Friends, I am new here and I have attached several photos of a plant I found at the park. I collect wilfdflowers and grow them in my side lot for preservation. This one I have never seen before. It was found in Indianapolis Indiana. Got any ideas? It was a solitary plant ,looked bush like and had many of these blossoms. It was about 1' tall. Leeta
Leeta, I don't know your particular local situation, but plant removal from parks is generally illegal (even if it is done with the purest of intentions). Legal issues aside, if you are moving plants without knowing the species you are moving, you may be contributing to the spread of an invasive species, which would certainly be the opposite of your goals. My suggestion would be for you to join your local native plant society: Indiana Native Plant and Wildflower Society. The folks in the native plant society will be able to help you find sources of native plants (e.g. native plant nurseries) that are the right plants for your area, and if your interest is in rare plant preservation, perhaps a rare plant specialist in the society can help you develop or tap into a state or local program for the preservation of rare plants local to your area.
Thanks for the info Ron and Daniel. I am confused about the identity of the plant. Online I found a flower in bloom that looks like it could be related to my wierd plant. What I have are the seed pods,it is done blooming. Anyhow I will attach the picture-it is Phyteuma humile. The leaves are not correct,I just wanted show you another pictue besides mine. I looked at Cranesbill and the leaves are right, but the flower looks nothing like what I have. I am a photographer and I have been going to this park for five years to walk my dog-The landscape men know me and what I do. I belong to a small gardeners club, but I will look into the Native Plant and Wildflower society. I have physical challenges and I don't get out much, that is why I joined this group. Leeta
Hello Leeta, I agree with Ron B. I think you are looking at cranesbill geranium. Take a look at the photos from these two links (scroll down to the geranium in the first): http://www.ontariowildflower.com/wildflower_waste2.htm http://photos1.flickr.com/725186_50d9d8ee21_m.jpg The flower colour varies, I see blossoms with a slightly purple bright pink in our area. As to the photo that you copied from Daniel's Botany Photo of the Day, I don't think that is your plant, but want to point out that images on the WWW are the property of the poster and are generally copyrighted in some way. To repost them you should get permission first. A simple way to deal with this issue is to link to images that you find on the web. In this case it is an image from our website, so there is no problem. Welcome to the forums Leeta. Hope to see more wildflowers from your area,
Eric, just wanted to point out that it's not really my Photo of the Day, although I do a fair amount of the work. As for the photograph, the Botany Photo of the Day photographs are under copyright, but they are also licensed for use with this Creative Commons License. But yes, in general, images are subject to strict copyright, so it's better to be safe than sorry and use links instead. Leeta, I think it's great that you're trying your best to figure it out - and as for the comments re: the local landscapers, it's awesome that you've a good rapport with them, and it sounds like you have a little bit of local expertise right there to tap into sometimes.
Yes I should have said, "Daniel's photo from the Bot. Photo of the Day," although I do think of it as Daniel's baby. Hey Leeta, on my way across campus this morning I spotted a wild cranesbill geranium. This is the common one that I see around wild (semi-wild areas) of BC. Not sure if these are really native or a garden escapee. This plant had buds, flowers and fruit all on the same plant (thanks to our long cool spring).
One of the grad students here saw the geranium in my hand and asked about it. She works with native plants and medicinals. We looked through a wild plants book to see if we could ID it. It seems to me that people often refer to different Geranium ssp. as cranesbill. I guess it really refers to a particular species. It is easy to see that my plant and Leeta's have different "beaks". I see G. sanguineum, G. bicknellii, G. carolinianum all refered to as cranesbill. It seems to me that people use the term cranesbill geranium to distinguish Geranium from Pelargonium. Or is there a particular group of species called cranesbills?
These little flowers are so sweet, My plant had already bloomed and what was left were four points with four black seeds in the middle. Not really pretty. Thanks for sharing. Leeta
I want to apologize for using your photo Daniel. I did not realize I was out of line. All future posts will be links. Being new to the board is my only excuse. Leeta
Leeta, no worries. While linking may not be as immediately satisfying, it's just a way to be safe rather than sorry for all involved.
Leeta, One course (if it's offered in your area) that helped me tremendously is a botany 101 course on plant identification. You would learn how to "key" plants based on their structure--all without pictures. From this procedure you would be able to identify a plant's Family, Genus, and species. I think you would really enjoy it. Rex Bristol
Also known as "Storks bill", competes heavily with recently planted grasses, looses out as the grass shades it, but pops up again after mowing. The variety that I had id'd as Storksbill has the seed "spear" sticking out at a 90 degree angle to the stem, and as single flowers unlike the bunch in Leeta's photo, making the bird reference more visually obvious. When "she who must be obeyed" lets me have a few minutes with the dig.cam. I'll post a pic; I've got lots. Ralph
