganiaceae

Type

wildflower

Lifespan

perennial

Height

1–2 ft

Spacing

0.5–1.5 ft apart

Light

part shade

Soil moisture

dry

Soil pH

acidic

Bloom

March, April, May

Bloom colors

red, yellow

Wildlife value

hummingbirds, songbirds

Landscape uses

naturalizing

Native states

AL, AR, FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, LA, MO, MS, NC, OK, SC, TN, TX