Bluebells and bundleflowers
Click for greater size and clarity.
On the 31st of May I went back to one of the three places on the Blackland Prairie in northeast Austin where I found bluebells in 2011. The site in question is a sump, and although it was pretty dry after a couple of weeks without rain, ample rain earlier in the season had caused the vegetation to grow up taller and denser than last year—so much so that I had to walk back to my car and put on a pair of hip-high boots to wade through the tall tangles of plants with some impunity.
One of the species that had flourished there was Desmanthus illinoensis, called Illinois bundleflower. Its flowers are small globes of cream-white filaments, one of which you see near the lower left. The “bundle” of the common name refers to each of the clustered masses of small curved pods; you see several of them, still green, mostly toward the right.
And of course you see the bluebells, Eustoma exaltatum, which are among the largest and showiest wildflowers we have in Texas. And of course they’re not blue.
© 2012 Steven Schwartzman
Love the stormy sky background against the flowers
LyndaMichele
June 8, 2012 at 6:42 am
I don’t often get the chance to photograph stormy-looking skies or use them as a backdrop for something colorful. I say stormy-looking because although the wind started to blow and a few drops came down, there wasn’t any real rain.
Steve Schwartzman
June 8, 2012 at 7:03 am
Love this picture, with the clear foreground and some environment in the back. The light is also good, but you probably used a flash.
bentehaarstad
June 8, 2012 at 6:45 am
Right you are, Bente. The light from the white parts of the clouds was so bright that if I hadn’t turned on my flash the flowers and foliage in the foreground would have come out dark and without detail. Even with the flash, I had to struggle in post-processing to make everything work together.
Steve Schwartzman
June 8, 2012 at 7:07 am
The bundleflower looks interesting. And I agree, the bluebells are not blue. But neither are they really bell-shaped! Love the stormy sky in the background.
Cathy
June 8, 2012 at 6:49 am
The bundleflower is in the same family, the Fabaceae, as the huisache that you saw recently; both have flowers with similar structure.
Many of the common names for plants are a stretch. I’ve usually commented on color discrepancy, but you’re right to question the “bell”: a bell that separated into petals would have a strange ring to it, I think. On the other hand, you could argue that the shape of the flower as a whole is rather bell-like.
Steve Schwartzman
June 8, 2012 at 7:20 am
Après le bouton, la fleur.
Jolie photo avec ces fleurs qui colorent le ciel gris.
lancoliebleue
June 8, 2012 at 6:55 am
Oui, c’est ça. Quand j’ai vu ton commentaire sur la photo d’hier, celle-ci avait déjà apparu. J’ai eu rarement l’occasion de photographier des fleurs avec un ciel si menaçant.
Steve Schwartzman
June 8, 2012 at 7:28 am
These look just like Prairie Gentian, which has been hybridized as a garden plant. They are one of my favorite flowers, but they seem to have fallen out of fashion as a bedding plant. Too bad. They are so graceful looking!
Steve, this photograph is stunning, the gray clouds are a perfect backdrop for the intense purple in the petals. ~ Lynda
pixilated2
June 8, 2012 at 7:18 am
Indeed, the bluebell is also called bluebell gentian and prairie gentian. The ones shown here are wild, but it’s easy to see why people would have created hybrids. From what you wrote, fashions come and go; I’ll add that this wildflower was quite popular in England in the 1800s.
The dark clouds were a chance for a different sort of background than my usual one, but shortly after I took this picture the wind started blowing so hard that I had to call it a day.
Steve Schwartzman
June 8, 2012 at 8:35 am
I agree with Lynda’s comment about the effect of the gray background, and the bluebells are beautiful, if not actually blue.
Jo Ann Abell
June 8, 2012 at 7:31 am
Beautiful even if not bluetiful.
Steve Schwartzman
June 8, 2012 at 8:42 am
We’re over three weeks without rain now. Those clouds are almost painful to look at.
The bundleflower looks like it might be related to the Roemer’s mimosa (sensitive briar) that I found on Nash Prairie. The bloom is similar, and the leaves appear to be, too. (Note: Suspicions confirmed!)
shoreacres
June 8, 2012 at 7:34 am
I see you’ve confirmed your suspicion. By coincidence, I saw some Romer’s acacia flowers when I was driving home from the neighborhood supermarket a few minutes ago and made a mental note to try to go back to that spot. As for clouds, the ones in my photograph never did much of anything, and the ones over Austin this morning have likewise delivered only a few stray drops. Let’s hope they wake up and do what we expect of them.
Steve Schwartzman
June 8, 2012 at 8:49 am
It was once explained to me that what I thought was purple was ‘so dark blue that it almost looks purple’.
Sarah
June 8, 2012 at 8:10 am
Color names are notoriously loose, as we see with this wildflower and so many others. It seems to me that a dark blue would still be blue, but perhaps the person meant that it’s harder to tell blue from purple when they’re both dark. Science gets around the problem by measuring the wavelength of any given color, but our senses don’t work that way. Neither do our languages, with different ones drawing the dividing lines between colors in different places.
Steve Schwartzman
June 8, 2012 at 9:23 am
I love bluebells. Your photo reminds me how much I miss Texas!
ameliaclaire92
June 8, 2012 at 9:10 am
Maybe you can ameliorate your sense of loss by coming back and paying a visit. In the meantime, Asheville’s got some great scenery, and you can get to see a colorful changing of the leaves in autumn in a way that we here in Texas can’t.
Steve Schwartzman
June 8, 2012 at 10:00 am
“ameliorate”…I see what you did there!
And yes, I love the fall here. It’s my favorite season, and the colors are always so breathtaking.
ameliaclaire92
June 8, 2012 at 10:11 am
Yes, and there’s a clarity to the air in autumn.
Steve Schwartzman
June 8, 2012 at 10:17 am
Most definitely!
ameliaclaire92
June 8, 2012 at 10:20 am
Magnificent !!!
dhphotosite
June 8, 2012 at 9:36 am
Writers of wildflower guides are fond of pointing out that the bluebell is one of the largest and showiest flowers in Texas.
Steve Schwartzman
June 8, 2012 at 10:01 am
They sure are!!!
dhphotosite
June 8, 2012 at 10:41 am
Absolutely superb composition and color. Incredible eye to pick this out.
ken mac
June 8, 2012 at 10:03 am
Thanks, Ken, and welcome to the world of nature in central Texas.
Steve Schwartzman
June 8, 2012 at 10:07 am
nice, love the calm before the storm feeling….shalom en theos…..jim
Developing A New Image
June 8, 2012 at 10:14 am
The feeling is there, but unfortunately we didn’t get the storm and the needed rain that would have come with it.
Steve Schwartzman
June 8, 2012 at 10:19 am
Wonderful photo
Bill Hopkins
June 8, 2012 at 11:32 am
Thank you.
Steve Schwartzman
June 8, 2012 at 1:31 pm
Nice. I don’t think I have ever seen these in any of my normal outdoor haunts up in Williamson county. I might have seen some up in some fenced off fields up near Andice and Florence earlier this week, but I did not have my field glasses with me to confirm.
Ryan McDaniel
June 8, 2012 at 12:16 pm
The one time I remember seeing bluebells in Williamson County was about 5 years ago, when Palmer Lane had recently been extended northward. I was driving on it way up near 2243 and I found one bluebell plant flowering away by the side of the road.
Steve Schwartzman
June 8, 2012 at 1:25 pm
These remain one of my favorite Texas wildflowers (I have a giant list) if only because I sometimes don’t see them based on rainfall and where I happen to wander so for me they are a special treat when I find them. I first saw them in Austin growing near the 15th street overpass where it becomes Enfield Road. The stormy sky is just wonderful. Thanks for the fantastic picture.
Nancy
June 8, 2012 at 12:48 pm
I also saw that group along Enfield Road a few years ago. I remember that some broomweed was prematurely flowering there, too, and I took pictures of one in front of the other. I don’t know if someone planted the bluebells or if they were “authentic.” I don’t think anyone planted the broomweed.
Steve Schwartzman
June 8, 2012 at 1:30 pm
The color in this photograph is so painterly. Lovely shot, once again.
Susan Scheid
June 8, 2012 at 10:41 pm
Thanks, Susan. Sometimes the camera and the paintbrush converge.
Steve Schwartzman
June 9, 2012 at 4:57 am
Love the dark clouds in the background of this shot, Steve.
They make the composition look really different and interesting.
victoriaaphotography
June 9, 2012 at 7:16 am
I don’t often encounter such a menacing sky when I’m out photographing, so I did my best to take advantage of it.
Steve Schwartzman
June 9, 2012 at 7:25 am
Stunning photo, Steve! I always like shots with dark clouds in the background; it is like having a giant sponged backdrop in the sky
composerinthegarden
June 9, 2012 at 8:42 pm
Thanks. The dark clouds were too good to pass up as a backdrop.
Steve Schwartzman
June 9, 2012 at 11:39 pm
Wow, are those ever pretty!
montucky
June 9, 2012 at 11:29 pm
And I got invited to photograph another group of them on private property this morning. They’re fun to play with, photographically speaking.
Steve Schwartzman
June 9, 2012 at 11:41 pm
[...] Posted on this date last year: a panoramic view of a colony of bluebells in the same sump that I returned to this year for the recent picture of bluebells with stormclouds. [...]
Banking on an embankment « Portraits of Wildflowers
June 14, 2012 at 5:54 am