“Blue-Eyed Mary”

I have just about given up, it’s not enough we have had to deal with winter for the last six months but now it seems I am being cursed and I now have to see the begining of my wildflower season here in Madison Indiana start out with like winter never left !!

Windy, cold and yes snowy conditions have plauged me the last week, what flowers that have begun to bloom have already either lost the bloom or it has been withered by the cold conditions, Bloodroot have almost completely been decimated and the other flowers are not fairing much better.

I have hiked Clifty Falls State Park the last couple of days and things don’t look very good, the bloom looks to be a week or two behind and what blooms that top the plants will probably be far from their usual splendor, hopefully we will get some warm temps over the weekend and we can get this display kicked and salvage the season !!

So out of pure boredom I have been going thru some past images from the park and have re edited some of the ones I didn’t get to post from past wildflower hikes, hopefully this will keep me from going stir crazy and driving my family crazy !! This is a Blue-eyed Mary and here is a description form Wikipedia…

Collinsia parviflora is a species of flowering plant in the figwort family known by the common names maiden blue eyed Mary and small-flowered collinsia. This tiny wildflower is a common plant throughout much of western and northern North America, where it grows in moist, shady mountain forests. This is an annual plant with a spindly reddish stem and narrow lance-shaped green leaves with edges that curl under. The minuscule flowers grow singly or in loose clusters of several. Each flower has five lobes, the lower deep blue to purple and the upper white. The whole corolla is only a few millimeters across. The fruit is a small capsule.

Hopefully this cold snap will run its course and I can get out in the woods , but if this continues life in the Kasper household is going to go  south real fast, and my wife may just send me that way if I don’t straighten up 

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.