365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Saturday, October 24, 2015
Penny Perspectives: Shepherd's Purse
Day 11: Here's another plant most everyone will recognize, although if asked to name it, they would scratch their heads and say, "I don't think I've ever heard what it's called." It's Shepherd's Purse, so named for the heart-shaped, mildly peppery seed pods which many of us ate as children. In fact, it makes a pleasant garnish for a green salad. A member of the Mustard family, it carries a hefty chunk of Latin for all of its diminutive size: Capsella bursa-pastoris, and its distribution is almost world-wide, giving it a reputation as a "weed," if not a particularly invasive one. You will find it growing on disturbed land (this specimen is in my driveway).
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