Consider-the-Lilies Web Gallery
Scarlet Pimpernel
Up until the time I came across this plant, I had concentrated on photographing the surprising beauty I
found in common flowers with which I was familiar—at least at a distance—such as
Red Clover and Queen Anne's Lace.
This was the first flower that I came across that was completely new to me, probably because I just hadn't looked before! But late in the summer of 2004, as I continued to look at all the wonders of the "field," I came across this jewel one morning.
I was struck by its subtle beauty then, and it has remained one of my favorites ever since. When I opened the Gallery, I chose an image of one of its blossoms for the first page.
Because the first year I saw only one small plant in some ground-cover evergreen in my yard, I had concluded that it was not very plentiful. But, apparently it was just starting in my area or, perhaps, this is just a good year for the Scarlet Pimpernel; because this summer I was pleased to find this little annual in several places, including hard-packed gravel at the edge of my driveway.
So it is a hardy plant that, without being invasive, as one authority put it, "flourishes in all the temperate regions in both hemispheres, but shuns the Arctic cold and hardly bears more than the sub-tropical heat." There is also a blue variety (Anagallis cerulea) occasionally found in Great Britain and elsewhere, but apparently we in North America make do with this scarlet shade.
This member of the Primrose family is in bloom only from mid-morning to mid-afternoon on a sunny day. (Other ephemeral bloomers are Chicory , Blue-eyed Grass, Asiatic Dayflower , and Virginia Spiderwort.)
Beyond the shortness of the daily bloom, all Anagallis are also very sensitive to the intensity of the sunlight: a change from bright sun to an overcast sky will cause them to very quickly close their blossoms.
This particular quality has caused the Pimpernel to be called "Shepherd's Barometer" and "Poor Man's Weatherglass" in the UK.
Here is an image of a female Sweat Bee (Halictus rubicundus) visiting a blossom.
On this particular day many of the other larger wildflowers had several bees and yellow jackets collecting nectar from a single blossom at the same time.
But this jewel doesn't have room for more than one of even this tiny bee on its miniature blossom.
Go to the Main Directory to consider more lilies of the field.