In Variety, the Same Thing Only Different

Well, I've been out walking the cedar glads again. I find it incredible that these rocky places are so full of plant life that is so varied and so unique. As  I captured photo throughout last year, I noticed how many different flowers, but usually only only a few different one at a time.  Not everything blooms at once in a cedar glade.  This is very interesting and make sense.  The plants are in a competition for pollinators, and some probably have specific pollinators. That made me think of a about "Why Poor Places Are More Diverse"  by Minute Earth.


On my recent hikes, I happened across these "pretty little flowers".  I am not a botanist, so I did not know what they were.  I asked around, and found out that they are both leavenworthia stylosa. The top one is the white with yellow center form and the bottom one is the yellow form.  While both are found in glades in Middle Tennessee, I found did not find both colors in the same glade.  The white form I found at the Couchville Glade State Natural Area and the yellow form at the Mount View Cedar Glade State Natural Area.

These are the same plant, according to botanist, but with different pigmentation characteristics.  I find it interesting how these to populations only a few miles apart can be so isolated from each other that the colorations seem to be segregated.  I am sure someone could study this and probably prove me wrong, but I just thought the theory was worth positing.