Oh This is Such Fun!

It's been one of those wonderful mornings, when the learning seems effortless and the enthusiasm is contagious. We've been having a grand time flitting back and forth between our blog, Melissa's, the 4real forums, and of course the back yard, trying to nail down the identity of our Unidentified Purple Wildflower (see this morning's post for more details). As it turns out, Melissa and her family have been on a mystery plant hunt as well. Theresa's good eye caught the similarities between our plants and narrowed the search for us a bit ...

First we eagerly checked out several suggestions online ~ Creeping Charlie and Cow Parsley to start. But nothing was quite right. Finally I remembered a wonderful book that my grandmother gave us several years ago Wild Flowers of North America by Pamela Forey. And there on page 159 was our flower! It is called Henbit, and it is a member of the mint family:

"This plant grows as a weed in waste places, fields, and on roadsides across much of North America, but it is not a native plant, being naturalized from Europe. It is related to deadnettles ..."

What a fun springtime activity, identifying all the bitty blooms that pop up in our gardens! And by sharing our nature studies online we are all getting so nicely acquainted with each other's flora and fauna, you would think our backyards all lined up in a row! (Now wouldn't that be fun?)

Thanks everyone for the help! Now, about this blue flower we found this morning ... :)