While hiking the nearby natural prairie on Thursday evening, I ran across a patch of Blue-eyed Mary wildflowers (Collinsia verna) growing along the edge of the woods. Here are a few images I captured:
The Blue-eyed Mary wildflowers are in the figwort family. Small and dainty, they grow to about 15-inches high. The flowers grow with their upper lobes white and their lower lobes blue. Often, this wildflower is grown in humus-rich gardens, where it self-seeds readily.
This was my first trip to the prairie for a while and I found many wildflower plants emerging, with some even blooming! The controlled burn that the state conservation group conducted over the winter has severely cut back the amount of invasive plants (particularly, sumac) and it looks like this is going to be a banner year for prairie wildflowers in the burned area!
Photographic Equipment Used:
- Canon 5D Mark 3 body
- Canon EF 180mm, f/3.5 macro lens
- Bogen 3221 tripod, with Graf Studioball ballhead
- ISO 500
- Aperture f/3.5
- Shutter 1/500 sec.