Hi John:
Well, I've never been to Florida and my Brittain and Brown books are in storage right now, so take this with a grain of salt... the first one looks lilke a type of cranesbill - maybe Geranium cinereum, but I'm not sure. Could also be an Episcia, but I don't think so. The second one looks an awful lot like spotted knapweed (Centaurea stoebe), just opening out. Hope that helps some...
Mike.
Thank you very much for your time. The first ones didn't pan out, but thank you just the same.
The second one I think is real close. I only had one specimen to shoot, and as you pointed out the flower was just opening, and so it is hard to tell compared to the photos I have seen online since your input. The coloration of the fully-bloomed specimens of
Centaurea stoebe I have researched is spot-on. The buds, however, in almost all of the photos I've researched, are shaped differently though, as the photo below depicts:
In the above example of a Knapweed, the buds seem more oblong and egg-spaped than the photo I put up two posts ago (which seems longer and more purely cylindrical to my eye). Yet, again, the color and petals seem identical, as does the scalation.
I am going to keep researching
Centaurea stoebe, and I suppose I am going to have to order yet another flower field guide too (LOL).
Thank you again,
Jack
.