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Arenaria benthamii |
This morning, that's exactly what I wrote Jerry, a fellow Texas Master Naturalist and native plant extraordinaire.
"Seriously, I couldn't sleep last night," I emailed him. "Weird. I kept thinking about this plant when I was awake during the
night. Ever do that? I cannot figure it out. I kept waiting for it to
bloom. But those green knobs ARE the bloom. Because I picked a brown
knob and tiny black seeds came out. The stems are sticky. They're
growing in the Meadow. Then I thought OH NO, what if it's something that's BAD??!"
Jerry wrote back: "Looks like Hilly sandwort, Arenaria benthamii."
HOW HE'D DO THAT SO FAST!?
Anyway, what a strange species. At Wildflowers.org, the species account on hilly sandwort doesn't share much. I've never even heard of Caryophyllaceae, the pink family. But then, I'm no plant expert either.
I'm looking forward to getting some sleep tonight. Thanks, Jerry!
2 comments:
I've seen that plant so many times and never gave it a second thought! Thank you for opening my eyes to it and giving it a name for me! Because of you I'm looking at plants closer and seeing the wonder of the "small world"! I know Jerry also and he is indeed a walking native plant book!
Another mystery solved! On behalf of many other sleepless wonderers, I'm happy to know we can put at least one question to rest. Now.... on to the others!!
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