Final Flowering of Fall

Well at 25 degrees, the frost is on the pumpkin. The sensitive fern is so called because it does not tolerate even a light frost.

Some trees along our road have dropped their leaves of a sudden, their abscission layers obviously very sensitive to the signal to avoid the risk of water loss. They close up shop overnight and go dormant until conditions improve in April.

This fall flowering mint in the image above appeared in the pasture quite widespread, and I can’t seem to get it named. The small light-purple flowers have mostly disappeared and seeds set by the time this picture was taken a week or two back.

The inflorescence (name of the way the flowers are arranged on the stem) appears to be an umbel–a more or less flat topped flower cluster like Queen Ann’s Lace.

Botany nerds should be familiar with umbels and corymbs, spikes and cymes. If you aren’t, click the button below and take a look at all the illustrated guides to inflorescence types, and be ready to ID them come April, when we all emerge again and seek the sun.

[su_button url=”http://tinyurl.com/pm9xe6t” target=”blank” style=”soft” background=”#a1dcea” color=”#1f1717″ size=”5″ wide=”yes” center=”yes” radius=”5″ icon=”icon: pagelines” icon_color=”#ffffff” text_shadow=”1px 1px 0px #000000″ desc=”Arrangement of flowers on the stem is one aspect of a flowering plant’s habit or growth type.”]Types of inflorescence[/su_button]