Herb Robert
This Geranium had me going for two days. The name was on the tip of my tongue but I just couldn’t spit it out.
Geranium robertianum
I take exception to my Peterson wildflower field guide that states the leaves are ‘fern like’. To me the foliage resembles that of the wild Bleeding Heart Family like Dutchman’s Breeches or Squirrel Corn. The flower reminds me of a Phlox (although they are not notched) and not until I get to the stems and flower buds do I start to think ‘Geranium’. No wonder I was having a brain seizure.
The stems are hairy and redish. The flowers usually come in pairs with 5 petals on each flower. Or so I always believed until I counted the petals on these flowers.
I like to say Nature never surprises me because I live in a universe of infinite possibilities. But this time Mother Nature gave me a good goose. Go ahead and count the petals yourself and you’ll see there is an extra on on each of that pair. Go figure. If I knew what I had found at the time I would have brought it home or at least marked the plant in order to collect the seed later. We freaks of nature like to keep company with each other.
So after two days of ‘hunting’ with a friend I did come up with a real find. He was looking for minerals and I was looking for wildflowers.
I’m sorry to say he didn’t find anything of real value but he had fun. The trench on his left (that you can’t see) is about 12 feet deep and barly wide enough to fit in. It was basically dug with a screwdriver by someone else that did manage to pull out 1000s of $$$ worth of Tourmaline crystals. My friend told that person to dig there and he’s only a short way from hitting another very promising mineral pocket.
They did scare up something in the diggings for me too. Poor little spider had to run and find another place to take care of it’s egg sac.
The image is linked to a larger size for a closer look or even use as desktop wallpaper if you aren’t having nightmares. Yet
If you’re wondering – I’m taking a week off from work. My friend is visiting from New Mexico and I just stopped in to download my photos, recharge the camera battery and buy some more liquid refreshments before I head back to the woods.
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June 3rd, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Wow, on the rock to the left, I noticed some extremely rare fossilized garden gloves — they’ve got to be worth something!
June 3rd, 2009 at 6:19 pm
I think I just picked one of these today and I also commented that the foliage looked like something from the Bleeding Heart family and I thought it resembled a phlox. Dang WiseAcre – great minds! LOL
Gonna have to plant all wildflowers the deer won’t munch on. They raided my gardens the other day more than they have ever taken at one time!
You said my blog url didn’t show up and to add it to my comment so here it is. http://gardeningbytrialanderror.blogspot.com/
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:54 pm
What a day out in voods. Hope you and your friend from New Mexico is having a wonderful time.
Coffee is on,
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:15 pm
The spider is creepy. I don’t like spiders.(-:
Glad it didn’t leave the egg sack in the gloves for you to find later(-:
Have a nice week off(-:
June 3rd, 2009 at 11:45 pm
I like the picture of the guy digging in the hole. That looks like my kind of fun. I never dug a hole with a screwdriver before, but I did with a small garden shovel not much bigger than a spoon.
June 4th, 2009 at 12:19 am
I really love your blog. We have herb robert everywhere here! It’s like the carpet in the cemetery woods. I’m trying to get back to the routine of actually reading the blogs that I claim I like!
I kissed your frog.
I have one (at least) mystery plant from the MN trip. It hadn’t opened yet, so I only have pictures of the bud. When I find the pic (among the many), I’ll share.
June 4th, 2009 at 11:00 am
I wonder flower also grows a beard, white beard. They must be as old as me.
June 4th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Found your blog by following link from My quality Day. Took me a minute to figure out Herb Robert was a plant and from there had to do a google search and so on .. Now I want to make Herb Robert tea.. Oh well interesting blog and great pictures
June 4th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Sounds like a very fun visit! That herb robert reminds me of my ‘candystripe’ creeping phlox that’s blooming right now. Let us know if your friend finds any arrowheads and such while he’s digging around, I always get such a thrill from that stuff.
June 4th, 2009 at 4:32 pm
Do they actually get into the 12 ft deep trench? That thought makes me shudder!
June 4th, 2009 at 9:22 pm
i probably would also look for wildflowers
great up close picture of the purple flower, their hairs make them really look interesting.
June 5th, 2009 at 7:22 am
Love the macro spider shot. And Mother Nature always keeps us on our toes–good for her I say–though plant ID is a bit of a bugger, granted.