A close view of a wood sorrel flower
In the previous post you didn’t see much of the wood sorrel flower, Oxalis drummondii, that caught my attention on the floor of the woods in Great Hills Park on November 4th, although it did coincidentally lend its color to all the foliage in the negative version of yesterday’s image.
A few paces from that scene I found the wood sorrel flower shown here. It had its five petals appealingly ribboned back to form a would-be pentagon, even as an adjacent bud on the same plant was beginning to open. If you’d like to compare a close view of a wood sorrel flower when its petals aren’t curled down, you can check out a post from this blog’s first fall.
© 2015 Steven Schwartzman
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That is a close match to this color. http://www.computerhope.com/cgi-bin/htmlcolor.pl?c=E01FEB
Jim in IA
November 15, 2015 at 9:26 AM
It is.
Is there a search engine that lets you put in a patch of color and then finds the color code?
Steve Schwartzman
November 15, 2015 at 10:22 AM
There are lots of them that show color patch examples of color codes. I haven’t found one that lets me click on any place on my screen with an eye-dropper to capture the code. There may be one.
Jim in IA
November 15, 2015 at 12:24 PM
Your mention of an eye dropper got me thinking about Photoshop. If I use its eye dropper tool to click on a color, I can then see the corresponding RGB values and the color code. For example, when I clicked on a part of the wood sorrel flower, I got the code #aa28eb.
Steve Schwartzman
November 15, 2015 at 6:37 PM
I have used that handy tool. Very helpful.
I found a small app at the Mac App store called Color Picker. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/color-picker/id641027709?mt=12
It lets me hover a little magnifier over any part of the screen and return the code. I did a part of the sorrel and got codes for RGB, HEX, and two others I’ve never seen before.
Jim in IA
November 15, 2015 at 8:19 PM
Color Picker’s been around for several years as freeware. I used it when I was creating my blog, to match my text color to the template. I still remember how amazed I was that you could pick up the color from the WordPress template, and then change the color of text in the editor.
shoreacres
November 16, 2015 at 7:06 AM
I’ve never used a text color here other than black. Maybe I should experiment.
Steve Schwartzman
November 16, 2015 at 7:29 AM
Please don’t. I’ve stopped reading many blogs because it simply isn’t worth the struggle of enlarging and squinting just to make out the words. Because I can read your blog without difficulty, I can enjoy your words and images. Obviously you can accomplish lots of creative tasks that make your blog enjoyable, but please don’t mess with the black text!
NumberWise
November 18, 2015 at 10:37 PM
Thanks for mentioning that. It’s something I hadn’t considered, but now that you’ve brought it up, I’ve found that some blogs are hard to read because of text that’s tiny or grey rather than black. I’d never go that route.
Steve Schwartzman
November 19, 2015 at 5:36 AM
This is such a sweet plant that I’ve only come across once in the wild. I really like how you’ve portrayed it both times here.
melissabluefineart
November 15, 2015 at 9:36 AM
This wood sorrel isn’t uncommon here, but it may well be in Illinois if you’ve come across it in the wild only once. The way the flower appeared in the post four years ago is how I normally see it, so the ribboned-back petals grabbed my attention with their uniqueness (in my experience, at least). I often see this kind of curling back in the flower heads of Engelmann daisies.
Steve Schwartzman
November 15, 2015 at 10:37 AM
You’re right, I see it in our sunflowery type flowers, too.
melissabluefineart
November 16, 2015 at 7:56 AM
I guess they’re laid-back sorts of wildflowers.
Steve Schwartzman
November 16, 2015 at 7:58 AM
Yeah~” hang loose, man!”
melissabluefineart
November 16, 2015 at 7:59 AM
Right on! Flower power!
Steve Schwartzman
November 16, 2015 at 8:00 AM
🙂
melissabluefineart
November 16, 2015 at 8:08 AM
I love the combination of intensity and simplicity.
Marcia Levy
November 15, 2015 at 10:14 AM
I wonder if that description might apply to the photographer as well.
Steve Schwartzman
November 15, 2015 at 10:40 AM
I meant it to apply to both!
Marcia
November 15, 2015 at 11:08 AM
Merci.
Steve Schwartzman
November 15, 2015 at 11:12 AM
Such a vibrant pink and flat shape that it looks almost unreal!
Emily Scott
November 15, 2015 at 11:06 AM
I agree. The flower does have an unreal quality to it, almost as if someone had painted it with pastels.
Steve Schwartzman
November 15, 2015 at 11:12 AM
Bellísima imagen. Gracias.
Isabel F. Bernaldo de Quirós
November 15, 2015 at 2:02 PM
Y gracias a ti, Isabel.
Steve Schwartzman
November 15, 2015 at 6:38 PM
There is so much to see and be fascinated by in nature. Your post is a wonderful suggestion to slow down a bit and take time to see and enjoy what is really before our eyes.
Charlie@Seattle Trekker
November 15, 2015 at 2:43 PM
“Slow down and see the wood sorrel” may not have the cachet of “Stop and smell the roses,” but the sentiment is the same. I never run out of subjects for nature photographs.
Steve Schwartzman
November 15, 2015 at 6:40 PM
Wow! Gorgeous!
Lynda
November 16, 2015 at 12:14 AM
I’m glad to have made your day, Lynda.
Steve Schwartzman
November 16, 2015 at 6:00 AM
Ribboned back and almost button-like.
Gallivanta
November 16, 2015 at 1:19 AM
Somehow I never thought of the button. A pentagonal one would be something of a novelty. Math teachers could wear shirts or blouses with various polygonal buttons.
Steve Schwartzman
November 16, 2015 at 6:05 AM
Indeed they should. Many buttons are flower shaped, and they come in many other shapes as well.
Gallivanta
November 16, 2015 at 7:07 AM
Flower buttons are appropriate because one meaning of French bouton, the word from which we get button in English, is ‘flower bud’.
Steve Schwartzman
November 16, 2015 at 7:48 AM
Wood Sorrel is not uncommon here, but I’ve not seen them purple as your drummondii species which does not occur here. Lovely color and image, Steve.
Wondering if you ever use a white balance card to be sure of color fidelity? Of course, that is of little help if the rest of us aren’t calibrated.
Steve Gingold
November 16, 2015 at 3:32 AM
We also have a species of wood sorrel with yellow flowers here, which may be the color you’re familiar with in Massachusetts. I searched your blog but didn’t find a wood sorrel image to confirm that.
No, I haven’t used a white balance card. I do sometimes wonder about color fidelity, but I haven’t done anything to try to achieve it. In any case, as you said, people are going to see each photo we post on whatever monitor they have.
Steve Schwartzman
November 16, 2015 at 6:15 AM
This is very appealing in terms of geometry and colour, Steve. Gorgeous! Two things sprang to my mind. Firstly, a treasured pinwheel I bought at a a small country show when I was a child. Secondly, the flower and the bud remind me of a swan, the bud and its stem being the swan’s head and neck. A very fancy swan though! 🙂
Jane
November 16, 2015 at 4:52 AM
I think the image of a pinwheel was nagging at my brain but didn’t make it through, so I’m glad you mentioned it and also glad it carried you back to a treasure from childhood. In contrast, you’re way ahead of me in seeing a swan, which my imagination would probably never have suggested.
This little flower seemed almost unreal in its color, so I feel fortunate to have been able to get a picture of it.
Steve Schwartzman
November 16, 2015 at 6:22 AM
I suspect you’ve never wondered whether one of your flowers has a connection to varnishing and woodwork, but here it is.
A wood bleach I use from time to time contains oxalic acid. I just browsed the etymologies, and sure enough, the sharp, tangy-tasting sorrel and my wood bleach are related. The leaves of the plants contain oxalic acid (as do rhubarb, spinach, and Brussels sprouts) and there have been some interesting projects, including this one in New Zealand to produce oxalic acid from plant waste.
One of the most useful forms of oxalic acid is the cleaning compound called Barkeeper’s Friend. It’s about 10% oxalic acid. If you make a slurry of it, and cover rust spots, on fiberglass or other surfaces, you can come back in five or ten minutes and the rust will be gone. Whether a slurry of crushed wood sorrel leaves would do the same is doubtful, but if I find some, I’d be willing to give it a try.
shoreacres
November 16, 2015 at 7:39 AM
I knew about the connection to oxalic acid, but not, as you suspected, about any further connection to varnishing and woodwork. If you do try your experiment with wood sorrel leaves, let us know how effective they are compared to the commercial cleaning compound.
Since you’ve brought up etymology, I’ll add that the English word sorrel is related to sour, a reference to the way oxalic acid tastes in our mouth. I’ve read that some people like to include a few wood sorrel leaves in a salad to add a contrasting feel and taste.
Steve Schwartzman
November 16, 2015 at 7:57 AM
This is beautiful. It jumps out of the picture
norasphotos4u
November 16, 2015 at 8:58 AM
This flower certainly jumped out at me when I saw it, Nora.
Steve Schwartzman
November 16, 2015 at 9:11 AM
This is brilliant!!
Birder's Journey
November 22, 2015 at 5:32 AM
Thank you. I was taken with it too.
Steve Schwartzman
November 22, 2015 at 7:37 AM
Such vibrant colour from such a tiny spot of nature!
My Small Surrenders
December 11, 2015 at 9:34 AM
Your comment reminds me of the adage that big things come in small packages.
Steve Schwartzman
December 11, 2015 at 2:01 PM