A Closer Look
A member of the Waterleaf Family (Hydrophyllacae), Miami Mist (Phacelia purshii) is an eastern spring annual that prefers a wet habitat; floodplains, wet meadows, and moist rich woods. Like most spring wildflowers, it puts on a quiet show, unfolding its delicate blue petals, sending potential pollinators into a drunken frenzy over its beautiful flowers. But look closer; the petals of Miami Mist are fringed, like lacy bloomers. My high school prom dates weren't so beautifully attired (though Selma Chafed's low-cut gown was the hit of the '72 prom.)
Miami Mist occurs from Ohio to Delaware and southward. Its southern bell cousin, Fringed Phacelia (P. fimbriata), can be found growing in woods from Virginia to Alabama. Its blue to lavender to white flowers are also exquisitely fringed. All the muss and fuss over urban gardens and here are these fine and lacy blossoms, growing deep in the woods, far away from covetous eyes. (Maybe that's a good thing, huh?)
And then there's Miterwort (Mitella diphylla), a member of the Saxifrage Family (Saxifragaceae). Its flowers are so delicately sculpted even the fringes have fringes. They are like geometrically cut tiny white snowflakes, clustered along a long slender stem. In his 1949 book, "American Wild Flowers", Harold Moldenke wrote of one of Miterwort's common names, Snowflake. It was so-named because of "...the delicately fringed petals... resembling magnified snowflakes in their symmetrical and almost indescribable intricacy." But he was only agreeing with Frenchman Frere Marie-Victorin whom had written in 1935 that Miterwort was, "one of the marvels of our flora. The finally cut petals are extremely rare in the plant world..."
(Interestingly, Miterwort is not named for its precise geometrical snowflakes, but for its seed pods, which resemble a miter, the tall pointed two-peaked cap worn by bishops.)
Recently, in the Santa Monica Mountains, I came upon shrubs covered in woolly blue buds. Some had opened into deep blue open-armed blossoms. Each sported long curling stamens dangling out of the flower like Alfalfa's cowlick gone limp. These were Woolly Blue Curls (Trichostema lanatum), a member of the Mint Family (Lamiaceae). Unlike the more delicate and botanically bashful Miami Mist or Miterwort, these were playful flowers which clearly didn't mind the attention.
And finally there's Flame Azalea (Rhododendron calendulaceum), which doesn't require a hand lens or a keen eye so much as sun glasses. Unlike its cousins of pink and white and red, early blooming Flame Azalea bursts forth with orange blossoms, filling the woods along the Blue Ridge Parkway with fire. It doesn't dare you to notice it so much as leap out and grab you by the lapels. It is the only orange-flowered azalea and definitely worth a springtime visit to western North Carolina.
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