Archive for August 30th, 2011
Bulrushes blowing
Bulrushes blowing; click for greater detail.
It dawned on me in early August that if we’re in a drought I should look for ponds and creeks that still have some water in them, because where there’s water there are plants that are more likely to be doing well. That strategy led me on August 10th to Meadow Lake Park in Round Rock, where I photographed some drying cattails blowing in the wind. The next day I went to a pond between Parmer Lane and Center Ridge Dr. on the prairie in northeast Austin. There I photographed some bulrushes (genus Schoenoplectus) that were likewise being buffeted by the wind. Note several cattails in the background; note also that British English uses bulrush for both of the types of plants that American English distinguishes as bulrushes and cattails.
© 2011 Steven Schwartzman
Updates
This is a “housekeeping” sort of post. I’d like to remind readers who have subscribed to this column by e-mail that, as convenient as that method is, you don’t get to see the comments that people add. People have offered many good insights, and there have been plenty of questions and answers. In a case like
the comments have a lot more information than the original post, and one commenter has added a video.
In some cases, a helpful person has identified species that I wasn’t able to; a couple of examples are
and
Predation on the Rays of a Sunflower.
The upshot of all this is that you might want to check back from time to time to browse comments and see what new information has been added.
I’d also like to remind readers that links within a post (which may show up as colored text in the e-mail version of the post) often lead to more information on the subject. For example, in the post entitled
the link that appears as
explains more about fasciation. Sometimes the links are tangential, as when
in that same article lets you listen to Nat King Cole singing the song “Fascination.” As I said, tangential, but pleasant.
Portraits of Wildflowers 