Touch-me-nots

A watercolor painting of wildflowers, touch-me-nots

The creek which cut across the corner of my childhood farm was an enchanting place to play. In early summer, touch-me-nots sprang up along its banks. The watery stems of the wildflowers grew so rapidly that in no time at all they were three feet high, festooned with orange trumpets. As you can see in the watercolor painting, the spotted trumpets, an inch long, dangle from thread-like stems.

Equalling the wonder of how such exquisitely formed trumpets can unfold from the end of a thread...is the wonder of how delicate wildflowers can activate such powerful "canons." Triggered by the slightest touch, the narrow strips forming the seed pod roll up with lightning speed, expelling seeds like bullets!!

Blooming in late summer, the orange wildflowers depicted in the watercolor painting provide a source of "fuel" for hummingbirds migrating southward. .

One summer, the halfway point of my morning walks was a tiny creek along whose banks grew touch-me-nots, and....as I did when a child....I triggered the seed pods!

Although you can't explode the seed pods in the watercolor painting, I hope their graceful forms will enhance some nook in your home.