Bright Red



Lobélie du cardinal

I have been waiting for this one to bloom for a while.  I first saw it in a book last year and could not believe that this flower could be found growing wild, it's just too beautiful.  Image my surprise when I found it, last August, on the path I follow along la rivière des Mille Iles almost every day.  I took pictures, of course, but they did not turn out very well so I had to wait until now to get a decent one.  La lobélie du cardinal is one of our most magnificent indigenous flowers.  It was brought back to France by the discoverers of America to show the beauties of the New World. Some say that it got its name because the members of the Catholic Church liked it.  There is no other flower with that pure red color in Quebec. 
The little whitish dot at the top of the flower is not a drop of water but the anthers, part of the stamen which is the male part of the flower and, that was my little botanical lecture.