My favourite flowers, because they make me smile, are little mauve flowers about 1-2mm across. They are like snapdragons, but tiny. The leaves are either round-tipped or pointy tipped (there seem to be two varieties at least near where I live) and have five or seven lobes, I think, looking a little like Ivy, but they, again, are between 2mm and 5mm across, or occaionally slightly larger.
These little flowers, which one has to stop and get close to to even see their loveliness, grow on stone walls, between the cracks.

I am hoping someone somewhere knows what they are called!

Hi Adrienne, Its rather hard to make a guess without a pic, but the first that came to mind is one that makes me think of a tiny snapdragon too - the Torenia or wishbone flower. Here are a couple of links for you to have a look and see if this is what you are asking about.

Torenia seed source

Torenia profile

Hummm,,, here's another thought..
the annual Lobelia?

Lobelia photos

Lobelia profile

How about Toadflax, aka Linaria? I haven't grown them in awhile so I don't remember the leaf shape.

Thank you for your replies.
I think, Maggie, that the Torenia sounds like it needs too much soil, since the flowers I've seen grow from small cracks in a stone wall, not from a pot of soil. They seem to need little more than mosses do to get going. The Lobelia photo at http://www.thewildrose.net/images/lobelia.jpg did look very like it, but I have never seen my little snapdragons in such lush clusters; I think they grow more singly on a stem.
Without a pic, Mamakane, I can't comment on the Toadflax, though the name sounds likely. But I don't think anyone grows my tiny snapdragons deliberately, they're probably what people call "weeds". I love weeds.
Is there a way I can upload a picture here? I could go an take a snap if I can load it onto the site.
Thanks again for your help.
Adrienne

Good one MK.

Your comment about them being considered weeds in your local, tells me you are not in my region Adrienne. What part of the world are you in?

To upload a pic, you would need to size the image to around 25-30 bytes, and file it in your downloads.

Following any text in your posting, type…
\image immediately followed by {with pic description in curley brackets}
Then hit the post button
It will show you a preview of your posting, that can be edited
When satisfied, hit the post button again.
This opens up your files, so just click on the pic file and hit upload button.
wa la
(plus there are directions in other lingo for posting images under 'Getting Started' on the navi bar to the left over there.)

could it be skullcap?

Sorry to take so long to reply.
I have managed to take a picture and am going to try to upload it. I've tried to make it as small as possible, so the quality is a little compromised. The finger in the bottom left is the tip of my forefinger, included for scale. The tiny snapdragon grows, as they all do, as a single flower from the junction of the main stem and a leaf. So the lobelia looked similar, but certainly my tiny snapdragons don't grow in groups like that on one flower head.
I had to go back and look though, so your contributions, folks, are vastly improvoing my powers of observation.

I do hope someone can recognise these little flowers now. In answer to Gail's question, about a fortnight ago now, I don't know if it's a skullcap, but I hope the picture helps decide that. And in answer to Maggie's query, I'm in the south of England, Hastings: it seems to me that lots of things are thought of as weeks here, inlcuding sycamore trees and rhododendron bushes - beautiful, if somewhat successful, plants.

So now I'll try the picture code:



Thank you all for your help and interest,

Adrienne.

Congratulations on getting the pic posted Adrienne! Many before you have tried and failed - present company included

That wee plant really is an anomaly isn't it? It has leaves that resemble a number of plants and a lipped flower that looks like it belongs to many others. I kept thinking of how it grew like the creeping campanulas,, so checked to see if that was a possibility. Did find one with very sim foliage, but of course it had the typical bell/cup bloom instead a tiny snapper. Also, the leaves make me think of scented and herbaceous geraniums - but didn't find pic of any with a lobed bloom.

I wonder if any of your neighbors know of a common name for it, which we could follow up on?

Hope you don't mind, but I couldn't help noticing how you hit a 'd' instead of 'k' in the weed word. I esp noticed because I have a d/k keyboard dyslexia and wondered if you too are plagued by it, or maybe yours was just a one off,, like I wish mine woulk be ;-)

No apologies needed for liking weeds, ,, we all have favorite ones too. And I am always so pleased to see Texas native plants, which we grow in our Tx gardens, being tenderly cultivated outside of the US, particularly in the UK. Gailardias, Bluebonnets and Yuccas come to mind.

I'm wondering if your little flower friend would be one known to Alpine/rock garden growers. That might be another source lead. Plus, I'll ask our Brit forum friends to come have a look at your pic.

Hi Maggie,
So the tiny snapdragon investigation isn't yet over!
Thanks for your quick reply. I never really notice who the gardeners are locally, but of course, I should ask them! Good idea. So I'll try to become alert to likely candidates.
I don't know the Gailardias or Bluebonnets - though I may have seen them without knowing - but Yuccas are very popular over here as potted house plants.
And I'm afraid I don't have a k/d dyslexia, I just bashed it out too quickly and then read over it too quickly. Those letters are almost symmetrically opposite on the keyboard though, I'd have thought it an easy typo to make. I'm capable of many more different styles of typos, I'm afraid! Quite a dab hand.
But I am glad you could read it, because I did notice after I'd posted it.

Thanks again for the detective work.

Adrienne.

what a precious flower! Please be sure and let us know what it is if the locals have info! Not a skullcap, for sure.

MK was spot on, it's Toadflax. I have one or two in my garden as deliberate weed plantings. Borderline hardy for me in the North of England.

Ahem, Maggie, was this the wallflower?? cough cough

I meant it generically, , as in that it grows in walls, Harrumph
oxoxo

MK’s guess sounded good to me too, in the flower account – before we saw the pic. The ‘toadflax’ around here also has tiny lobed snapper flowers, but grows upright and has very diff leaves. So I thought MK was on to it until I read Adrienne’s foliage description again.

Trust you to suss it for us. Have a Latin for it? I can’t find anything that looks like it under the Linaria genus of our toadflax wildflower.

We too have the upright Linaria types, but this one is Ivy Leaved Toadflax and is Cymbalaria muralis. Flowers April to November so well worth finding a spot for.

Well, thank you Terry.

Ivy-leafed is certainly a good description of the leaves, because I often mistake small ivy leaves with it at first when looking for it.

I'm thrilled to have my mystery flower named, and to know that someone somewhere else cares for it. I think they're really beautiful flowers because they're so understated, and though its delightful to have the official latin name, I still like "Tiny Snapdragons" too though.

Thanks to everyone, and I do feel chuffed to have identified my little friend.

Adrienne.