Today we feature some lovely flower pictures from Thomas Webber. Thomas’s captions and IDs are indented, and you can enlarge the photos by clicking on them. (The images are stacked but, at the photographer’s request, I’ve omitted the info for each photo.)
The theme for today’s installment is Lawn Weeds. All the plants shown here are from roadsides, vacant lots, parks, yards, and the University of Florida campus in Gainesville, at the north end of the Florida peninsula. All are mowed from time to time, and as far as I can tell they weren’t planted where I found them. I think I’ve identified all of them correctly to genus, and most to species, but I’ve added the qualifier “cf.” to the species epithets I’m less sure of. I invite corrections.
White clover, Trifolium repens. Individual flowers 8 mm long. Native to Europe and Central Asia:
Oakleaf fleabane, Erigeron quercifolius. 1 cm diameter at full size. Native:
Lyre-leaf sage, Salvia lyrata. 1.5 cm long. Native:
Marsh pennywort, Hydrocotyle cf. umbellata. Individual flowers 2 mm. Native:
Pennywort leaves (2-5 cm) make an arresting pattern when they grow together in a thick mass. This is part of a patch that covered about 25 square meters of a University of Florida lawn:
Wood sorrel, Oxalis cf. corniculata. 6 mm. Native:
Blue-eyed grass, Sisyrinchium angustifolium. 1 cm. Native:
Hawksbeard, Youngia japonica. 1.5 cm. Native to east Asia, now world-wide. The informative article linked here is devoted largely to means of exterminating this plant:
Vetch, Vicia cf. sativa. 8 mm across. Native to Europe and the Middle East, now cultivated and naturalized around the world:
Perennial peanut, Arachis glabrata. 1.5 cm across. Native to South America, cultivated and escaped in the southeastern United States:
False pimpernel, Lindernia dubia. 1 cm across lower petals. Native. These two were among over a thousand that carpeted the bottom of a small seldom-flooded retention basin:
Sunshine mimosa, Mimosa strigillosa. Flower head 3 cm tall. Native:
Peppergrass, Lepidium virginicum. Individual flowers 2 mm. Native:
Wow. Really spectacular. Art.
Makes sense why the Boss always menaces us to send professional grade nature pics in to him for WEITers to enjoy.
THIS is why.
D.A.
NYC
Gorgeous, every picture!
“Lawn Weeds”
YES – MOAR!
How ’bout Arabidopsis? These showed up near me recently and I was flabbergasted – not only a shining star of biochemistry, but boasts an astonishing seed-flinging mechanism!
Beautiful photos!
I haven’t yet found Arabidopsis in Gainesville, but I do have pictures of local roadside Oenothera, a genus also famous in the history of biology as a favorite study object of Hugo de Vries, one of the re-discoverers of Mendel’s laws. Ours is not the same species as his, but looks a lot like it. I’ll have to include it if I can get together enough presentable pictures for another installment on the Gainesville-weed theme. Thank you for your interest.
Very beautiful “weeds”!
Thank you for such elegant photos. They’re photographed so sensitively.
Like the others said. One can see the care taken in getting the lighting just right. Well done!
Very nice. Fantastic lighting!
The very first photograph, of a clover flower, caught my interest. After decades mowing grass (and weeds—more weeds than grass), I decided to plant clover in the backyard instead of grass. I love the clover! I just let it grow in great billows, and mow it once in the fall after it has finished flowering. I still mow the front yard as before, just to keep the neighbors happy.
I’ve heard that clover attracts a lot of bees, and that the presence of lots of bees makes it less pleasant for walking and playing on such lawns. Is there any truth to that, in your experience?
Yes, bees love clover. On my lawn I will cut the sward (containing clover) to remove the flowers if I know that children are to visit.
In NZ agriculture, clover is a major contributor to soil Nitrogen by nitrogen fixation in its root nodules; up to 100lb per acre, depending on weather and amount of clover present. The nectar provided by clover makes a white (very sweet) honey. The yellow Hawksbeard, also photoed above, and often present with clover, provides a yellow /brown nectar, and is usually mixed by the bees, providing a more yellow-brown honey, with mellow flavour.
The clover ‘flower’ shown is actually a bunch of florets. The erect florets have yet to be pollinated (by bees), those bending down have been pollinated, while pressed against the stalk can be seen a few brownish florets in which seed development is complete. To extract the seeds, simply rub some of the brown florets in the palm of your hand. The yellow seeds are small but easily seen.
Love your beautiful pictures!
Splendid, as others have said!!
Stunningly beautiful.
Yes, splendid! I don’t think of blue-eyed grass as a weed. Tried to grow it but was unsuccessful. I wanted a low-growing blue flower in a certain bed.
Sometimes you can’t keep them alive, and sometimes you literally can’t keep them down. The ones in the picture were among hundreds spread over about an acre of lawn in a playground-and-ballfield type park. No one does anything to care for them, and indeed the mower chops them all down at regular intervals, but they’re irrepressible.
Very nice. The high contrast works well.
Thank you for sharing these with all of us, Tom. Beautiful! So nice to know others appreciate the weeds all around us. : )