From the blogs: The IKEA Maskros Chandelier

The Design Ties blog is writing about the popular lamp from IKEA that was inspired by a dandelion ('maskros' in Swedish) in fruit, with all the little feathery parasols ready to blow off.  Click on this link to the blog, and check out the various photos.  Pretty nice!

[Species: Dandelion, Taraxacum officinale, Asteraceae]

Interior design: Cow Parsley wallpaper by Vanillaprint

Cow parsley is a weed of Europe, and much loved (at least in Sweden) for its detailed, airy white flower heads in early June. By late fall the fruits are still standing on the dry stalks and they often last partly through the winter. 

It is in the same family as the American Queen Anne's lace (Daucus carota), which is the same species as carrot.

The interior design company Vanillawood in Portland, Oregon, USA, made a wallpaper featuring this species.  It comes in many colors, take a look here. Lovely pattern!

I don't know how or why this company settled on this species, but cow parsley is becoming an invasive weed here in the US. It is classified as a "Class B noxious weed" in Washington State, USA, and is widespread as an invasive weed both in both northwestern and northeastern USA.  It is mostly called wild chervil in the US.

It is a bit disturbing that a lovely wildflower plant you remember from your childhood and that you strongly associate with long Swedish summer nights are suddenly horrible weeds in another country.  The same thing happened to purple loosestrife, which was one of my favorite flowers on the Baltic seashores.  Here in the US it also is a horrible invasive species. 

Image (c) Vanillawood, used with permission.

Species: Anthriscus sylvestris, Apiaceae, cow parsley, wild chervil

Art design: Cattails and reeds as fabric print

Swedish designed and printed fabric from Ljungbergs Textiltryck, called 'Kaveldun' (=cat tail). Lovely. Cat tails (Typha) is in its own family, and reed is Phragmites in the grass family.  Both are wetland plants, and common both in Europe and North America. I love the cigar-shaped dense flower heads of the cat tails. Phragmites is among the most widespread plants in the world. There is some artistic freedom in this pattern; in real life cat tail stems never branch as shown in this print.

Species: cattail, Typha sp., Typhaceae
Species: common reed, Phragmites sp., Poaceae

Image © Ljungbergs Textiltryck, 'Kaveldun'

Art design: Dandelion wall paper by MissPrint

There is a very cool wall paper design based on a mobile of dandelions (Taraxacum vulgare, Asteraceae) designed and sold by MissPrint, a small UK company in several colors.
[image used with permission from MissPrint]

Need to see how a dandelion looks like?  Here!
This design actually looks a bit more like Queen Anne's lace when you see the fruiting heads side-ways, but the design is named 'Dandelion' so that the designer's creative freedom showing off.
Species: dandelion, Taraxacum vulgare, Asteraceae

Design: Lamp "Maskros" (= dandelion) from IKEA

 

Nice!

[photo by Vilseskogen, Flickr, Creative Commons]
Species: dandelion, Taraxacum vulgare, Asteraceae

Flower bombs

A UK company has invented and are selling a fantastic idea: flower bombs.  They are clay hand grenades filled with flower seeds that you can launch into abandoned urban plots.  Interestingly enough the seeds in the bomb are three species often considered to be weeds (but not invasive): poppies (Papaver), buttercups (Ranunculus),  and ryegrass (Lolium).  All three will self-seed.