Location Taken: Ontario, Canada
Time Taken: June 2010
There’s always something special about seeing a flower you’re used to seeing in gardens growing in its natural habitat.
In this case, this seems to be a lovely wild phlox. It’s one of the flowers my mom grows in her garden, and one of the very few I can both identify AND name! It’s the fun spelling, actually. I like words that have either “ph” or “x” in them, and this has both!
This particular plant was just hanging out near a waterfall in an unpopulated region in western Ontario, a land full of pine trees and fantastic rocks. There’s a slight possibility this phlox species was introduced when the small visitor’s parking lot was put in place, but it’s also native to the area and this particular plant was placed by the hand of nature, not man.
Non-native plants seem to always clash just a little with the local greenery, in some subtle way, while native plants blend in just fine, no matter how gaudy they actually are. Maybe it’s just my imagination, or perhaps plants do best if they’re the same tone of green as their neighbors. I don’t know enough botany to be definitive on the subject.
But that subtle fitting in is what makes native flowers just that bit more special. They’re both beautiful and harmonious with their surroundings, creating a gorgeous scene to enjoy.
