A Bog to Blog About

Our home sits on a plot of land that is almost but not quite 3 acres. Not big enough to be considered an estate , not small enough to be tract housing. At the back of property is a designated wetlands area, there a small creek runs through our lot dividing it. On maps this small creek is called Cow Pen Creek. Exactly who's cow pen ? We don't know, would be nice though..."Houdini's Cow Pen Creek", most appropriate for our bouts of scant then ample rain fall; now you see it, now you don't !

Deep in this more secluded wetlands is a small pond and, amazingly, a cornucopia of discoveries and delights. The other day I came across yet another mystery plant, again have no idea what it is, have never seen anything like it before.

Gene, our son-in-law, runs a lawn and yard maintenance service and is also a "Cracker" which is a colloquialism for a native Floridian, one born and raised in Florida. Cracker refers back to the days when Florida cowboys used long bull whips that were snapped violently, producing an ear splitting 'crack'. Usually the loud crack of the whip was sufficient to keep their herd of steer heading in the right direction. We thought with Gene's background, there was a good chance he would know what the plant was, but he looked at it, shrugged and called it a weed. Perhaps it is just a weed , however I love the little snowball flowers, obviously so do a species of little black shield bugs or beetles, as they were all over the plant, the bugs I could do without.


Usually plants that attract such bugs would have an offensive odor, not the case here, the blooms have a faintly sweet, pleasant scent and they do look rather pretty in a bouquet.






Photo below shows a bloom just before all the individual blossoms open.