STAR FLOWER IS BLOOMING

UNSETTLED WEATHER 

STAR FLOWER, 5 TO 9 PETALS...

...SMALL, DELICATE. 2 OR 3 FLOWERS PER STEM 

Friday, 8:00 AM.  51 degrees F at the ferry dock, 54 on the back porch. The sky has a high overcast and lower dark clouds that are moving in from the west.  Wind light, mostly westerly.  The humidity is 95% and there has been a trace of rain.  The barometer is rising, now standing at 29.87".
   Several large, raucous flocks of returning geese flew over this morning, and we heard more that we did not see.
   Our Texas daughter-in-law and granddaughter are flying in today to spend a few days with us; we are elated.
   Star flower, Trientalis borealis, in the Primrose Family, is a diminutive, white-flowered, rhizomatous perennial native to most of Canada and the upper Midwest around the Great Lakes, and south in the mountains of the eastern and western US. Its habitat is the rich soil of moist woodlands and adjacent areas.  It is not a plant that stands out, but once observed it is interesting and unique, the small flowers having five to nine petals, unified at the base, and five to nine leaves in a whorl at the top of an erect, wiry stem.
   The Latin genus name refers to the small stature of the plant, "one-third of a foot," and the species name to its northern geography.  True to its name, the plant is only four to eight inches in height.  It blooms in mid to late spring.