Friday, April 30, 2010

Rain, hail and a mystery flower

Oh, it's FLOODY!!! We had a line of storms move through this afternoon. The first cell was brief but violent with hail and strong winds. We lost power for about an hour and a half. Fortunately, the hail was brief and not too big. It was probably pea sized with a few marbles thrown in for good measure. Nearby, only 2 miles away, they reported quarter sized hail.
About 3:30 (just in time for the children to be out of school and on the buses) the skies opened again and we had 1.35 inches of rain in about 30 minutes. Yowza!!
Flooded wetlands.
After the rain slowed down, V and I went out for a walk to look at the water. It was amazing. The water throughout all of the bottom land was probably 4 to 5 inches deep, even in the grass. I'm glad I had on my boots.
Look at all that water!
We walked all the way back to the South fence line. Look at what we found coming down the hill out of the woods:
A beautiful waterfall.
Unfortunately, it is causing erosion (grrr)
And now, I have a question for all of you flower/shrub/tree identifiers out there.
Any ideas?
It is about 3 feet tall at the moment and looks like either a woody shrub or a small tree. It has loose clusters of white tubular flowers on the undersides of the branches (not really fragrant). Alternate, oval leaves, lighter colored on the underside, not serrated edges.
We found two more of whatever it is, both slightly smaller. I can't find anything like it in my wildflower or tree identification guides or online. My first thought was honeysuckle but it's all wrong. Any help will be appreciated. Sorry I don't have better pictures of the flowers- my camera is refusing to focus well at close range now. sigh.
I have my permaculture class starting tomorrow morning. Fun. I'll keep you posted.

4 comments:

  1. The flowers resemble the olive tree blooms and the branches look like it too. The leaves of an olive tree (bush) are silvery green. Don't know if that's right or not. Maybe someone else knows?? We are supposed to get your thunderstorms tomorrow and Sunday. Rats - sure screws up the weekend.
    Have fun at your calss Tomorrow!! ...debbie

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  2. too bad you can't send some of that rain a little farther north where they need it so badly! Don't know about that shrub, those flowers almost honeysuckle-ish...lol, is that a word?

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  3. We got a bit of the hail here as well. Thank goodness for the rain! Our seeds can soak it up.

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  4. I'm at a loss and my books aren't helping me either. My first thought was honeysuckle too.

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