A jewel among weeds

Back when I lived in upstate New York in the 80's, I ran a bird banding migration station, and I had a friend, Lois Bingley, that would come out to help me monitor the 16 mist nets that I had set up on a ten acre section of land along Owego Creek that I owned. Lois was originally from Nova Scotia and besides being a great friend, knew a lot about wild flowers and plants. She told me about the jewel weed plant that she had grown up with in the wilds of Nova Scotia. It was also present on the ten acres.

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Jewel weed also grows in this part of Missouri. This morning, Bryce (Pam and Kirk Wood's grandson) brought me a jewel weed flower to ask if I knew what it was. I'm not real good on plants, but I remembered this one from Lois and New York.

The jewel weed has a really pretty flower. I told Bryce it's name and also told him that the result of this flowering plant was a pod that was shaped like a small pea pod that would explode in his hand if he pressed on it. It is the way that this plant expels its seeds for propagation.

He immediately ran off to see if he could find some of the pods. He was successful! I think maybe he will remember this little lesson, and if not, he surely enjoyed how these seed pods exploded in his hand. It's nice to pass some exciting outdoor knowledge on...........

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Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy