Photos: courtesy of plants.ces.ncsu.edu

As a treat for this holiday season, here is the official state flower of Rhode Island. This low growing herbaceous plant is common in lawns, disturbed forest edges and fields. The plant has heart-shaped, toothed basal leaves with long petioles. The irregular blue flowers are singular atop softly hairy flower stalks. The seed have food body appendages (eliosomes) that attract ants, who carry them back to their nests, remove the edible portion and then discard the seed in a nutrient-rich waste-pile.