Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: Lamium amplexicaule

(+ 3 insets!) (please view large for more droplety goodness!) Steve drove his sister to the airport this afternoon and what happened to me? I found myself making a beeline for my bed! I couldn't believe how tired I was! Isn't that interesting how exhausting company can be? We all had a very nice time though, and Steve got to spend lots of quality time with his sister and that was really great. I was so befuddled this morning that I thought it was Monday! I hadn't taken my photos for Macro Monday yet so I grabbed some knives--the subject this week--and took a bunch of pictures. I really didn't think I'd have anything worthy because I was pretty low-energy but it looks like I'll have a few nice images to post tomorrow! Hooray! I was hoping to process a few pictures from yesterday's adventure to the Pear Blossom parade, street fair, and especially of Jacksonville but I clearly need some recovery time. Instead I'm going to post something else from my bloated folder of finished pictures. Let me see what looks good! *peeks into my archived pictures* Oh, perfect!! The other morning I went out to take some pictures after a long night of rain. I'd seen some mushrooms on my walk that I couldn't resist and grabbed my camera when I got back. However, as I turned to head down the drive, a tiny flash of purple caught my eye and I remembered what I had noticed. The afternoon before I saw a Henbit Deadnettle plant with buds just about to open and made a mental note to come back with my camera the next day. And there we were! I had no idea how fabulous these little 1/3" flowers would look drizzled with raindrops! What a sight! I'm sharing another picture I took as an inset and also a pair of other pictures I took from a few years back. To me they look like miniature orchids with their juicy color and spots. :) Pam, I looked to see if you had any Henbit or Purple Deadnettle flowers but I didn't find any. However, I did find a gorgeous little flower that will do just fine, your lovely Prairie Violet. Such a beautiful little blossom! We don't have anything like that here but I've seen similar flowers growing elsewhere in southern Oregon's wilds. Makes me wonder if I have any good pictures to process so I can show you. Happily I remember exactly where I found them. Hmmm...I'll have to look and see. Sending much love and hugs your way, ma'am! *big hugs* Explored on 4/15/19, highest placement, #1.

Woo hoo, this is one tiny little flower!! I was trying to get pictures of these in bud form and kept failing. I also didn't realize at the time that the fuzzy buds weren't a strange little flower because I kept seeing them dead and fallen out. Now I understand that the morning frost was killing the buds, and that's why they weren't developing into flowers. Today I checked them and suddenly everything became clear to me! I discovered that one was in full bloom, with many close behind, and my original suspicion proved to be correct: this was a kind of Deadnettle I'd never seen before! It's much smaller than the Purple Deadnettle featured last spring as #40 in my flower count, but its flowers are unmistakable! (Please scroll down to see a close up of one of the opening buds, isn't it lovely and strange looking?! It's like a slipper! I also included a picture of the Purple Deadnettle flower to compare. From Wikipedia: Henbit Deadnettle is a species of Lamium native to Europe, western Asia and northern Africa. It is a low-growing annual plant growing to 10-25 cm tall, with soft, finely hairy stems. The leaves are opposite, rounded, 2-3 cm diameter, with a lobed margin. The flowers are pink to purple, 1.5-2 cm long. It flowers very early in the spring even in northern areas, and for most of the winter and the early spring in warmer areas such as the Mediterranean region. It propagates freely by seed and is regarded as a minor weed. Sometimes entire fields will be reddish-purple with its flowers before spring plowing. Where common, is an important nectar and pollen plant for bees, especially honeybees, where it helps start the spring buildup. It is widely naturalised in eastern North America and elsewhere, where it is often considered to be an invasive weed. However, its edibility and readiness to grow in many climes often mean it is permitted to grow when other 'weeds' are not. The leaves, stem, and flowers of the plant are edible and are faintly reminiscent of spinach. The specific name refers to the amplexicaul leaves (leaves grasping the stem).

I was looking in Lucky's Pond yesterday when I saw this gorgeous Henbit Deadnettle growing there, and today I made sure to get pictures so that you all can see how incredibly beautiful these tiny flowers can look! (I showed this flower a couple of weeks ago, but the blossom was not the prettiest. Problem solved! :D