Prairie Smoke

When I see Hoary Puccoon, robust, golden-orange relative of the Forget-Me-Not, I start looking for patches of raspberry-red in the grass, because Prairie Smoke is probably not too far away. Though it’s a member of the rose family, it doesn’t resemble many of its typical rose-like relatives. The flowers are more like strange, three-dimensional stars, bell-like in how they dangle, but as they go to seed, they straighten upward and open up, revealing long, wispy seedheads that dance in the breeze—the smoke on the prairie.