More spring in January

When I visited the Mueller Greenway on January 27th I found more than Engelmann daisies coming to life: I was also happily surprised to come across a coreopsis plant fully three feet tall with plenty of buds and flowers on it already. The bloom period for this species, Coreopsis tinctoria, doesn’t normally begin until April, so it was another instance of spring coming in January this year. The photograph above is a closeup of one of the plant’s torch-like buds as it’s beginning to open; shades of the red and bright yellow already prominent at this stage will continue on into the fully developed flowers. The tiny white flecks on the red bracts that you see here are common on coreopsis buds, but I don’t know what they are.

For those of you who are interested in the craft of photography, points 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, and 14 in About My Techniques are relevant to today’s image.

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman