Originally native to Europe, the scarlet pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis) is one of the most common naturalized annuals in San Diego County. It is called "poor man's weatherglass" because the flowers supposedly close when rain is in the immediate forecast. The petals also fold up in late afternoon, not opening again until the following morning. This colorful little annual is very common throughout the coastal mountains and valleys, especially in disturbed areas where annual weeds often become established. This species was formerly placed in the primrose family (Primulaceae), but in the revised Jepson Manual of California Plants it is placed in the myrsine family (Myrsinaceae).

Many floras refer to the flower color as "salmon." According to Wikipedia, scarlet is a slightly orange-red color with the hexadecimal code of #FF2400: Perhaps the original person(s) who named this plant "scarlet pimpernel" had red color vision deficiencies.

The name "scarlet pimpernel" was widely popularized in the novel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, a young woman forced to flee her native Hungary because of fear of a peasant revolt against the ruling class. The story is set in the 18th century during the French Revolution. Her ficticious character was Sir Percy Blakeney, leader of a secret society of English aristocrats called the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel. As the Pimpernel, he rescues French aristocrats who have been condemned to death by the guillotine. Blakeney used the flower as his trademark when he siged his messages.

The scarlet pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis) was also Unknown #25 in the "keying out" laboratory exercises for my plant identification course (Botany 110) at Palomar College. This abundant plant was an excellent example of free central placentation. In the various floras I used, the plant was placed in the primrose family (Primulaceae). The corolla color was described as "salmon." Only once did I find a blue-flowered plant near the Palomar College campus.

PSD Image File	Original T-9	Cropped T-9	Uprezzed
Megapixels	6	4.3	12.4
Megabytes	17	12.2	35.4
Pixel Dimensions	2816 x 2112	2524 x 1688	4300 x 2876
Document Size Inches & DPI	39.1 x 29.3 x 72	35.0 x 23.4 x 72	14.3 x 9.5 x 300

	← Click PDF Icon To See Uprezzed 12.4 MP Image Click Here To Download Latest Acrobat Reader

Cropped From Above 72 dpi 4.3 MP Image (Figure 3) and slightly enlarged to the above dimensions.

Cropped From 300 dpi Perfect Resize Image and reduced in size to above dimensions.

The above images were both cropped to show only the androecium and gynoecium (male & female sex organs) of the blue pimpernel. The left image was cropped from the 4.3 megapixel 72 dpi image that was not uprezzed (Figure 3). In order to resize it to match the right image, it had to be enlarged slightly. The right image was uprezzed to a default 300 dpi "general photo printing" with Perfect Resize and then cropped. The bottom line here is that Perfect Resize definitely gives you a little more cropping room in a small sensor point-and-shoot camera (like the T-9) that only shoots relatively low resolution JPG images.

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Myrsinaceae: Flaxleaf Pimpernel (Anagallis monellii)

Flaxleaf pimpernel (Anagallis monellii), a perennial native to the Mediterranean region.

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