Close view of Texas thistle flowers
Flowers in the head of a Texas thistle; click to enlarge.
And here’s a close-up of the disk flowers (which are the only type of flowers) in a Texas thistle, Cirsium texanum. I took this photograph in May of 2007 in Great Hills Park, a nature preserve with an entrance just half a mile downhill from my house. This was one of those times when I used flash even in broad daylight; that way I could stop my 100 mm macro lens down as far as it would go, to f/32, in order to keep as many details in focus as possible.
© 2011 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
Nice macro. Great texture and color.
Eden
July 6, 2011 at 6:38 PM
Thanks, Eden. It’s amazing what a close look can reveal.
Steve Schwartzman
July 6, 2011 at 6:54 PM
Lovely macro … I agree – great details and vibrant color! You’re making me look at thistles in a whole new way.
Shelly
July 6, 2011 at 9:22 PM
Thanks, Shelly. I’m glad that you’re seeing these flowers in a whole new way.
Steve Schwartzman
July 6, 2011 at 10:01 PM
very near to a fractal
puzzle
July 7, 2011 at 2:29 AM
I’m fond of fractals, used to played with software to generate them. Now I play with wildflowers.
Steve Schwartzman
July 7, 2011 at 6:54 AM
Beautiful detail!
Lu
July 7, 2011 at 3:04 AM
I’ll agree with you, Lu. Thanks.
Steve Schwartzman
July 7, 2011 at 7:08 AM
How does one distinguish between a Canadian thistle and a Texas thistle?
Ed Darrell
July 7, 2011 at 7:12 AM
The so-called Canadian thistle, as I learned just a few days ago, is actually an invasive species from Europe. I’ve found a Wikipedia article about it that has a picture and a description, so you can see the difference in appearance between it and the Texas thistle. If you search the Internet for “Canadian thistle” you’ll find plenty more photographs and articles, some of which include techniques for eradicating this alien invasive.
Steve Schwartzman
July 7, 2011 at 7:31 AM
Amazing. The pink/purple/almost white color change, and the texture of each petal is extremely dynamic. This is a wonderful study in detail. Sometimes the simplest things are the most complex at closer look. This gets a big WOW! Thank you.
Wild_Bill
July 7, 2011 at 2:43 PM
You’re certainly welcome. I like your word dynamic: to me the curved disk flowers do indeed create an impression of movement.
Steve Schwartzman
July 7, 2011 at 2:46 PM
Really like the pattern nature has come up with here 🙂 Good shot.
Watching Seasons
July 8, 2011 at 2:52 PM
Thanks. I’m fond of patterns in nature. (I’ve noticed, though, that almost all blog posts that have been tagged with “Patterns” have to do with patterns for making clothing.)
Steve Schwartzman
July 8, 2011 at 3:20 PM
Search for “blossom +fibonacci” or “flower +fibonacci” and see what you get. That may be more productive.
Ed Darrell
July 8, 2011 at 4:25 PM
When I taught mathematics I often showed my students the Fibonacci numbers. Once I brought in a bunch of pine cones so they could count how many spirals of florets there were in each direction.
Steve Schwartzman
July 8, 2011 at 4:56 PM
A beautiful photo, but the idea to look at the blossom this way is really intriguing.
sanetes
July 8, 2011 at 3:45 PM
Yes, I’m often intrigued by what I find when I take a close (and sometimes unconventional) look at things.
Steve Schwartzman
July 8, 2011 at 4:58 PM
Wow, that’s such a beautiful macro! Love the colors!
Wendy
July 8, 2011 at 9:49 PM
Thanks. I don’t disagree!
Steve Schwartzman
July 8, 2011 at 10:15 PM
that is a stunning photo!
indialeigh
July 10, 2011 at 12:22 PM
Thanks. I think this has gotten the most comments of any picture so far.
Steve Schwartzman
July 10, 2011 at 1:04 PM
from where did your appreciation of wildflowers spring?
indialeigh
July 10, 2011 at 2:54 PM
I moved to Austin in 1976 and did some black and white (infrared!) landscape photographs in those early years. I also couldn’t help but notice the best known wildflowers around here, like bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes, which I occasionally photographed. In 1999 I was working on a photo CD of Austin and wanted to include some scenes of nature to balance all the human elements. It was then that I began to realize how many dozens of species of wildflowers grow here natively; I ended up devoting an entire CD to “The World of Nature.” I’ve kept learning and photographing our native species since then.
Steve Schwartzman
July 10, 2011 at 4:12 PM
Steve, how facinating to see your journey to wildflowers unfolded and continues to…flower.
indialeigh
July 11, 2011 at 3:03 AM
Well said: yes, it continues to flower, and with all sorts of flourishes.
Steve Schwartzman
July 11, 2011 at 7:18 AM
Absolutely beautiful! I really love the close up views that allow us to see things in a way we never have before.
Rolling with Husky
July 23, 2011 at 10:01 PM
Thanks. Like you, “I really love the close up views that allow us to see things in a way we never have before.” I end up using my macro lens more than all my others put together.
Steve Schwartzman
July 23, 2011 at 10:21 PM
[…] at their peak, some already fading and turning brown. The smaller pink daubs in the background are Texas thistles, which had a colony of their own abutting the colony of […]
Did I tell you that basket-flowers can form large colonies? « Portraits of Wildflowers
June 1, 2012 at 5:34 AM
[…] at their peak, some already fading and turning brown. The smaller pink daubs in the background are Texas thistles, which had a colony of their own abutting the colony of […]
Did I tell you that basket-flowers can form large colonies? « Portraits of Wildflowers
June 1, 2012 at 5:34 AM
Gosh…that is Spectacular, like a firework!
Thank you for sharing the technique for this. As we’ve chatted and I’ve shared with you before I too like macro shots of plants and I am so excited to try this out. I’m feeling more and more like spring couldn’t come fast enough. (We just got dumped on again in the Midwest, not cool, not cool.)
eLPy
January 27, 2014 at 10:45 PM
I, too, like the implied motion in this picture.
Such a tiny aperture is good for extended depth of field, but the price you pay is often a lessening of sharpness due to diffraction through such a small opening.
Steve Schwartzman
January 28, 2014 at 6:38 AM
Hm, that is good to know, thank you. This picture did not seem to suffer at all!
eLPy
January 28, 2014 at 7:30 PM
You’re right that this one didn’t seem to suffer, but I’ve noticed a falling off of sharpness in some others I’ve taken with tiny apertures. I don’t know what accounts for the difference.
Steve Schwartzman
January 28, 2014 at 8:15 PM