FLOWER OF THE WEEK AT SOPCHOPPY DEPOT PARK

Soft greeneyes

By LYNN ARTZ, DAVID RODDENBERRY, and SANDY TEDDER

Soft greeneyes (Berlandiera pumila) delight with their sunny flowers atop stems 2-3 feet tall. Each 2-inch flower has 8 yellow notched petals around a center disk. Numerous tiny tubular disc florets gradually turn from green to maroon and smell faintly like chocolate. After the seeds disperse, a green center remains. Each upright branched stem bears several flowers for many weeks in the early summer. The flowers attract many pollinators. Soft greeneyes thrive in full sun in dry sandy soil. Also called eastern greeneyes, they grow in longleaf pine sandhills throughout the southeastern U.S. including the Panhandle and north Florida. Their cousin, Florida greeneyes (Berlandiera subacaulis), grows only in Florida but throughout most of the peninsula. Soft greeneyes are blooming now in the center of the northwest garden at Sopchoppy Depot Park.