How’s everyone? Are my American readers enjoying their weather? I hear most of ya’ll are freezing. Here in Seattle, it’s dark and dreary. Even if you’re in a happier hemisphere, I’ll bet you’d be down with some flowers. Happily, I have some very sweet buds from western Oregon for ye.
These tiny delights were gracing the trailside at Proxy Falls, Oregon. I was a little surprised – it was early October, not exactly a notable time for new flowers in the Cascades. I’m wondering if these are super-late bloomers or if they’re confused due to anthropogenic climate change. If ya’ll can figure out what they are from buds and leaves, then we’ll know. Yay, knowledge!
Shakespeare once wrote that “loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud,” but I don’t think these buds have got anything like that going on. They seem absolutely perfect.
I’ve mentioned before how much I love the Pacific Northwest for both its geology and its flora. It’s awesome to have flowers going on nearly year-round.
I hope these little lovelies have brightened your day, my darlings.
A wild morning glory? That’s my instant guess, with no time to google-fu properly. :) Could be a bumper bloom, actually, not necessarily weather confusion. *shrug* Plants. Who understands them?
Very pretty, but I’ve no idea what. Obviously not taken here this morning, where there’s a couple of inches of snow.
Buds are close, but leaves are all wrong for Morning Glories. I almost want to say it’s a Lewis’ Monkeyflower but the buds aren’t quite right and the leaves too shiny. What is it!
Well, at first glance I thought of Gentiana, but they are always blue. So I checked out the other genera in the family (Gentianacea) and came up with Centaurium, and looking at species in Oregon, I think it is Centaurium erythraea, which looks like a pink Gentian. I agree that the buds are exquisite, fluted and slightly twisted–very different from the flowers when they are open. Once some of the flowers are open, I doubt that I would even notice how beautiful the buds are.
I think we’re going to have to make Dana go back there to see them bloom, because I don’t think it’s Centaurium. You can find pictures with buds, and they don’t quite match up.
Too bad there’s nothing for scale.
In the meantime, some flowers for Dana to keep an eye out for. :)
… Though I have to say, I’m more and more unsure that they are not C. erythraea. Hm.
I think essjay@3 has it – Centaurium erythraea.
I too thought of gentians, specifically Bottle Gentians, when I saw the pictures, but, yes, they are always blue. I didn’t have the wit to look further in the genus.
^ Family, not genus. :-( Flowering time is close, too. Non-native, though.