Red and “blue” and now yellow too

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I’ve long been fascinated by the combinations of colors in wildflower meadows, but I’m hardly alone in that: agencies and individuals in Texas often plant bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis) and Indian paintbrushes (Castilleja indivisa) on the same plot of ground because their bold colors go so well together. What further distinguishes the mixture in today’s photograph is the presence of all the little yellow flowers, which almost certainly were not planted by anyone but themselves. They’re in the genus Krigia and are called dwarf dandelions because they stay close to the ground and their open flower heads are only about half the width of those of the Texas dandelion and European dandelion. This has been a good year for dwarf dandelions, and I’ve seen dense colonies in various places, including this one along US 281 in Granite Shoals on April 1.

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman