Sunflower as mandala
Maturing disk flowers of Helianthus annuus; click for greater detail.
If you thought we were done with sunflowers* for this year, you may rethink your thinking. In spite of the drought in Texas, sunflowers have been thriving in Austin for months, and I’ve kept photographing them. Over the next few weeks I’ll sprinkle some sunflower pictures, whether recent or from seasons past, into whatever other species we’re looking at.
This oval mandala shows the universe in the maturing disk of a sunflower that was growing wild on the prairie at Austin’s former Mueller Airport in mid-June of this year.
© 2011 Steven Schwartzman
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* Newcomers to this column, and those who never tire of sunflowers, may want to look back at the eight previous posts involving them:
Predation on the rays of a sunflower
Just can’t get enough of those sunflowers
Portraits of Wildflowers 
Wow! The Helianthus mandala (that even sounds good together) is drop dead gorgeous.
Diane Sherrill
July 30, 2011 at 11:50 AM
Thanks for your enthusiasm, Diane. I’m glad you see this as I do. Those little yellow five-pointed “stamen stars” appeal to the mathematician (and cosmologist?) in me.
Steve Schwartzman
July 30, 2011 at 12:08 PM
I like the sunflower-mandala matchup- seeing things in different ways adds insight.
Watching Seasons
July 31, 2011 at 4:32 PM
I’m please that you like it. I saw it this way only on July 21, some five weeks after taking the picture.
Steve Schwartzman
July 31, 2011 at 5:28 PM
Hi Steve .. what a wonderful photo too … I’ve just come from your lace cactus photo (March 11th 2012) – cheers Hilary
Hilary
March 12, 2012 at 2:20 AM
A voice across the more than seven months…. It was once more common than it is now for photographers to present pictures in an elliptical shape.
Steve Schwartzman
March 12, 2012 at 6:44 AM
Nature constantly creates–and then recycles–beautiful mandalas such as this one.
tanjabrittonwriter
August 8, 2023 at 5:45 PM
Speaking of recycling, Texas seems to be recycling the horrendous drought of 2011 that I mentioned here. The local weather forecast is predicting highs of 105°, 106°, or 107° for each of the next seven days, and we’ve had only a quarter inch of rain in the past six weeks.
Most mandalas I’ve seen are circular; here I made one that’s a non-circular ellipse.
Steve Schwartzman
August 8, 2023 at 6:30 PM
Elliptical or round, mandalas always astound.
And while your weather might astound, too, it doesn’t do so in a good way. I continue to hope that your heat and drought will end before too long. It’s so hard on all creatures who have to deal with those conditions.
tanjabrittonwriter
August 8, 2023 at 6:41 PM
That’s a good rhyming first sentence.
Fire danger has gone way up in central Texas. I worry about a repeat of the 2011 wildfires that did so much damage.
Steve Schwartzman
August 8, 2023 at 6:52 PM
Let’s hope not!
As we recently discussed, in German we would have to say something like: “Laß uns hoffen, daß es keine Feuer geben wird.”
tanjabrittonwriter
August 8, 2023 at 6:56 PM
English is generally more concise than many other languages.
Steve Schwartzman
August 8, 2023 at 7:34 PM