Gauras and paintbrushes

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Loop 360 is a heavily traveled road that makes a large arc through the Hill Country on Austin’s west side. The miles of highway median play host each spring to wildflower displays that vary in their mix and intensity. While the drought made 2011 a bad year for the median, 2012 has so far turned out well for it, as this photograph from March 30 confirms.

The red plants are Indian paintbrush, Castilleja indivisa, which you saw in a picture of either a very late or a very early one that I found on December 22, coincidentally on Loop 360, although a different part of the highway. The pinkish-white flowers are gaura, Gaura coccinea, a species you saw a portrait of from February 1, before mowers cut down all the early wildflowers on Mopac and other Austin highways. In contrast to those earlier close-ups, here you see the sweep of the wildflowers’ springtime profusion.

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman