The three-flowered avens is one of those lucky plants known by several common names, including prairie smoke and, yes, old man’s whiskers. The hardy perennial blooms across North American prairies in the springtime, setting off purple-tinged, closed bell-shaped buds that hang downward in clumps of three. After bees go to work pollinating the buds, the fertilized flowers open and turn skyward transforming their pistils into soft swirling tendrils that are said to resemble an old man’s whiskers. Take a good look at our image and decide if that’s what comes to mind for you. As summer marches on, the plants continue their spectacular show as the fuzzy seed heads take on a pink-tinged cast resembling low-lying prairie smoke.
Suggested reading and viewing by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times
Charles Darwin: An Epiphany for the Muslims, A Catastrophe for the Christians
Photosynthesis: deserving of our awe or ridicule?
Allah the Creator, the Maker and the Fashioner: The Best Documentary on Birds
The anesthesia of familiarity: There should be a Creator of Our Universe
The Beauty and the GPS of the Birds and the Quran
Ten Raised to Five Hundred Reasons for Our Gracious God
A challenge for Dawkins: Where did carbon come from?
Plain Water will Tell you the Story
Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape The Universe by Martin Rees
The Goldilocks Enigma: Why Is the Universe Just Right for Life? by Paul Davies
The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences
Twelve Famous Scientists On The Possibility Of God
Categories: Abrahamic faiths, Deism, Monotheism