Sunday, April 4, 2010

Dutchman's Breeches Mystery

So my dear husband and I take a quick tour of Margo Frankel Woods' west side. Our quick survey tells us that it is NOT a good candidate for placing a geocache. It is cool, but the east side of the park is better suited for caching. And I had high hopes (read the last paragraph of this post from 2007). I am frequently torn -- excellent wild places that I'm not sure should be disturbed.

After the survey-tour, I went poking around and photographing Dutchman's breeches at the homeplace.

Mostly good memories. Then I notice a few of these:

This flower is pink and its stem is erect. Yellow and drooping is normal for Dutchman's breeches. I'm not finding any information in my reference books, field guides, or the internet for pink petals. My guess at the moment is a local variation. Does anyone out there in bloggerland have an idea about this?

4 comments:

Obi-Mom Kenobi said...

I don't know. But in W. Michigan, white and drooping is the norm. Regardless, that's a lovely shade for them!

juliecache said...

and this stem is not pink. normal stems are pink.

Anonymous said...

I have been observing and photographing wild flowers for 40 years. Wildflowers are subject to fairly wide variation in color and habit based upon soil chemistry and other habitat issues.

There are two wildflowers that look similar in the bleeding-heart subfamily of the poppy family. One is Dutchman's Britches, and the other is Squirrel Corn.

Your picture is of Dutchmen's Britches. The easiest way to tell from the picture is that the flower spurs are quite long vertically. Squirrel corn blossoms cluster more horizontally.

Ed Dickerson

juliecache said...

Thank you everyone for the blogger and facebook comments. I'll call this a Dutchman's Breeches and submit it to Sweet Shot Tuesday, http://www.my3boybarians.com/2010/04/sweet-shot-tuesday-3/ -- thank you to Darcy for hosting on Tuesdays!