You're Umbel ievable!

I'm sitting here tonight getting a first taste of my most recent home brew, this one is a rauchbier, a German style of beer characterized by smoky notes.  I smoked two types of malt barley (Hordeum spp.) on my parents' smoker for about 5 hours, this mimics the way malts were once dried over a wood fire for use in brewing.  I used alder (Alnus spp.) wood chips to smoke, boiled a wort of malt, hops (Humulus spp.), even added some Irish Moss (Chondrus crispus), a type of seaweed which acts as a clarifying agent for brewing.  Let it sit, add some corn (Zea mays) sugar and bottled it up.  Anyways, a side hobby I enjoy tinkering with.

I'm going through some photos from awhile back and saw a few wildflowers which share a complex and distinct form of flowering part, an umbel.  Michigan Flora Online defines an umbel as:

"An inflorescence in which the pedicels arise from the same point or nearly so; in a compound umbel, each primary ray bears an umbellet."

Think fireworks on the end of a stem.  Onions, carrots, milkweeds, ginsengs...

A good example of an umbel(s) are the flowers of Yellow Pimpernel (Taenidia integerrima) a relatively uncommon species here in Ontario and a member of the Apiaceae (Carrot) family.  It can be found in sandy or rocky savannahs, woodlands or forests, in my experience you're likely to find it on a slope, probably a south-facing one.  When I see Yellow Pimpernel I always like to start looking a little closer, it's just one of those plants that tends to be accompanied by other goodies.  The plants in the photo below (not quite showing their pale yellow petals) were found growing at the Reid Conservation Area a couple of years back.  As I recall, a nice patch of Pale Vetchling (Lathyrus ochroleucus), which shares the same habitat was located nearby.  Reid Tract is a great spot to explore!

A very common example of a compound umbel, also in the carrot family, would be Wild Carrot (Daucus carota).  Basically the umbels have umbels.

While in the Lambton Shores area in 2012 I came across this hard-to-miss plant growing on a roadside beyond the reach of the mower.  Almost more flower than leaf, this is Carrion-flower (Smilax lasioneura).  Fortunately this young plant was a couple months from producing the fragrant berries from which it derives its name.

I'm heading to Windsor on Friday for work and if the weather is nice I hope to check out some favourite spots.  One of my favourite spots is home to maybe 4 of the 6 or so (known) Tall Green Milkweed (Asclepias hirtella) in Ontario.  If ever I could somehow get a photo of my facial expression I think it would be the day I looked at this plant kind of squinty-eyed, head tilted, mouth half open mouthing the words "No".  Needless to say it was a good day.  Almost equally as humourous to me was Paul Pratt's reaction that afternoon when I stopped by the Nature Centre to show him the tiny image on my SLR screen, he said in an calm but inquisitive voice "Huh, where did you find that?".  I like Reid Tract but I love the Ojibway Prairie Complex. 

Check out that umbel!