One of these things is not like the others...

Here it is, folks, evolution in action! This one violet showed off a mutation, or maybe just a rarely expressed trait, of white and yellow splotchy petals. That's how garden varieties are created - one little natural variation amplified by breeding. It's fun to see such a variation in nature, especially in a species that normally sports a multitude of remarkably identical flowers. Just goes to show, even the flowers you see every day can be interesting all over again.

These photos taken on April 16 in Little River, Ca.

Evergreen violet

Evergreen violets (Viola sempervirens) are numerous in the woods these days, in the redwoods as well as the bishop pines, and edges of the pygmy forest. They're small flowers - not much larger than a nickel.

Violets are edible and are high in vitamins C and A. Fresh blooms are nice to garnish a salad. Violets can also be candied and used as a cake decoration but I don't know if this is a particularly palatable species...I haven't tried it yet.

Compare the evergreen violets above to the stream violet (Viola glabella) to the right. The evergreen violet's leaves are much smaller (no larger than the flowers usually), and a bit leathery.

V. sempervirens photos taken April 2, near the Little River Airport.

Today's photos are the rest of the March 1st batch. A little assortment of common woodsy flowers.

Douglas Iris (Iris douglasiana): gorgeous, quite common. Listed as a native noxious weed! You see them in grassy fields as well as in the woods, in openings and on roadsides. They reproduce via rhizomes, so you may find them in dense patches. This was a loner, and it's neighbor appears to have been eaten, presumably by a deer.

And the not-so-violet stream violet (Viola glabella). Violets are edible and a good source of vitamin C.

And finally, a pretty composite, Petasites palmatus - Western Coltsfoot.

I read that you can eat the leaves cooked like spinach - but not too much because they're high in pyrolizidine alkaloids, which are toxic to the liver. The concentration is lowest in the leaves. The Wikipedia article also sites a study that found that extracts of petasin and/or isopetasin, a substance in the roots, relieves migraines. A related plant is the introduced European medicinal plant Tussilago farfara, also known as known as coltsfoot, used as a cough suppressant. T. Farfara looks different and it doesn't grow here.