Hieracium venosum, Rattlesnake hawkweed, Howard County, Md, Helen Lowe Metzman
Made of Paper, or so it looks. Rattlesnake Hawkweed (Hieracium venosum) is named for the traditional notion that it helped once you were bitten. Not sure what the followup on that has been, but the red-veined leaves are pretty spectacular and you could do worse having this plant in your rock garden. Hawkweeds, I find are mostly platforms for Halictus ligatus or poeyi, I see relatively little else on them as a generality, but the close study of any flower presents surprises and nips at our assumptions. Photo and specimen by Helen Lowe Metzman.
We Are Made One with What We Touch and See
We are resolved into the supreme air,
We are made one with what we touch and see,
With our heart's blood each crimson sun is fair,
With our young lives each spring impassioned tree
Flames into green, the wildest beasts that range
The moor our kinsmen are, all life is one, and all is change.
- Oscar Wilde. Original public domain image from Flickr