Late blooming, end of October

Late blooming, end of October, Brassica family

 

Lobularia maritima, a purple-flowered cultivar.

 

While sorting a link you beat me to it Michael!


http://www.google.com/search?q=Lobu...urce=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=mH-hUJyXAuOy0QWv6YHgAQ

 

Thank you

 

Smells somewhat like honey.

 

Smells very like honey ;-)

 

I have to go and smell:-)

 

Oh, no wonder it looks like Sweet Alyssum - it is that. What's it doing blooming at the end of October? And how did Nadia know it was in the Brassicaceae family without knowing what it was??

 

It looks like Brassicaceae family and nothing else.At least 4 petals. The structure of the flowers is extremely uniform throughout the family. (from wikipedia) I can see this family but I don't know flowers by name

 

That's normal; it carries on flowering until the first hard frosts. Here's the white-flowered type still in full flower today (14 Nov) here:

 

There are still insects looking for food at this time of the year. They are still active, although slow. Mother Nature don't want to starve them. Even here in the Kootenays I still have flowers blooming despite many frosts and snow. Alyssum is one of them. Violas, Asters keep them company. Even my Veronica Spicata was still in bloom before snow covered it two days ago.

 

Brassiceae are characterized by four petals, not "at least" four petals.

 

I mean, that at least we can see right away 4 petals, I don't know other things like how many stamens(six stamens, four of which are longer), how many sepals(four free saccate sepals) and etc.I just copied this info and would as always forget it. But at least I remember 4 petals and to me flowers of this family are very easy to recognize and very difficult to distinguish:)

 

Can be seen flowering most of the year in Seattle.