thimbleweed, Anemone cylindrica

Ever sit down with an old acquaintance and listen carefully? Then feel like you really know them for the first time? That's kind of how I feel about this shot. I never really found the full measure of thimbleweed until now. The purple tips were a look-close surprise. This thimbleweed is a modest plant, not often reaching its potential height of three feet. The ones in this population hardly got to a third of that. None had more than one or two flowers, on long naked stems that accounted for much of that height. The thimble of purple-pointed pistils turns into a longer seed head that in the end reveals a fuzzy mass of wind-carried seeds. Some have discovered other potential here. The Ponca saw this as a fuzzy good luck charm. The Meskwaki felt that something here is good medicine for crazy people. This thimbleweed grows in fens. prairies and other windy openings in AZ, CO, CT, IA, ID, IL, IN, KS, MA, ME, MI, MN, MO, MT, ND, NE, NH, NJ, NM, NY, OH, PA, RI, SD, VT, WI, WY, AB, BC, MB, ON, QC, and SK. Goose Creek Grasslands Preserve, Lenawee Co MI, 6/24.22. Buttercup family, Ranunculaceae.