Marginal habitats

It seems to me that my father has planted petunias just about every year that I have known him. Now 89, he does his gardening in raised planters that are waist high. And he still plants petunias. This year is the first year I can remember seeing volunteer petunias. I am amazed. I had assumed that commercial petunias were sterile because of hybridization or whatever. My dad says that he got volunteer petunias coming up in his planters, and that they are a different color than last year’s petunias, suggesting cross pollination among colors. We have volunteer white petunias under the deck. We also have volunteer petunias in truly marginal habitats, namely the cracks in the patio and the driveway. Because these plants occur at some distance from the planters, I wonder if the seeds are ant-dispersed. They do seem to be in cracks at non-random frequency, and God knows we’ve got ants everywhere the petunias are coming up.

Petunia growing in a crack between the patio bricks

There are many cardinal flowers in bloom out in the restoration area. I am so pleased!

Red spikes of cardinal flowers

Guess what! That thing with the obedient plant really works! You don’t even have to use much force. Just nudge the flower to one side, and there it stays. It makes me wonder what’s going on with the cells at the junction with the stem. What could be adaptive about a flower that stays where it gets bumped?

Obedient plant before I moved the flower on the left

And after

I have not yet been able to identify two new flowers. I’m going to have to bite the bullet, bring in some samples, and work my way through the Big Key with all the Hard Words. I just haven’t had time this week, what with classes starting and all. Maybe this weekend. After I mow and harvest and put up tomatoes and mulch around Oak 5 and, and, and….

There's this little blue flower:

First not-yet-identified flower

And this spectacularly tall (well over my head) composite with leaves that go past the petiole and down the stem. You'd think that would make it easy to identify, wouldn't you? It might be smooth aster, except the guide says it only grows to 3 feet. This thing is huge!

The flower

The strange leaf with its wing down the stem