Wild Thing

By | | ,

wild_thing_april_2016The wildflower patch continues to produce surprises. After sprinkling a mixed packed of seeds, you never know exactly what’s going to come up, and in what quantities.

You just have to wait and let it slowly unfold over time.

I’ve been fascinated by this particular flower, for example, which seems to be constructed out of several smaller flowers! (Click for larger view.) What a wonder, and of course, there’s just one example of its parent plant in the entire patch, so once it is gone, it’s gone.

-cvj

Bookmark the permalink.

41 Responses to Wild Thing

  1. Mark Peifer says:
    May 4, 2016 at 7:36 am

    My botanical spouse notes they are one of several cultivars with this cool morphology-they appear to be hybrids of G. aristata × G. pulchella
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaillardia_×_grandiflora

  2. Mark Peifer says:
    May 4, 2016 at 7:30 am

    Flowers are my secret passion and this one piqued my interest. It looks like it is an “Indian Blanket”=Gailliardia, but a particular cultivar, Gaillardia “Fanfare”, selected for these wild tubular ray flowers
    http://www.perennials.com/plants/gaillardia-fanfare.html

    http://www.perennialresource.com/encyclopedia/view/?plant=1119

  3. Clifford says:
    May 3, 2016 at 2:14 pm

    I see. Thanks Mark! I did not know it was in that family! (Also, not Indian Blanket at all, as suggested above.. I can see that the colours are the same, as I have an actual indian blanket flower about a foot away). I’d love to know what this particular one is called. -cvj

  4. Mark Peifer says:
    May 3, 2016 at 7:33 am

    Lovely photo! You are correct and in fact all flowers in the Asteraceae family are composed of many small flowers, each with its own “flower parts”–in most like this one there are distinct disc and ray flowers (think daisy), while others have only disc or only ray flowers. That’s why when i was a boy the family was called the Compositae.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteraceae