Who's yer Pa?

Radicchio Treviso (Cichoirum intybus) blossom (looks like its ditch weed cousin, chickory; it's in the sunflower family)

As an Indiana fifth-grader, civic pride, or whatever it was, led our class to consider the term "Hoosier." One theory was that people from that state inevitably asked strangers about their origins, thus, "Who's your (fill in the blank relative)?" thus, Hoosiers. I am not sure about this, but my haughty fifth-grader self rebelled against it, mainly because it sounded so...country. Ma? Pa? Only on the Andy Griffith show.

But in the garden, the question often arises of "Who's yer cousin?" The flowers on the one finds today in the vegetable garden bear this out.

Here are two nightshade blossoms of the family Solanaceae :
Riesentraube tomato
Carola potato

And here are three from the family Umbelliferae :
Parsnips (I told you they were getting huge)
And finally, both fennel and Italian flat-leaf parsley.