Love-in-a-mist flowers

This is a project I stumbled into this summer without a plan.
The evolution of a most unusual flower.

I had never heard of this flower, Love-in-a-mist. I was photographing at the Denver Botanic Garden early one morning and came across what appeared to be a group of pods, with the incredible spikes curled up around them. I was so intrigued. The tops and thorny spikes immediately made me think of medieval soldiers ready for battle with the spiky crowns. They were standing tall and straight facing the rising sun. I spent the next hour photographing them, not knowing what they were.

Love-in-a-mist seed pod.

As I reluctantly moved on, having shot from every angle possible, I came across more just down the path. Within this bunch were these beautiful white blooms with their pointed petals and twisted stamen. And just below the petals were those spiky thorns. This was all the same flower!

Single bloom of live-in-a-mist.

Using my trusty visual plant look up feature on my iPhone (see the Visual Lookup post for how to use this feature) I discovered the name, more photos, and more info about this flower. It’s common name "love-in-a-mist" is because of the tangle of ferny, fennel-like foliage that forms a mist around the flowers. As it turns out, the pods are filled with a rich black seed that fall and reseed themselves. I went back a couple more mornings, to capture more changes.

I can’t say which photos I like better, the bloom or the pod! I’m currently processing these photos and choosing some favorites to make available as prints in the print store.

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