Identify wildflower?

[Dan Hartung]

We have some lovely volunteers in a driveway/sidewalk crack. Twice we've tried to transplant without success. We have two more specimens we've left alone but they're in a vulnerable area.

The plant grows handily out of concrete cracks among many less-desirable weeds. We're in unglaciated S Wisconsin.

It has a lavender or violet flower that is presently in bloom. The maximum height of any specimen we have is about 12". The leaves are unlike anything I can find in any references, online or in print. They resemble the toothed geranium leaf, but they have three distinct fingers or lobes each with teeth only at the end.

Anyway, having this knowledge, any tips on getting the survivors to safe ground?

[Cereus-validus]

What knowledge? Your description is inadequate for identification. A picture would be more informative.

[Ron Hardin]

Get Newcomb's Wildflower Guide.

It's entered on petal count and leaf geometry, so remember those if you can't get the guide instantly.

[Pen]

A picture's worth a thousand words. There's too many possibilities...

I can spend all day guessing but I was just thinking of bird's foot violets (Viola pedata). It loves gravely soils and it's almost impossible to transplant once established. Here's some images:

is also a close relative (Viola pedatifida):

[Dan Hartung]

I am sorry my description was inadequate. Surely my expectation of a gracious reply and a little bit of guesswork was out of place in such a newsgroup as this. Perhaps a small sketch will assist you, since you are such a Cereus soul.

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[Cereus-validus]

Your sarcasm does not compensate for your not providing adequate info for identification. A much more thorough description of the flowering parts and foliage is a necessity for one to even make the most rudimentary guess as to the plant's identity. Consider what info you yourself would need to be able to correctly identify it. A vague description of the leaves alone just is not enough.

[Dan Hartung]

Tell me about it!

With the help of an elderly lady on the block, we seem to have a winner, though -- an obscure variety of hibiscus. I always thought the leaves were fatter, more like strawberry leaves, or the Girl Scout logo. (Okay, the 'laevis' Hibiscus comes closest to what I know.)

The one we have is somewhere in-between the 'wild hibiscus' and the ha-ha-only-serious 'hibiscus cannabinensis':

lobes we have are much more like -- oh, try this image of a "true" Maltese Cross, where the fingers radiate outward and there are indentations at the ends of the fingers: ... it looks more like a garden escapee, now, than a native wildflower. But boy, is it plucky (judging by where it's decided to grow).