"Un"common fleabane daisy

Everywhere you look during these spring days, you will see the common fleabane daisy.  It grows anywhere it finds a bit of soil.  In the garden we think of it as a pest--popping up in places where we didn't intend, but along the roadside and strewn across wild meadows, the common fleabane is a delight to behold on a sunny spring day.

I recently attended a seminar on spring wildflowers taught by Dr. Ellen  McLaughlin at Samford.  We collected flowers along the roadside, which we then took into the lab to examine under the microscope.  I was amazed at the incredible diversity growing along sidewalks, parking lots and roadsides, most of which we completely ignore.  The microscope revealed how even the tiniest wildflower is uniquely beautiful.

One of the wildflowers we studied is the common fleabane daisy.  Each one of these one-inch daisies is really hundreds of flowers; each petal and each tiny section of its yellow center is a separate flower!  Under the microscope it was unbundantly clear that there is nothing "common" about this flower.

The following afternoon, after our tour through God's creekside garden, we took a looping ride through some of our favorite nearby meadows.  As we rode through a wooded path into a large hay field, we were greeted by thousands of fleabane daisies dancing in the gentle breeze. 

So often, what we think of as "common" is anything but common.   I am constantly humbled and amazed at the extraordinary beauty of God's creation.