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| Celestials 9 X 12 Watercolor, March 2012 |
I'm featuring a flower I posted a photo of last week in the March 12 wildflower sampler called Celestials. Got to love that name! And they are so blue, blue as the sky. This wildflower is not rare, but is an uncommon find. It usually occurs in infrequent colonies in mid spring. Also the flowers last only one day, and a given colony won't bloom every day during its blooming season. So I always feel like I've found something extraordinary when I see these. They are a member of the iris family and so have petals and flower parts in multiples of threes. Notice the exquisite structure of the center of these flowers. The stamen's (orange parts that produce pollen) come out of the center above the petals. The pistols (the female parts of the flower that are white with dark blue tips) come out of the center above the stamens and branch out in sets of two between each of the stamens. When the flower first opens in the late morning, the stamens are tall and straight. Then, as the day goes on their heads curl down and get wrinkled as the pollen starts to come out. By mid to late afternoon the whole flower curls in on itself and shrivels into a dark blue-purple mass and that's it for that individual flowers bloom. Below are some more photos of Celestials. Look for the ridges or pleats on the grass-like leaves. Another Common name for this flower is " Prairie pleat leaf".
Scientific name: Nemastylis gemniglora
Common names: Celestials, Prairie pleat leaf
