Flower for the Day Miami Mist 5-15-14

This lavender and white miniature is called Miami Mist (Phacelia purshii). It was growing in a churchyard in Warren County. The flowers grow in clusters. If you don't look closely you will miss the lace like fringe on the petals.  Phacelia is Greek for cluster and purshii refers to its namer, Frederick Traugott Pursh, 1774-1820.  Flower Identification thanks to Claire.

Flower for the Day Spring Beauty 5-14-14

Along with the showy flowers this time of year are my favorites, the miniature wildflowers that dot the floors of the woods and fields.This small pink perennial, Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica), is the most widely distributed of 

Missouri's early spring flowers. It is 'just there' until you bend down to inspect its delicate beauty at close range. The pink color is caused by the dark pink veins in the petals.

And as a bonus its rootstock is edible. 

Flower for the Day Iris 2 5-14-14

With rain , sun, and warmth  there has been a super-bloom in the gardens.The iris are the most showy but we also have columbine, peonies and daisies in 

great abundance. Orange beards are popular in this offering.

Flower for the Day Bearded Iris 5-12-14

This is the first iris of the season. This iris blooms twice a year. Iris is from the Greek for rainbow.

The beard refers to the bristly hairs coming from the flowers throats. The beard lies on the lower petals (the fall). Who couldn't love a purple beard?

Flower for the Day Phlox 5-8

The phlox look a little peaked this year.

 

 

Flower for the Day Lily of the Valley 5-7-14

Lily of the Valley (Convallaria magalis) is a dependable perennial with small bell shaped sweetly scented flowers. Regarding this strong fragrance, a 2012 biological study 

demonstrated that the aroma of these flowers, specifically the ligand bourgeanal, in high concentrations, imitates the role of progesterone in stimulating mammalian sperm to swim, a process called chemotaxis. No wonder I have always loved my Lily of the Valley.

So put that in your memory bank.

FFTD Bonus Black Swallowtail 5-6-14

Jan noticed many of these butterflies mating on the beach at the lake house. This is a female (Eastern) black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes).  Polyxena was the youngest daughter of King Priam of Troy.

Females have a prominent blue area between its wing spots  and this gives rise to  effective dorsal wing Batesian mimicry. Henry Walter Bates was an English mid nineteenth century naturalist who offered an hypothesis  that close resemblance between unrelated species was evolved antipredator adaptation. The female markings on the black swallowtail mimic those of B.philenon reducing the risk of predation by birds that preferably prey on black swallowtails.

Flower for the Day Lilac 5-5-14

This is the time of year for lilacs. They warm the hearts of those of us who grew up at a time when almost everybody had a lilac bush in their yard. Syringa vulgaris  is in the 

olive family (Oleaceae). We don't have a lilac bush at home but yesterday I was walking by the lake house and  I smelled lilac - verrrry pungent, and there was a bush right by the 

front porch.  It is small and delicate but after Jan cut some flowers and put them in the kitchen the fragrance was so overwhelming that we had to take them out to the screen

porch. Sometimes breathing trumps beauty.

FFTD Bonus Dry Fork Creek 4-27-14

In Warren County just west of Hopewell on Highway N we came across a bridge over Dry Fork Creek. We went down a gravel road and didn't see the above sign until we were leaving. 

The creek was running by a classic Missouri limestone bluff.

There was a crystal clear deep pool by the edge of the bluff. 

And this beautiful bouquet of Blue-eyed Marys (Collinsea verna). These wildflowers are in the Figwort family (Scrophulariaciae) and are noted for their true blue color.

Flower for the Day Chocolate Vine 5-2-14

In order to"hide" the dog cage we planted chocolate vine four years ago. It barely made it through two draught years. Last year it settled in and finally took off and now it has finally bloomed.

Chocolate vine (Akebia quinata)  has compound leaves with 5 leaflets and small flowers which grow in unbranched clusters (racemes).The miniature flowers are chocolate scented with 3 sepals and give way to fruit.

Our chocolate vine flower is vanilla in color

and is delicate with a pleasant sweet aroma.