You may remember that, two Friday’s ago, I posted a shot from our yard of purple Turtlehead blossoms. I mentioned at the time that from my casual research that morning it looked like the tall purple, garden variety, Turtlehead might be a cultivar of the native, wild, white Turtlehead that grows right at the water’s edge in the eastern half of the US. A bit more research this morning shows that the tall purple-pink Turtlehead is actually a different species than the shorter white…and both are both native and wild in the eastern US.

In fact, since that first post, I have found the short white Turtlehead growing along two streams in York County, and I am sure it is more common than I thought. This specimen was right at the water’s edge along the Mousam River between Old Falls and Old Falls Pond. In the wild, it is not an easy plant to photograph, with its feet in the water on steep banks so to speak, and most often in deep shade.

Canon SX40HS. Program with iContrast and –1/3EV exposure compensation.  1240mm equivalent field of view (840mm optical plus 1.5x digital tel-converter function). f5.8 @ 1/200th @ ISO 500. Processed in Lightroom for intensity, clarity, and sharpness.