I stopped by the reservoir at White Park yesterday to photograph the rose mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos), sometimes referred to as swamp rose-mallow, which is now at peak bloom. This is a healthy and vigorous wetlands community visited by great blue and little green herons, kingfishers, a variety of ducks, and the occasional osprey - all the more remarkable because it’s within walking distance of downtown Morgantown. Anyway, the rose mallow was fabulously beautiful in its various shades of crimson red, pink, and white, and the hollow Joe Pye weed (Eutrochium fistulosum) was equally impressive, presiding over its wetlands kingdom with the massive lavender crowns of true kings.
From top: rose mallow, whose flowers display high variability in color and petal sizes/orientations (although some specimens may be hybrid escapees, this plant nonetheless possesses some wild genetic impulses); wild mint (Mentha arvensis), a cosmopolitan mint with a strong flavor and an affinity for wetlands; Allegheny monkeyflower (Mimulus ringens), a whimsical perennial that forms dense stands in swamps and along streambanks; seedbox (Ludwigia alternifolia), so named because of the four-sided shape of its seed capsules; and without further adieu, a true king bowed under the weight of its elegant crown.
