I arrived early to Piney Woods Church Road, perhaps an hour after sunrise, before delivering a presentation on the Piney Woods Church Road Project to a Sunday interfaith group at Serenbe community here in Chattahoochee Hills. Along the verge near the intersection with Hutcheson Ferry Road, I glimpsed an unfamiliar pale-yellow wildflower with four petals. The petals were somewhat folded up; I assumed at the time that they were just opening. In fact, after an hour of scouring the field guides and internet, the flower turned out to be a cutleaf evening primrose (Oenothera laciniata), an early-blooming member of its genus that is common to waste places throughout the eastern United States. As the name suggests, its flower close during the day, opening fully only in the dark of night. Had I arrived at the roadside later in the day, I would have likely overlooked the closed flower altogether. Although some might consider it merely a weed, for me it was a gift of those early morning hours.
