"Google is your friend," someone used to say, back in the pre-blogging days. And it is, more often than not. Not when it keeps you up for a couple of extra hours, with promises to show you what you want on the next page, if you just tweak your search terms a bit. Politician-type promises, never to be kept.
I've been searching for this plant. It was in the weeds on the shore at Stories Beach, but it looks more like a cultivated plant.
And the worst thing is that I have the feeling that I really should recognize it. At first glance, even. I don't.
Can you help me?
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| White double flower, deep-throated, from a sheathed calyx, in a spray at the top of a sturdy stem. Leaves oval to lanceolate, parallel-veined, alternating, opposite.* |
At least I can identify - broadly - the resident critters. There's an ant on the sheath of one of those flowers.
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| Another ant, on a petal. |
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| And a cute little jumping spider. There's just the slightest hint of pink in the flowers. |
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| Backside of the spider. Because I like the pattern on his back. |
*Update: Identified, in the comments, as
Saponaria oficinalis, Bouncing Bet/Soapwort. Not in any of my BC guidebooks.
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3 comments:
how about Saponaria officinalis, Bouncing Bet/Soapwort?
Not sure if it grows by you, but sometimes it's not reflexed and sometimes it's pinkish.
See http://www.robsplants.com/plants/SaponOffic
It looks carnation-ish to me.
Sara, yes, that's it. Thank you! I looked it up in my local plant guides, under all the names I could find; it isn't there.
The soapwort I recognized is a single flower.
Eileen, that's probably why it looked familiar to me, too. It's in the Carnation family.
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