Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Pretty pictures: Pink

Today we have various thoughts from the plant kingdom about the idea of "pink." In a couple cases, it's maybe more my questionable judgment, and the plant was actually thinking of "purple," but whatever. I had a whole bunch of pictures that I needed to do something with, having just sifted through almost the whole photo backlog, and this sort of post is a really efficient way of getting through a lot of photos in a hurry, even if they're not seasonally-appropriate, as some of these aren't.

Asclepias syriaca flowers in extreme close-up. Some insect life visible if you look closely and/or open the photo full-size in a new window.


Polygonum persicaria. I don't think anybody actually likes this plant, but it's awfully familiar, at least. And technically pink, so it counts.


Lamium NOID. Shortly after taking this picture, I was looked at suspiciously by two women talking to one another over their backyards' fence. I expect that the suspicious looks happen all the time, but I'm not normally in a position to see them, so it was noteworthy.


Cyclamen persicum NOID. I don't see the frilly-edged Cyclamens for sale very often. Not that I necessarily want one. I just think it's interesting what is and isn't popular.


Torenia 'Catalina Pink.' This is arguably more purple than pink, but the tag said it was pink.


Ipomoea NOID. If loving morning glories is wrong, I don't want to be right.


Zinnia 'Profusion Cherry.' I had sort of intended to get some Zinnias this year, or at least some Zinnia seeds. As with all my other outdoor-related plans, that didn't work out.


Cyclamen NOID. This is probably my favorite photo from the batch.


Portulaca grandiflora, second-generation flower. These have not yet taken off like I'd hoped, but considering how late I started them, I suppose I can't be too disappointed. I should still be able to collect enough seeds to try again next year.


Weigela NOID. Came with the house. The husband and I are both kinda meh about it, but it'd be a lot of work to take it out, and neither of us have any ideas for something we'd rather see in that spot, so it stays.


Hibiscus moscheutos 'Dave Fleming,' at the ex-job. I've seen hardy Hibiscus varieties I covet, but this isn't one of them. It's big and bright enough that I find it sort of alarming. Not the sort of Hibiscus you want to run into, walking around the back yard at night.


7 comments:

Ginny Burton said...

Well, I like the Polygonum persicaria, and I'll bet I'm not the only one. It covers bare spots quickly, but is really easy to pull up when it's somewhere you don't want it. The flowers are pretty, if tiny.

When I was little, my mother would take us three kids to the San Antonio Zoo on Sunday mornings so my father could sleep late. The zoo wasn't open that early, but the goats would come up to the cyclone fence. We would pull up clumps of Polygonum and feed the goats through the fence. So the goats are Polygonum fans, too.

Anonymous said...

I just looked looked up Asclepias on Wikipedia and discovered its groovy pollination system. To wit:
"Pollen is grouped into complex structures called pollinia (or "pollen sacs"), rather than being individual grains or tetrads, as is typical for most plants. The feet or mouthparts of flower visiting insects such as bees, wasps and butterflies, slip into one of the five slits in each flower formed by adjacent anthers. The bases of the pollinia then mechanically attach to the insect, pulling a pair of pollen sacs free when the pollinator flies off. Pollination is effected by the reverse procedure in which one of the pollinia becomes trapped within the anther slit."

Isn't nature AMAZING?

Liza said...

A whole post on pink and not a single Molly Ringwald reference. Impressive!

Pat said...

No Pinks of the Dianthus variety?

I did comment about this in another post but you didn't reply what do you think of this hardy Hibiscus? They are trying to breed it up to 12 inches before releasing it.

http://agnews.tamu.edu/showstory.php?id=2114

mr_subjunctive said...

Ginny Burton:

I almost like Polygonum persicaria when it first appears, and the leaves are all clean and new. After it's been around for a while, it gets kind of ratty. In order to get me to actually like it, I think I'd need showier flowers. Wouldn't have to be a lot showier.

Anonymous:

Yes, often.

There do always appear to be a bunch of insects around: with A. syriaca, in fact, whenever I upload photos of the flowers, I end up finding bugs I didn't notice when I was taking the picture.

Liza:

I did think about it.

Pat:

I have a Dianthus picture waiting to be posted, but it's of the variety 'Coconut Punch,' which is more maroon-and-white. I might also have some annual Dianthus pictures, which are pink, but after a picture's sat around for a certain length of time I have a hard time remembering whether or not I've already posted it, so those tend not to get used.

The Hibiscus is interesting, though I don't think I'd be able to get excited about it until I saw it in person: blues photograph so erratically (and people manipulate photos of "blue" plants so much) that I'm uncertain about how blue it really is.

Not that it's not probably a pretty color anyway.

I'm a little confused about how the Hibiscus in the article is more authentically blue than existing hardy varieties like H. syriacus 'Blue Satin,' which I like the look of a great deal and which seems like a true blue to me, but the photos of that one did look like a slightly darker blue, maybe.

In any case, I approve of people breeding more blue flowers. Or even blueish flowers.

Ivynettle said...

What is it with those Torenias - colourblind breeder, maybe? I have one called 'Purple Moon', which if you ask me is clear blue.

And the Polygonum... if this is what I think it is, I spent a hot summer day pulling up massive plants in a soybean field (hooray for organic farming!) with my farmer boss and another kid working during the summer holidays, so no fond memories there. ;)

Tom said...

I think by first blue they mean first blue die-back hibiscus hardy to folks up in the tundra where we can't grow Hibiscus syriacus. Anyways, onward and upward to my comment.

The frilly cyclamen were always the first for us to sell out of (usually on the day they got set out on display) yet we still only ever grew about 1/8th as many as we did of the standard varieties. Go figure...