Secret crown of a Rose Campion flower
This is the secret crown hidden in the throat of a garden flower of Rose Campion (Silene coronaria) in the Caryophyllaceae plant family. I'm sure it's a queen's crown with those royal colors! This flower has a crown or corona - think "coronation" instead of beer. In botany, the corona is an extra ring of flower structures besides the usual sepals, petals, stamens, and pistils - e.g. in milkweeds and orchids. I'm not sure if the crown in this flower counts as a botanical corona, but it's good enough to give this plant its species name. This is one of those "plant once, have forever" plants. I think we got it decades ago from my mom, and it's been coming back in different places in he garden ever since. Note that it hasn't spread to the woods. We also have the native Mexican Pink (Silene laciniata ssp. laciniata, Caryophyllaceae) in our mountains which has a similar corona on its flowers, see this photo. This is my photo for the Macro Mondays group, with the theme of "Queen" - HMM! (San Marcos Pass, 31 July 2017)
Secret crown of a Rose Campion flower
This is the secret crown hidden in the throat of a garden flower of Rose Campion (Silene coronaria) in the Caryophyllaceae plant family. I'm sure it's a queen's crown with those royal colors! This flower has a crown or corona - think "coronation" instead of beer. In botany, the corona is an extra ring of flower structures besides the usual sepals, petals, stamens, and pistils - e.g. in milkweeds and orchids. I'm not sure if the crown in this flower counts as a botanical corona, but it's good enough to give this plant its species name. This is one of those "plant once, have forever" plants. I think we got it decades ago from my mom, and it's been coming back in different places in he garden ever since. Note that it hasn't spread to the woods. We also have the native Mexican Pink (Silene laciniata ssp. laciniata, Caryophyllaceae) in our mountains which has a similar corona on its flowers, see this photo. This is my photo for the Macro Mondays group, with the theme of "Queen" - HMM! (San Marcos Pass, 31 July 2017)