Bluets aren’t blue

That’s right: the little (quarter-inch, or 6mm) flowers known as bluets, Stenaria nigricans var. nigricans, aren’t normally blue but rather pale violet, pale pink, or almost completely white. The ones here, photographed during the same June 2nd session off Naruna Way in northeast Austin that brought you the previous picture, were growing with some more-colorful prairie verbena, Glandularia bipinnatifida. Notice how different this verbena inflorescence is from that of the Verbena xutha that appeared here recently.

© 2015 Steven Schwartzman