A fluffy little devil

Click for greater sharpness.

 

And while we’re doing clarifications and follow-ups, let me add that Mexican devilweed, Chloracantha spinosa, is one of the many members of the sunflower family whose flower heads turn into puffballs when they go to seed.

This photograph, like the previous one, comes from a session at Meadow Lake Park in Round Rock, a northern suburb of Austin; the date was September 23, 2011, when the drought was raging and we hadn’t had any significant rain for a long time.

For those of you interested in the craft of photography, points 1, 2, 5, and 16 in About My Techniques are relevant to this image.

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman

Another complexification

This past Wednesday, after a post that included a closeup of rattan fruits, I followed up later in the day with a view from much farther away showing how tangled these vines often are. Now it occurs to me that yesterday morning’s post showing a closeup of a Mexican devilweed flower head also needs a follow-up, this time in order to show how complex the slender, vividly chartreuse stems of Chloracantha spinosa can be; you can also appreciate the accuracy of the last post’s description of this plant as “strictly erect.” Because the flower heads of Mexican devilweed form at the tips of the stalks, you don’t see any flowers in this view that was taken closer to the ground.

Today’s photograph is from a session at Meadow Lake Park in Round Rock, a northern suburb of Austin, on September 23, 2011. It was at that late date that I first figured out the identity of this species and photographed it (what took me so long, I don’t know).

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman