Buffalo gourd tendrils
The last post post showed a buffalo gourd flower on the noisy embankment of the US 183 freeway adjacent to the Gateway Shopping Center in my northwestern part of Austin. As I said yesterday, Cucurbita foetidissima likes to hang out in places like this. As I didn’t say then, buffalo gourd is a vine, but it’s an atypical one: where so many vines climb high on plants, trees, fences, and other structures, Cucurbita foetidissima uses its tendrils to latch onto low things in order to stay anchored close to the ground. In the tangle that you see here, which was just inches above the earth, the tightly coiled buffalo gourd tendrils have grabbed onto some bits of dried grass.
For more information about Cucurbita foetidissima, including a state-clickable map showing the many places where this plant grows, you can visit the USDA website.
© 2011 Steven Schwartzman
There is so much intent and purpose in that image.
Dawn
December 4, 2011 at 6:50 AM
Good for you for reading an intent into the image, Dawn. I’m often intrigued by things I see in nature that imply a purpose.
Steve Schwartzman
December 4, 2011 at 7:19 AM
[…] Shopping Center in Austin on December 1 taking the pictures of the buffalo gourd flower and tendrils and the purple bindweed flower you’ve seen in the last few posts, I also photographed this […]
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