Green for the Irish

This looked sharper on my computer late last night, when I was looking for something green to post today, St. Patrick's Day, lol! I guess that's why I never posted it before. Oh, well, I have to get ready to go out for the day shortly, so no time to look for something else. This is a macro shot of the seeds of the extremely tiny Naked Mitrewort / Mitella nuda. Taken in West Bragg Creek, Kananaskis, on 27 July 2010.

This native plant belongs to the Saxifrage family, Saxifragaceae. It is also called Bare-stemmed Mitrewort, Bishop's Cap, Common Mitrewort, Miterwort, and Northern Bishop's Cap. There are 5-8 tiny flowers on the upper half of the slender, flowering stems, 7-20cm high. Each exquisite flower has 5 greenish-yellow or white, snow-flake design petals, with ten stamens, 6mm (just under quarter of an inch) across.

plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=MINU3

www.borealforest.org/herbs/herb24.htm

It is supposed to snow again today, cold, with no sunshine, so it's not going to be very pleasant for our day's outing. Hope we see something really nice, though : ) A bit later: see my comment further down the page, saying that I decided to stay home, as the weather is dreadful - non-stop snow and windy. It's -14C (windchill -26C).

Happy St. Patrick's Day to those who celebrate it!