Sunday, January 1, 2012

Green in Winter: Cardamine hirsuta, First Flower of 2012!

"The sun that brief December day rose cheerless over hills of grey, and darkly circled, gave at noon a sadder light than waning moon...." Snowbound by John Greenleaf Whittier comes to mind when a winter howler is bearing down. This morning I went to the garden to compost a bucket of kitchen midden before the approaching snowstorm and saw rosettes of Cardamine hirsuta with white flower buds showing near the base. By the time I returned with the camera, snow was beginning to fall.
Hairy Bitter Cress, Cardamine hirsuta, with flowers present on New Year's Day, 2012.
At first glance it seemed that flowers were only in bud, but a close look reveals a flower that's partially open (lower left part of the inflorescence)! This may be a weed, but I saw my first flowering plant of 2012 today, January 1st. The weather forecast for northern Indiana suggests it may be a while before anything else achieves anthesis.

2 comments:

Esculentus said...

Beautiful poem. Thanks for sharing!

EMP said...

What the dickens is this plant thinking?