The view from the top

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Generally I avoid aiming straight down because that view usually includes lots of distracting details on the ground. Once in a while, though, aiming down portrays a subject in an appealing way and shows things that a side view doesn’t. Compare yesterday’s view of clammyweed with today’s, in which the white petals stand out as individuals and reveal their unusual shape and their distribution.

If you’re wondering about the red areas that are more noticeable in today’s photograph than in yesterday’s, here’s what Ellen D. Schulz wrote in her 1929 book Texas Wild Flowers: “The flower has an unusual appendage in the form of a red gland at the base of its petals.” Now you know.

© 2011 Steven Schwartzman