I protected a patch of ground from snow, where I had transplanted campanula persicifolia last June. This is growing among them. It hasn't had any protection from the cold, just from the snow. It is warm today, but this obviously didn't just pop up today.
This is a highly magnified photo. I think half an inch across, but the camera was badly hand held, so I'm not really sure. As in most of my magnified photos, those sticks lying on the ground are pine needles.
The campanula persicifolia themselves take on a variety of forms, so I thought before I examined the photo this could be a volunteer seedling self planted in July that I missed in previous checks for such, or more likely a daughter by rhizome from a nearby campanula. But this looks the hairs are very different and what appears to be ultra tiny leaves starting is VERY different. So I'm pretty sure this isn't campanula.
So what other tiny ground level plants can survive the cold this way?
I also found two other tinier plants among the campanula and failed at my photo attempts. Some day soon, I'll try again with a mini tripod. The tiniest looks just like the indoor campanula looked a few months after sprouting, when there was one tiny leaf in addition to the cotyledons. That seems an odd stage of development for an outdoor one in February. The third tiny plant looks much more like recent growth (than the one in the photo) with overall structure very different from this one but the same hairs on the leaves (viewed magnified) as this one. Even more surprising for a tiny plant in ground that was frozen a few days ago.
