The one thing that I learned from travelling to any new places is to keep looking for every little things around. Exploring the places always introduce us to so many new things. I get so habitual with this wandering habit that, Now I even keep looking for everything in my normal day to day walk. And there is no harm in doing that, as I was introduced to this little furry natural beautiful flower in my rice field.
Commonly known as Pink node flower It is one of the common weed species found in India, Nepal, Myanmar. It's botanical name is Caesulia axillaris.
Caesulia is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the aster family, Asteraceae
This one is the any plant that grown in the field, but enough to pull my attention. It was not less than a charming little beauty having such a look to make you look out for it.
Pink Node Flower is found in moist places common in rice fields, this is where I found it. It grown straight with very thin stem while the flowers were grown at "nodes". The flower is quite furry and dense. It may appears to be a cotton bushes that can shed away with the blow of air. But it was not so. It holds on to the stem tight nicely and that makes it more attractive. The stem is usually appearance to be Red. There were fewer leaves around the stem. Here are more of the picture of my finding.
On a closer look, you will notice little lobes of mini flowers that makes it look so dense. There is no fragrance, but the looks is simply awesome.
Each flower is framed by two opposite bracts. The stamens form an upright spindle that is much longer than the corolla. It is purple-black in color, with the white pistil at its centre.
There is not much details available on the internet about this flower. At one place it is referred to be related as herbs and used in ayurveda. It is said that it has anti fungal properties and also useful in digesting foods. Not sure how effective are these but, the farmers in my village consider them as weeds and remove them easily.
Hope you enjoy this amazing natural beauty. I have seen this first time in so many years.
@steemflow