Pacific hound's tongueCynoglossum grande
Boraginaceae
I first heard of this flower last year from Clare's forget-me-not post at Curbstone Valley Farm. I'd never seen one until now and was surprised to discover the flowers are larger than a U.S. nickel coin. I'm out of words this morning, but I'd like to point out the sparkles of the petals (Katie at Phyteclub has a creative post on floral iridescence) and the 1-4 lobed, prickly, berrylike fruit (called nutlets).
5 comments:
Thus far I have only seen hound's tongue at Snow Mountain in Lake County. I was excited to properly identify it; that's is an unusual happening for me.
they're very pretty!
Awww, thanks for the link Katie! Your first photo made me smile, I love these flowers. Actually the second photo made me smile too, the one of the nutlets. A number of ours met their demise last spring, between the deer eating them right before they set seed, and our compost delivery truck running over a large clump of them on the edge of our road. I'd hoped to gather seed, but was thwarted on both fronts. This year though, a sizable cluster of them popped up in an undisturbed area of our orchard, inside the deer fence! I'm now stalking the nutlets, and conspiring to harvest them, and propagate them!
Very nice. I think State Parks were one of the best inventions...ever. :)
Jeannette, I think you're much better at flower ID's than you take credit.
Thanks, twg! I love seeing what spring has to offer for you in TX.
Clare, no problemo for the link. I'm always amazed at the research and thought you put into your posts and your property. I sometimes feel my blog is woefully inadequate, but then I remind myself we all have different goals for blogging and it's all good.
Mr. T! I love state parks. I feature 18 of CA's here on this blog. Ours are in constant financial peril as the state continues to cut funding in efforts to balance an unbalanced budget. How's it where you are?
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