The dainty white flowers growing on top of long stalks almost appear like they're floating. These are King's Sandwort (
Arenaria kingii), a member of the Pink Family (Caryophyllaceae).
You may remember from the post about Longstalk Starwort that members in this family have five petals, but they can be deeply cleft. In the case of King's Sandwort, it's easier to tell that there are just five petals. The sepals are shorter than the petals, and there are ten reddish anthers on the protruding filaments.
For more information about King's Sandwort, click
here.
The dainty white flowers growing on top of long stalks almost appear like they're floating. These are King's Sandwort (Arenaria kingii), a member of the Pink Family (Caryophyllaceae).
You may remember from the post about Longstalk Starwort that members in this family have five petals, but they can be deeply cleft. In the case of King's Sandwort, it's easier to tell that there are just five petals. The sepals are shorter than the petals, and there are ten reddish anthers on the protruding filaments.
4 comments:
Dumb question: The close-up in the 2nd and 4th shots looks to have 6 petals, although those in the 1st shot have only 5. Am I missing something? Thx-
Good question--it wasn't something I even noticed. I'm not sure what's going on here, although I'm guessing I thought that the two plants growing next to each other were the same thing and they're not. I'm going to have to do some investigating!
I checked with an expert and this is King's sandwort--both the five and six-petaled versions. He said every once in awhile the flowers do odd things.
Thanks for the follow-up. Coincidentally I saw the same thing (6-petaled version of 5-petaled flower)this week with a local flower- Sticky Geranium. It's so annoying when the flowers disobey the guidebooks!
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