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| Common chickweed |
The flowers seem to have 10 petals, but looking closely, there are really only 5, each one split down the middle to the base. Each pair looks like white bunny ears.
And something I'd never noticed before -- how blind we are to the everyday wonders! --; look at the long grass blades. They're really hairy!
An interesting thing about "hairy" grass is that these are structured around phytoliths- opal-like silicates secreted by the grass. Different species have phytoliths with different shapes. We use them in archaeology for environmental reconstructions.
ReplyDeleteThis is fascinating! Thanks for the info; I've spent the last half-hour reading about them. And now I have to learn more.
ReplyDeleteWe have chickweed, too, and it's very sweet. So tiny, charming, and frequently overlooked. Yet it still beams skyward with unbounded optimism. =) A great example for us all.
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