I’ve temporarily forgotten the name of this beautiful flower. I’ll let you know when I recall it. [Update: Athena worked it out and reminded me….Scaveola, or fan flower] Its blue is more dramatic than the camera has captured. It nods somewhat more to purple than is suggested here. It grows reasonably fast and close to the ground, and is drought tolerant, so I used them as a quick ground cover to repopulate a part of the garden. They’ve done very well since I planted them in the Spring.
One thing I love about them is the asymmetry of each individual flower. Look closely (click on left image) and you’ll see that there are five petals on each, but the five are on only half the flower. Very asymmetric on that scale, but on a slightly larger scale, symmetry is restored by arranging a five of these “half-flowers” around a central leaf cluster to make a sort of larger, symmetric super-flower.
Very elegant.
-cvj
“Oh! Youre that Jeff.”
Yep….thaaaats the one.
“Actually, come visit for a while and do some physics, and in exchange, I’ll show you how easy it is to get around LA. Fair deal?”
Well now…that sounds like a pretty good deal and it certainly would be nice to spend some time in Southern California again. We should probably continue this off the record though 🙂
Cheers
Jeff
Oh! Youre that Jeff. Welcome! Indeed, we did have this conversation about LA street patterns. I’ve learned a lot about it since then and my impressions were indeed correct.
Actually, come visit for a while and do some physics, and in exchange, I’ll show you how easy it is to get around LA. Fair deal?
Cheers,
-cvj
Athena… Long time since I’ve heard from you. Yes, that’s the one… Scaveola or fan flower. Thanks!
-cvj
Yeah, I was only repeating what you said when we visited you in LA before ASTI…I never did learn to appreciate LA traffic scaling laws…
Cheers
Jeff
What a beautiful photo for a lovely Sunday afternoon! I remember seeing these plants around my former neighborhood, but I couldn’t recall the name either. Just had to find out what it was, so I searched google images and came up with “fan flower,” which is fairly fitting. Also goes by fairy fan flower, scaevola, blue wonder. Do those ring any bells? Thanks for sharing!
Maybe… actually, in LA there are three different scales upon which there are well defined grid structures. Makes it easy to get around….. althought people claim that is a confusing city….. a claim which confuses me a lot….
-cvj
“Very asymmetric on that scale, but on a slightly larger scale, symmetry is restored by arranging a five of these “half-flowers†around a central leaf cluster to make a sort of larger, symmetric super-flower.”
Hmm…a little like the LA street structure…