Thesium / Thesium arvense

When you look up this plant's range in North America, you see a map showing that Thesium arvense (common name is Thesium) is found only in Montana and North Dakota. Somehow, the seeds of this tiny plant found their way (maybe in someone's pocket??) all the way to Fish Creek Park in Calgary : ) This seems to be the only record of this plant in Canada, which is pretty interesting. This tiny member of the Sandalwood family is a native of Eurasia. It had been a mystery plant to one of the main naturalists here, but, with a lot of research, I managed to track down the plant's ID. It is the tiniest plant, that you would never normally notice in amongst the grasses and other plants. I can barely see the individual flowers with my naked eye, but what tiny beauties they are when seen though a hand lens or macro lens. Both photos were taken at Shannon Terrace, Fish Creek Park, on July 4th.

plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=THAR10

To help take my mind off all the other urgent things that are going on at the moment, my youngest daughter has just headed across the US to Savannah, Georgia, for a six-day break before starting a new job back here. The up-to-date weather forecast for Savannah: "Hurricane Irene may affect the area Friday night"! Sigh ....! I'm trying to forget that a huge interest she has had for most of her life is Disaster Planning, lol!!!