Thursday, April 12, 2012

Red Car Property: Just How Small Are Those (Probably) Native Wildflowers? *UPDATED

Photo:  Diane Edwardson, April 3, 2012.  We still have no ID on these tiny and likely native wildflowers found above the historic viaduct footings.  (Click on photo to enlarge.)
Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 3, 2012.  The flowers are really small; my dog is a Shepherd mix.  Arrow is pointing to the same flower from above photo.

If you can ID this flower, send us an email: redcarproperty@gmail.com.

*UPDATE April 15, 2012: For years, we'd hoped this was a native wildflower.  It's not.  It appears to be a Windmill Pink, also know as Common Catchfly (Silene gallica).  

A longtime regular reader suggested it might be Silene noctiflora.  Since the petals didn't look quite right to me, I looked up the genus, Silene, on Calflora.  The native Silene species are far more interesting than the non-native variety.  Thanks again to our readers for making suggestions.