Can I name a plant ?

This beautiful plant is called Geum triflorum, its seed head is composed of tiny seeds and at some point, its sepals open to whispery plumes.

It is found in Canada and the US, widespread in prairies of Idaho, New York, Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, South Dakota, New Mexico, and Arizona.

From what I have read about it, this plant has many benefits, a favorite of several species of bees, it is also a source of forage for some animals. It's popular as an ornamental plant. It is also known to be used by Indigenous peoples of the Northwest Plateau for medicinal purposes; making infusions with the root to treat sore throats, canker sores, severe coughs, tuberculosis, and making it into a salve and applying it to wounds, rashes and blisters. They also make tea out of the whole plant to promote good health.

The Geum Triflorum, commonly known as Prairie Smoke for the wisps resembling smoke, is also called by many names depending upon which area they are found, some call it torch flower, old man's whiskers, grandfather's beard, long-plumed purple avens, lion's beard, Johnny-smokers, and three sisters.

So many names for this beautiful and amazing plant, and yet I would add one more, I would call it the Cotton Candy plant...because it looks like one ☺

BlueGreenGrey · M

a favorite of several species of bees

This alone makes it extremely invaluable, our pollinators need all the help they can get, especially wild bumblebees that may have to compete with non-native honeybees for resources and thus be threatened. Replace your grass lawns with things like this people, update the covenants of your HOA's to work with nature if necessary!

Cotton candy was indeed the first thing I thought of before I ever got close to your closing line, it does very much resemble this and embodies whimsy in addition to being pretty and beneficial, pleasing via multiple pathways!

Thank you for sharing this wonderful nature and botany post 😊

LilMissAnonyMOUSE · F

@BlueGreenGrey I agree with you on all points. You know, a wise man once said that humans are the worst to have lived on planet Earth. It's a fact. In the short span of time humans have existed on earth( a mere 300 thousand years compared to the dinosaurs that lived for 165 million years), we have caused more destruction to this planet than any other being to have lived here. Those who destroy do not see farther than their own backyard, they have no vision of the world as a whole, nor care what impact their destruction has for the present and future of Earth.

Manicured lawns are done for aesthetic reasons while ignoring that they are a waste of land and a waste of impressionable amounts of water to maintain them. Can we even calculate how much that is year after year?

Overfishing and catching immature fish and crustaceans is an absolute stupidity, so is wondering why there are fewer of them to catch.

Industries are those who most use up water for livestock and aquaculture, and chemical plants release toxic chemicals on rivers and again, we wonder why our water is contaminated.

We produce millions of tons of trash daily around the world, unable to keep up with recycling them, so many of them are burned, releasing toxins in the atmosphere and we wonder why respiratory disease is killing so many. Rain clouds absorb these toxins and they rain down on us.

All the plastic that ends up in the seas is killing sea animals, and guess where some of those plastic materials end up? Our stomachs as well.What goes around, comes around.

We humans have much yet to learn about sustainability and progress without putting our world in danger.

On a lighter note, ''Dulciola mousicus'' is another wonderful name for this multi-named plant😄

BlueGreenGrey · M

@LilMissAnonyMOUSE then Dulciola mousicus it must be (or another if you prefer), I shall petition the International Botanical Congress in due haste to make it official 😄