Thursday, January 13, 2011

Imminent extinction

Our lawn is a good news/bad news story - the good news is that it's relatively green; the bad news is that most of the green is due to weeds - more specifically, an abundance of dollarweed. While I was pulling weeds out of the lawn a couple of days ago I grabbed my macro lens and captured some of the tiny but exquisite blooms I discovered. After filling 2 recycling buckets full of weeds from only a part of the backyard, however, and feeling the pangs of advancing age in my back from a few hours of bending over, I decided this was a job best left to the pros.

So today a truck arrived with a tank full of what I hope the weeds will come to regard as a witch's brew. While I won't mourn the demise of the dollarweed, I've discovered a few specimens of the 'nicer' weeds (see below and here) doing nicely, tucked away in a flower bed (I did some checking but couldn't find a name for this one; anyone ?).

(60mm  f5.6  1/50 sec  ISO200)

12 comments:

Scott Law said...

Well I know about as much about plants as I do about nuclear physics, so the white petaled flower looks like an Orchid to me, and the leaf next to it looks like a Venus Fly Trap that is closed having just ingested a meal. I do like the photo though. The only flowers I'll be seeing for a while are in stores or photos.

darlin said...

Rick good plan to leave it to the pros, ones who know what a weed is. I'd think that this was some type of an exotic flower, it's that pretty. Very nice macro shot.

I can't even imagine pulling weeds right about now, shoveling snow yes, pulling weeds, not a chance!

Carolyn Ford said...

I don't know but it is much too pretty to be a weed! No witches brew for this beauty, I hope!

S. Etole said...

What an exquisite little flower.

imac said...

Well Rick, if your lawn is full of Dollar weeds, then pick them and have a spending spree.lol

Soraia said...

So beautiful! :D

Lisa said...

This is a beauty. I dont know the name of it is either but she is stunning . Nice shot.

Rick said...

Good eye, Scott ! When I looked closely I thought too that the leaves to the left of the flower might be a venus fly trap (how weird is it to have THAT in the lawn ?).

LOL Darlene - your weeds are just waiting for the chance to sprout - as soon as that load of snow is off them ! See - there is a silver lining - no weeds for you to pull now.

Alas, too late Carolyn. However, I think a few survived in the flower bed.

Cicero Sings said...

Oh, oh, oh ... resorting to chemicals ... I don't know what to say! I thought it looked like an orchid too but couldn't find a wild orchid in Florida that looks like that on the web.

Rick said...

Thank you Susan - and to think it's a 'weed' !

Ha ha Stewart - I think they're somewhat devalued due to their overabundance - perhaps they can be renamed 'greenbacks' ! ;-)

Thank you Soraia !

I've found that 'weeds' can be some of the most wonderful flowers there are. Who decides they're weeds ? Thanks Lisa.

Teté M. Jorge said...

Weeds are a damage to the grass, but they usually have very tiny and beautiful flowers!
You've had a lynx eyes to find that flower there! How wonderful!

Have a good weekend, honey! And take care your back. :))

Many, many, many beijos.
Love.

Rick said...

Thank you Teca - I think I've learned to 'see' better over the past year; before that I might just have passed it off as a weed !

Have a wonderful weekend !