Lily Lake at Chenango Valley State Park
The cell phone camera is pretty good for a cell phone camera, but when it comes to small things that move in the slightest breeze, well, it’s a tough job for a cell phone camera (though I won’t rule out operator error). There is one plant I couldn’t identify and of course that is the one where the blossom came out blurry. If you can recognize this plant by its leaves, its overall habit, or its blurry flowers, please tell me what it is!
Overall habit of the mystery plant
These are the leaves. The flower stalk is visible emerging from the middle of the photo.
The flowers are pink. The one all the way on the right is sharpest.
Do You Know the Name of This Plant?
I have been through all my wild flower reference books, but it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. Whatever it is, I don’t think it’s common, because I’ve leafed through my reference books many times and it doesn’t look familiar. I even tried calling the park office, but they’ve been busy every time. So I appeal to you, my readers, for help in identifying this plant.
Helen of Toronto Gardens correctly identified it as Desmodium glutinosum. Thank you, Helen! Now I can sleep at night.
About Kathy Purdy
Kathy Purdy discovered the joys of writing in fourth grade, when she started corresponding with a former classmate. She's been writing letters ever since, first on looseleaf, then electronically, and now as weblog entries. That makes you, the blog reader, her pen pal. Her first independent (though frustrating) attempts at gardening were made in high school, though the gardening bug didn't bite hard until her mid-thirties, when she found herself mistress of a rural home on 15 acres. • USDA Hardiness Zone:4 • AHS Heat Zone: 3 • Location: rural; Southern Tier of NY • Geographic type: foothills of Appalachian Mountains • Soil Type: acid clay • Experience level: intermediate • Particular interests: colchicums, narcissus, cottage gardening, NY native plants, gardening with/for children
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Twitter: @thefrugalgarden
I’m glad you were able to ID your mystery plant
Not that long ago, my sister and I were visiting our hometown. We found a field full of flowers that we always called “Indian Paintbrush” when we were little and used to pick, fistfuls at a time. Snagging one, I brought it home thinking how much I’d enjoying seeing it in my garden. Doing searches for “Indian Paintbrush” I realized it couldn’t be that plant. Searching a little longer, I found out it was really “Devil’s Paintbrush Pilosella aurantiaca” a super invasive weed. Like I don’t have enough thugs in my garden. I laugh now thinking about how hard we worked to wrestle it out of its heavy clay home.
Wildflowers will give you a hundred of varieties and probably thousands worldwide. Actually, as I remember, there are still flower species that are still not given names especially those on the Galapagos and the Amazon jungle. But I do not know if I am already late for the news. But that is as far as I can remember.
I can not contribute anything to indentifying your mystery plant, but I liked your comment about taking pictures of wildflowers. I have 1000′s of photos, but the ones with people in them are few and far between. Looking at them you would think I had no friends or family and just lived with a pack of dogs.
Nice group effort here!
Twitter: @gardenfix
Kathy, I’m the same way as you when it comes to a plant ID challenge. They eat away at me till I figure them out. From what I found online, this looks to me like this could be tick trefoil (Desmodium spp.):
http://www.mayacreek.org/pictures/plants/tick-trefoil-lrg.jpg
Helen, by tracing your link back to this page, I see there is both a pointed-leaved and a naked-flowered tick trefoil. I looked through all the blurry pictures I took, and none of them have leaves on the stalk, so I’m thinking it’s Desmodium nudiflorum. However, the leaves do look more similar to the Desmodium glutinosum that you found for me. That’s probably what it is. Thank you! Will I see you at Buffa10?
Twitter: @gardenfix
If I had to choose between the two, I’d say D. glutinosum myself. The pointy leaf tips and shorter leaf petioles do it for me.
Twitter: @bloomingwriter
Well I don’t know, Kathy, but it does sort of look like it’s one of the Apocynum or something related to dogbane. Without a clear shot of the flowers it’s really hard to get it into a family. Hope someone can help more than that.
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