Oh, those native grasses
Click for better clarity and color.
Here’s a native grass, Schizachyrium scoparium, that’s known as little bluestem. That color name aside, slender sections of this grass often turn red in the fall. This picture, which I sat on the ground and leaned over to take, is from the same October 29 session in northwest Austin that brought you the photograph of a ladies’ tresses orchid.
© 2012 Steven Schwartzman
The sandstone barrens on my rural property is little bluestem dominant. I never knew it could look like that. Beautiful!
naturesnippets
November 28, 2012 at 1:46 pm
I think it was about three or four autumns ago when I first noticed the bits of bright color that can appear in little bluestem. You’d probably have to look closely (which I do with my macro lens), but if you get the chance, check it out and see if you can find some of that color.
Steve Schwartzman
November 28, 2012 at 2:30 pm
Mine is dried and seeded now. The botanists would collected seeds from mine and said best to do before Thanksgiving. So, I’ll have to wait. Darn.
naturesnippets
November 28, 2012 at 5:28 pm
I’m just learning to appreciate grasses. As a fellow who was splayed out with his camera on the Kansas prairie said, “Grass is more than something to mow”.
This looks like an earth/sky combination. The background’s amazingly like the aurora borealis – something else on my list of hope-to-sees.
shoreacres
December 1, 2012 at 6:39 am
It’s harder to get to know and appreciate grasses than other wildflowers, yet grasses have flowers, too. It can also be difficult to tell some grasses apart, and more so sedges, which also have their appeal. I wholeheartedly agree with your quotation that “Grass is more than something to mow.”
Change Kansas to Texas in your second sentence, and the fellow splayed out on the prairie could easily be me (though the splaying is often anything but easy, given the prickliness of the Texas prairie).
Steve Schwartzman
December 1, 2012 at 9:02 am
[...] of the nightshade, while the tan stalks and slender brown leaves are from a native grass known as little bluestem, Schizachyrium [...]
Silverleaf nightshade fruit « Portraits of Wildflowers
December 21, 2012 at 2:57 pm
This photo is relaxing !
Guillaume
January 10, 2013 at 2:07 pm
Now that’s an original comment: I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of someone calling a grass (or a picture of a grass) relaxing.
Steve Schwartzman
January 10, 2013 at 2:09 pm
I find photography is relaxing because it hasn’t stress
Guillaume
January 10, 2013 at 2:14 pm