Sunday, August 7, 2011

Velvet Flowers


I've never seen this flower before my visit to Monticello. It's called cockscomb, named due to its unusual flower-head which appears enlarged and flattened like a fan or cockscomb. According to his records, Thomas Jefferson started sowing cockscomb at Shadwell, his boyhood home, in 1767 and it still grows in his backyard today. It is such a weird-looking flower, but the bright magenta color of the bloom is so striking. Even from great distances, your eyes would be drawn to the cockscomb in the flower beds.

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