Saturday, February 18, 2006

Pink and Purple

Weekend Photoblogging


Pink and Purple
Originally uploaded by urtica.

The edges of the paved path at Squantum Point Park in Quincy, MA are on the verge of being dominated by purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria), to the detriment of the cattails and any species that were planted there following "Stage 1" of the park's restoration (Stage 2 was never to be). I came upon a patch of very pink plants one day while walking through. You can see them mixed in with the more traditionally colored ones in this photo.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

In 2004, while checking out numbers of Galerucella sp. (Golden Loosestrife Beetles) on stands of loosestrife in my area of eastern Ontario, I noticed some differences in colour of blooms in certain stands - some being more pink, while others a deeper purple. I thought that might be related to variations in soil. In one stand, I came across an interesting mutation on one exceptionally robust plant. The flowerhead flared out and resembled a very large cockscomb type celosia (I believe they are sometimes called brain celosia). Here is a photo of it if you're interested. I meant to get back to that stand last summer to see if there were more of this type of plant but didn't. Perhaps in 2006. - bev