The reason I bought a camera a couple of years ago was to identify flowers. I'm supposed to take pictures of them, and then go through Flower Finder: A Guide to Identification of Spring Wild Flowers and Flower Families, by May Theilgaard Watts (Berkeley: Nature Study Guild, 1955). I had the camera for a couple of years, but didn't have the Flower Finder until earlier this week. I got it from Amazon.com for 18 cents (plus 3.99 shipping).
I had an idea already what this one was, but went through the Flower Finder to be certain, and nailed it, I think. Does anybody else know?
These flowers are quite tiny (less than half an inch across), and are growing in the crack of a sidewalk. You can also see them all over town on certain lawns. They're on p. 35 of my Flower Finder.
12 comments:
violets
Yes, common violets, according to the Finder.
I looked them up and apparently the ENTIRE flower is edible.
This is a good thing to know I think if you ever get lost in the woods.
I don't know. I don't often see violets in the woods. Where I see them is in people's lawns. There's an interesting question as to whether or not the kinds of fertilizer and herbicide that people tend to put on their lawns makes them poisonous. Assuming not...
This is a good thing to know if you ever get lost in the suburbs :-).
Wildflowers are having a hard time in the woods. Once a woods gets disturbed the flowers disappear, and it takes a long time for them to come back.
I find it quite weird that these violets found a home in the crack in this sidewalk. But apparently they love the roadside, and anywhere that a chunk of earth sticks up.
I don't understand how they propagate, or why they choose to live where they do.
But that's another whole question.
Perhaps violets have a suburban mentality. My town is something of a micropolis.
The violets seem to enjoy the comparative lack of violence.
I should say something about violins.
But I shall demur.
Violets? Are you sure? Looking at a picture on the web is tough, but it sure looks like Glechoma hederacea (commonly called Creeping Charlie), a naturalized Eurasian plant. Were the stems of the plant round or square?
Matthew, I can't recall, but will try to stop down there and take a look later on today.
The stems of the flowers were separate from the part coming out of the ground. I will try to see if there is any squareness going on in any of the stems, or if they are round rather.
I think Matthew may be correct that this is Creeping Charlie. I googled the photos of this very invasive plant.
http://pics.davesgarden.com/pics/2004/04/05/JenniesWorld/d4993e.jpg
I think this may be a more exact identification. I do think the place in which this plant exists -- i the crack of a stretch of sidewalk around which nothing much exists (there used to be a Chrysler dealer next door, but Obama's takeover of Chrysler apparently forced all the low-performing dealerships to close their doors -- this came just about a month after Obama took over Chrysler and closed the doors of a business that had been there for fifty years).
Creeping Charlie, is what I think it is.
Now I see it as a symbol for Creeping Obama.
I went down to the site and pulled the flowers out of the crack. They were all connected by some long thick roots.
I meant to photograph them again but the batteries in my camera need to be replaced.
When I twirl the stem of the flower it does appear that there are four ridges as I twirl it around. I'm going to place these in an envelope and put them into the botanist's mail slot, and will hopefully get a positive identification by Monday.
Identification is difficult when you're no expert, and I'm the rankest of beginners. The flowers are violet, and they've now closed up tight, but there were dirty yellow pistils I think they call them in the center.
The leaves have nine or ten lobes, and the veins branch out from a central vein.
There are six flowers on the one stem.
the flowers don't appear to have any smell.
If the flowers are really Creeping Charlie, then the flowers may be communist agents from Vietnam. I hadn't considered this, at first.
However, they seem to be able to infiltrate the countryside unobserved, much like "Charlie" in Vietnam itself, which became a communist country and remains a one-party system, even today. According to Wikipedia:
"In its 2004 report on Human Rights Practices, the U.S. Department of State characterized Vietnam’s human rights record as “poor” and cited the continuation of “serious abuses”. According to the report, the government has imposed restrictions on freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of association."
There is only one legitimate party, and all television and newspaper and radio must be sanctioned by the government.
Unlike our own country, in which we can still have Tea Parties, and Fox News continues to operate in spite of presidential fury, they do not possess these freedoms.
Millions of Vietnamese have left Vietnam since 1975.
People tend to flee communist countries.
But communist infiltration into capitalist countries continues, weakening local economies.
The flowers of "Creeping Charlie" if that's what the flower is, are rather pretty. I'm going to ask around about this specimen.
I thought this was a violet and thus, a good American flower.
Now I'm deeply suspicious of it. The countryside appears to be overrun by Creeping Charlie!
It's extremely difficult to eradicate, tending to bully out any plant that dares to challenge its hegemony.
I went down today for further research and pulled some more of this plant up and took it to a biologist and a few others. They all said Creeping Charlie.
I think the reason I didn't know about it is that my flower finder is from the fifties. When did Creeping Charlie get introduced?
Meanwhile, I did find a common violet, too.
The petals are larger, and there are no leaves on the stem, which is round.
http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.rivernen.ca/violet_2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.rivernen.ca/plant_18.htm&usg=__ALtTZWZLkn25S4EuWoZlh7U_X1w=&h=303&w=350&sz=14&hl=en&start=7&itbs=1&tbnid=6NGjL_7DdQHBPM:&tbnh=104&tbnw=120&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dviolet%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26tbo%3D1%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1
A biologist at the college called it Gill the Cover.
Said it was a member of the mint family.
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