The end of the cycle

Seed capsule of Cooperia drummondii; click for greater detail.

Today’s picture will be the last in the cycle of the rain-lily, Cooperia drummondii. We’ve seen:

a rain-lily bud beginning to open;

a dense colony of rain-lilies in their prime;

a colony with increasing pink beginning to rival white;

a rain-lily flower turning red as it shrivels up.

But the plant hasn’t yet died, and partway down the flower stem is an ovary, already slightly swollen, in which a seed capsule will continue to develop after all the parts of the delicate flower above it have fallen away.

Here, completing the cycle, is a photograph looking down at one of those fully developed tripartite capsules. I took this picture in the same place, my local Costco parking lot, and at the same time, October 1, that I photographed the opening rain-lily flower that began this mini-series.

For more information about Cooperia drummondii, including a map showing where in the south-central part of the United States it grows, you can visit the USDA website.

© 2011 Steven Schwartzman