Epilobium canum, Zauschneria californica

Epilobium canum is a native of hot dry places on the west coast of North America. Here it thrives in the nutrient-deficient sun-baked soil, to which it has adapted by evolving water and starch-storing rhizomatous roots and tiny silvery leaves that reduce transpiration. These adaptations make it the perfect plant for rock and gravel gardens, raised beds or dry-stone walls, where it will offer an abundance of the most brilliant scarlet flowers from late summer to November.