Norway Norwegen Norge

Taken with Olympus E500 digital camera on July 28th, 2007. Click picture for larger view.

The fireweed, also known as Rosebay Willowherb in Britain, (Epilobium angustifolium) have started to flower so I had to take photos of them.
They are very nice to look at, but I have some mixed feelings about fireweed. The reason for this is that they start to flower late in the summer. Some weeks later they will produce millions upon millions of seeds (80,000 per plant!) that have white silky hairs and can be carried with the wind. It often looks like it’s snowing if there are lots of fireweed growing in the area. For me this is a clear sign of autumn and I would like the summer to last a bit longer 🙂

I looked up fireweed on Wikipedia and I had no idea that it could be used for food. Native Americans collects young shoots and mix them with other greens. They also use it for medicine.
Have anyone tasted fireweed? Would be cool to try it in a salad.

Information about the picture:
Camera: Olympus E-500 digital SLR camera
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1250)
Aperture: f/3.5
Focal Length: 35 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Lens: Olympus Zuiko Digital 35mm F3.5 Macro
Location: Laupstad (Andørja), Troms in northern Norway