Wednesday, September 06, 2006

More on wildflowers





I just had to share more of the flowers. The purple ones are still unidentified, although Jenn gave us some great suggestions yesterday, and also revealed the identity of the yellow flowers for us. I thought some pictures showing the leaves of the other two might help us in our quest for identification.

UPDATE: Jenn was right on track with the family for the white flowers. I found their identity from the website of the same horticulturalist (Bob Zuberbuhler) who helped us with the lesser celandines. The white flowers are Horse-nettle, and they are indeed making these crazy little green "tomatoes." I'll get a picture of those for you soon! Still stumped on the purple ones... the flowers look thistle-y, but the leaves just don't match!

The blue flower you see next to the house is sort of a kindred spirit of mine. There are a few different morning glories growing around here – white ones, pink-and-white striped ones, and these blue ones. The blue ones are only open in the mornings, and on overcast days. As soon as that sun breaks loose, they curl up into these whithered-looking purple clumps, and it looks like they aren’t even there!

Now, I know that the sun does some very important things for the Earth and her inhabitants, but I really think I could live in a place where it was permanently cloudy, grey, and rainy, and be perfectly happy.

And yes – those “weeds” comprise my “flower bed.” Hey – I like the local flora! Besides, you have no idea how educational it has been to just let the birds and the wind determine what’s growing next to my house. Virtually all these little herbaceous plants are new to me, and even if I start to plant bulbs and other flowers this autumn, I intend to allow the natives to persist right along with them. Oh yes - and I must go pirate some of that bee balm soon!

Coming up: emergent fungus, butterflies and caterpillars, and the stockpile of the red squirrel (or, the ballad of the Red Headed Stranger).

6 comments:

  1. Hm. Back to the book (The Peterson Series: A Field Guide to Wildflowers of NE and NCentral North America.)

    Your flowers are too loosely held to be cylindric blazing star (liatris cylindracea)

    AH HA! Got it! New York Ironweed, (Vernonia noveboracensis).

    There you go.

    And if you want to add a single book that you will find useful in your identity searches, that one above (or the one local to your area) would be the one to get. The biggest drawback to these books is the fact that they do not distinguish between naturalized and native plants, but having a name gets you moving in the right direction for that.

    If you haven't discovered Wayne's blog Niches, you might find it interesting. He and his partner sell native flower seeds.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you so much Jenn, for the flower id and for the book recommendation! It's going on my wish list. I'm so glad you stopped by!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wanted to say hello, and say, it is good to see you back blogging again.

    As mentioned below, I love the name wild flowers. It seems to be a contridiction in words, since there is such order to these gems that require very little water to sprout up from the ground!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Barbara! I am a true lover of wildflowers. As I mentioned, I've been encouraging them to grow around the house - they just seem so appropriate. My neighbor calls them all weeds, but I just love every one (and the butterflies do too!) It's so much fun to learn about so many new wildflowers, although I admit that I miss a few of my Washington favorites. ;)

    Thanks for stopping by!

    ReplyDelete
  5. useful information blog,very good content.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Metal, thanks! I have a lot of fun with Arboreality. I hope you visit again. :)

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.