Friday, May 24, 2013

More little flowers - A Pic a Day in May #24

I have no idea what these are, but they're growing up against a stand of trees where they only get partial early morning sun (when there is sun). As the flowers open, the whole bunch of them turns upward and the flower head looks like wild carrot (Queen Anne's Lace).

Could this be antrhiscus sylvestris? If you look closely you may see fine spider threads stretched between the flowers and the leaves on the left.

It may be related, but I don't know enough botany to know. The plants I know as Queen Anne's Lace won't flower until sometime in mid-summer. Still, the white flowers are pretty right now, especially against the shadows of the adjacent woods.

13 comments:

  1. Walt, there are loads of very similar white umbellifers...
    I would need to see both the open umbel and flower...
    as well as the leaf, the ribbing on the stem, etc. to make an attempt at identification.
    The seed is often a very good identifier later in the season, too.
    All I know is...
    I don't immediately recognise the bracts surrounding the umbell.... Susan?

    Nice piccy tho'.

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  2. It's Rough Chervil Chaerophyllum temulum (Cerfeuil enivrant in French). Cow Parsley Anthriscus sylvestris has pointed tipped leaves, but otherwise they are very like. Rough Chervil succeeds the Cow Parsley in the flowering sequence ie Cow Parsley flowers March-May, Rough Chervil flowers May-June (then the Wild Carrot/Queen Anne's Lace Daucus carota June-July, plus a whole bunch of the less common ones throughout the season).

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  3. Sorry to hear about the continued cold weather. It's nuts! Last time I was in France in summertime (too long ago-- 2004, I think?), it was ridiculously cold and rainy-- two weeks in the 50s, with rain and wind most days, in mid July!

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  4. we might have record cold tonite here in western NC mountains.....this is getting ridiculous

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  5. Walt

    Woke up this morning : 66 F inside and I have to put the heat on since it is miserable outside - raining the whole week so far and we expect some sunshine only on next Tuesday and the mercury will not rise too much. They had snow in Calgary yesterday :( ( would have been good if their hockey team was in the playoff but ... not this yr)

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  6. That is a beautiful shot.
    I'm just curious to know how you ended up living in France.

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    Replies
    1. Sean R, that's a long and complicated story. Are you sure you're interested? :)

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    2. Sure!

      It's interesting to me how anyone gets from point A to point B in life.

      Here's my e-mail . It's ruddsd02 "at" gmail "dot" com.

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  7. Susan,
    "Fitter,Fitter & Blamey" state
    "no lower bracts"
    on Rough Chervil...
    that's why I discounted it.

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    Replies
    1. This picture doesn't show any bracts, only bracteoles. Bracts sit at the base of the rays (the stems for each of the little inflorescences). Bracteoles sit just below the inflorescences. Rough Chervil has 5-8 bracteoles but rarely has bracts. I assume FF&B talk about 'lower bracts' for bracts and 'upper bracts' for bracteoles.

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    2. No... just Braxts!! And "her" pictures are really too small to judge!!
      Keeble-Martin is upstairs... won't fit on the shelf down here... I'll see what he's drawn... things like that are normally well illustrated.

      interestingly... the first bit of the WV was "stalking"

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  8. So just how many Americans do you guesstimate live in France?

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  9. Starman, I just read that there are about 100,000 Americans living in France — best estimate because there are no official numbers — with 2/3 of them living in the Paris area. Makes sense to me.

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