Love in a Mist

by Rob Hemphill

Title

Love in a Mist

Artist

Rob Hemphill

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

Nigella damascena, or Love-in-a-mist, is an annual garden flowering plant, belonging to the buttercup family. Also called ragged lady or devil in the bush it belongs to the buttercup family Ranunculaceae.

It's native to southern Europe, north Africa and southwest Asia, where it is found on neglected, damp patches of land.

The specific epithet damascena relates to Damascus in Syria. The plant's common name comes from the flower being nestled in a ring of multifid, lacy bracts.

It grows to 20–50 cm (8–20 in) tall, with pinnately divided, thread-like, alternate leaves. The flowers, blooming in early summer, are most commonly different shades of blue, but can be white, pink, or pale purple, with 5 to 25 sepals. The actual petals are located at the base of the stamens and are minute and clawed. The sepals are the only colored part of the perianth. The four to five carpels of the compound pistil have each an erect style.

The fruit is a large and inflated capsule, growing from a compound ovary, and is composed of several united follicles, each containing numerous seeds. This is rather exceptional for a member of the buttercup family. The capsule becomes brown in late summer. The plant self-seeds, growing on the same spot year after year.

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Featured in the following FAA Groups:

"ABC Group" 11/02/2022
"Monthly Theme and Artist Promotion Group" 04/11/2020
"Floral Photography and Art" 12/13/2019
"Macro Marvels" 11/05/2019
"Global Flowers Photography" 11/13/2019

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Uploaded

August 24th, 2011

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