Nigella from the Persian Jewels Mix #5
by J McCombie
Title
Nigella from the Persian Jewels Mix #5
Artist
J McCombie
Medium
Photograph - Untouched
Description
This piece has been featured in the FAA "Macro Photography Group".
One of the most interesting shaped flowers you will ever see, both for its 1.5 inch blooms and attractive fennel-like or threadlike foliage. Its delicate appearance belies its hardy, dependable nature. Each flower emerges from a tangle of lacy foliage. After blooming, curious looking fruits ripen, dry, and eventually release seeds for the next season.
Nigella damascena (love-in-a-mist, ragged lady or devil in the bush) is an annual garden flowering plant, belonging to the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. It is native to southern Europe (but adventive in more northern countries of 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 2050 cm (820 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.
This easily grown plant has been a familiar subject in English cottage gardens since Elizabethan times. It is now widely cultivated throughout the temperate world, and numerous cultivars have been developed for garden use. The most common variety is 'Miss Jekyll' which has blue flowers, but the more recent 'Persian Jewels' is a mixture of white, pink, lavender and blue flowers. 'Persian Rose' is pale pink. Other cultivars are 'Albion', 'Blue Midget', 'Cambridge Blue', 'Mulberry Rose', and 'Oxford Blue'. 'Dwarf Moody Blue' is around 15 cm (6 in) high. The white-flowered cultivar 'Miss Jekyll Alba' has gained the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
Botanical name: Nigella damascena 'Persian Jewel' Mix (Ranunculaceae). Other name: Persian Jewels, Wild Fennel, Nigella damascena, Devil-in-a-bush, Jack-in-the-green, Lady-in-the-bower. Description: This small to medium sized annual grows 15-24" high and up to a foot wide (if not crowded). Plants have finely cut, bright green leaves that resembles fennel leaves. Light green, lacy, finely divided threadlike bracts form the mist surrounding the jewel-like flowers. Flowers are usually bright blue to very pale blue. Each flower is 1 across, with 5 large, petal-like sepals and small, deeply divided petals hidden beneath the stamens. The flower is followed by attractive, balloon-shaped seedpod (actually an inflated capsule composed of 5 fused true seedpods) up to 2 long and green with purple or bronze stripes. Love-in-a-mist looks good in the garden even when the plant is not in bloom, with its handsome foliage and interesting seedpods after flowering. 'Persian Jewels' series is a mixture of shades of mauve, lavender, purple, rose, light blue and white double flowers. How to grow: Love-in-a-mist is very easy to grow. The plants do best in full sun in well drained, fertile soil. Sow the deep black, sharp-cornered seed about 535; deep where you want the plants to grow, as love-in-a-mist does not transplant well because of the plant's long taproot. Seeds should germinate within 2-3 weeks under most conditions. Begin sowing as soon as the soil can be worked in early spring. Seeds can be started indoors 4-6 weeks before transplanting outdoors, but they should be sown in individual peat pots and transplanted with care. Love-in-a-mist tolerates frost, so is primarily a spring and fall annual; it does not perform well in hot weather.
Uploaded
March 24th, 2016
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