Saturday, September 24, 2011

Red Samphire: Fleshy Marsh Fingers

Reaching towards you from the dark lagoon... © SB 

From a distance, these segmented plants look like bright pink or red strips of shag carpet along dry marshes and sloughs. Close-up, these prairie wildflowers look like vibrant fleshy fingers.

Apparently they flower in late July and August — a factiod that likely falls into the "but who can tell???" category, because as Vance/Jowsey explain it, the flowers are minuscule and inside a scale-like calyx that's sunk into the succulent red stem.

Low red carpets in a dried slough. © SB

Prairie Wildflower: Red Samphire (Salicornia rubra A. Nels.)   
Location:  A dry slough in the Qu'Appelle Valley, somewhere east of Buffalo Pound Provincial Park, west of Regina, Saskatchewan.  
Photo Date: September 24, 2011 — a wonderfully unseasonable hot (33C!) day. 

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