Flower for the Day Least Bluet 4-8-17

I love miniature flowers. I found these small flowers in the meadow behind the house. I have lived here for more than 35 years and have never seen them before. The entire meadow is a carpet of these tiny flowers. There were just too many to see. Imagine a whole field of them.

They are least bluets (Houstonia minima).  They are also called tiny bluets and star violets.

They are  a precursor to spring. The flowers are about 1/4 inch wide and grow at the top of a slender stem

that usually branches only once near the middle. The  petals (40 can be purple blue, deep violet or white and they have a  reddish center and a yellow throat. These  are pale violet.

A closer look reveals the delicate colors.

These tiny flowers are very uniform in size, height , and color. The excitement of seeing them

out of nowhere will allow me to look for them every spring from now on - right about the time that

Spring Beauty appears. The least bluet  has a large number of common names including Quaker Ladies, Quaker Bonnets, Little Washerwoman, Blue-eyed babies, Wild forget-me-not, Eye Bright, Angel Eyes, Nuns, Innocents

Star of Bethlehem, Venus' Pride, and just plain bluets.