False Flowers.

The yin and yang of collinsia heterophylla.

Purple Chinese houses
Standing in a row,
Centers bright aglow,
Ordered high to low.
Purple Chinese houses.

Blue-eyed Marys
Dancing in the breeze,
Waving at the trees,
Flirting with the bees.
Blue-eyed Marys.

Now, if I do say so myself, this would have been a pretty neat post all on its own, without any further comment from me. Problem is, the photo doesn’t depict collinsia heterophylla. It’s a beauty, but it’s no blue-eyed Mary. Nor is it purple Chinese houses.

I know this because I follow an exceptional NorCal blog called Redheaded Blackbelt, and Kym over there has been photographing real, actual collinsia heterophylla. In fact, her photographs inspired this post, which I had intended to put up yesterday. Instead, when I reviewed the photos over at her place, I realized that I didn’t have the same flower. So I went with my post on Why The Gulf Is Oil instead.

Imagine my surprise to discover this morning that the Redheaded Blackbelt herself had linked to my blog as one that she thought was kind of nifty.

Well, I think that’s nifty. Thanks for the shout-out, Kym.

Incidentally, in the time between now and whenever someone out there is able to identify the flower in my photo, I’m going to call this beauty a blue-haired Jenny. Take that, blue-eyed Mary!