Engelmann Daisy Day, Part 3

And here to conclude our celebration of Engelmann Daisy Day is the closest look you’ve had so far of Engelmannia peristenia.

You might think that the curling flowers are a sign of decline, but the rays of the Engelmann daisy are known to curl up like that in the heat of the day, and they do so in such a graceful way as to allay concerns about distress. I see that curling-rays behavior more in this species than in any of the many other yellow daisy-type flowers that grow in central Texas.

This photograph is yet another from our wildflower-watching trip south of Austin on March 31. The contrasting patches of color in the background are once again from bluebonnets and Indian paintbrushes.

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman

Engelmann Daisy Day, Part 2

Click for greater clarity.

Here’s the second image to celebrate Engelmann Daisy Day. This photograph of Engelmannia peristenia goes back to the first stop of the wildflower-watching trip south of Austin that Eve and I took on March 31. As this blog is Portraits of Wildflowers and not Gone with the Wind, you’re safe in assuming that the red glow in the background is not from the burning of Atlanta but from a dense colony of Indian paintbrushes.

If you’d like to see the many places west of the Mississippi where Engelmann daisies grow, you can check out the state-clickable map at the USDA website; this species also grows in Mexico.

If you’d like to see what Georg(e) Engelmann looked like, here’s your chance. If you’d like to learn a little about him, here’s a chance for that too. If you’d like to know what Engelmann means, it’s Angel Man.

If you’re interested in the craft of photography, you’ll find points 2 and 5 in About My Techniques relevant to this picture.

If you’d like to read Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If,” you can do so.

If you’re ready for this post to end now, I’ll go ahead and end it, if no one objects.

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman

Engelmann Daisy Day

Click for greater clarity.

When a few Engelmann daisies made a super-early appearance here in January, I commented that they looked somewhat bedraggled, as if having been awakened prematurely from sleep. Now it’s three months later, and Engelmannia peristenia has continued flowering into its usual season in my part of the world. Given the health and abundance of the species this year, I hereby declare April 10 to be Engelmann Daisy Day.

While Scrooge was visited in one night by the spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, today you shall thrice be visited with spirited pictures of Engelmann daisies. This first is from an embankment of Loop 360 in Austin on the cloudy morning of March 30. Note the plant’s deeply incised leaves, which are also covered with soft hairs. Playing supporting roles in this view are Indian paintbrushes and bluebonnets.

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman