Freshly golden
If the gold on the rays of the Mexican hat that you saw two posts back was about to fade, the bright yellow of these nearby goldenrod flowers had just emerged, and the buds at the bottom of the photograph were soon to add more. The date was December 22, and the plant was so fresh that I thought it likely there would still be goldenrod flowers on the Mueller Greenway at the beginning of January. (Five days later I found several goldenrods blooming in other locations around Austin, so unless the current forecasts of warm weather for the rest of the week are drastically wrong and a sudden freeze hits us, we will indeed still have some goldenrod flowers to usher in the new year.)
© 2011 Steven Schwartzman
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The goldenrod was everywhere this year! So beautiful. I tend to see the flower stalk as a whole, but your photograph brings out the delicate individual petals. ~ Lynda
pixilated2
December 30, 2011 at 6:42 AM
I’m glad to hear you had a good year with goldenrod, Lynda. I’ve usually seen the flower stalk as a whole too, and in years past I got some fine pictures of tall plants and dense colonies. This time, though, the goldenrod was a late-season arrival and still low to the ground, so I had to get in close. And as you pointed out, that closeness lets people see details that would be lost to the eye at a distance.
Steve Schwartzman
December 30, 2011 at 7:12 AM
Oh, and it just occurred to me that this close-up of the way the about-to-emerge flowers are packed in the buds lets people see the resemblance to other members of the sunflower family, for example:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2011/11/09/mistflower-boneset-snakeroot/
and
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2011/11/27/frostweed-2/
Steve Schwartzman
December 30, 2011 at 7:17 AM
This was nice to see…our goldenrod has been tamed by the frost and cold temps.
dhphotosite
December 30, 2011 at 8:49 AM
Most of ours have been too, and there are plenty of gray and fuzzy ruins of them in the landscape, but the recent rains and the continuing mild temperatures have coaxed some new ones to spring up.
Steve Schwartzman
December 30, 2011 at 8:56 AM
Beautiful color contrast Steve. Isolating the bloom against the richly blue sky really allows the yellow flowers to shine. As well, for me this is a nice reminder of the goldenrod from this past Summer. It will be a while before I see them again so very glad that you are still seeing them there.
Steve Gingold
December 30, 2011 at 4:55 PM
Yellow and blue
From me to you.
Down here, with our hotter weather, goldenrod is primarily a fall rather than a summer wildflower, which is why ours can be found so much later in the year.
Steve Schwartzman
December 30, 2011 at 5:21 PM
Goodness, the intensity! Sometimes it’s like being snapped awake suddenly to see such bold saturation. Sweet.
kathryningrid
December 30, 2011 at 8:50 PM
I like your talk of intensity and bold saturation.
Steve Schwartzman
December 31, 2011 at 12:33 AM