Firewheel up close

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Although you’ve seen several photographs this spring showing firewheels in colonies, and a picture of a stray one starting to open very early in the season, so far this year you’ve never seen a closeup of a fully open flower head. Let me make up for that now with this picture taken in northeast Austin way back on March 14, a date that shows you how early this species began appearing in force in 2012. The Gaillardia pulchella flowers in this field were all as fresh and vibrant as the one shown here.

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman

Urban wildflower colony

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Even in long-established neighborhoods in Austin there can be great colonies of wildflowers, as you’ve sometimes seen in this column. The latest addition in that old-part-of-town category is this field of Gaillardia pulchella, known as firewheels or Indian blankets, that I photographed on the grounds of a Texas Department of Transportation facility on Bull Creek Dr. at the equivalent of 43rd St., a location diagonally across the street from the nursing home where Eve works. This picture dates from April 21, but the firewheel colony persisted fresh and fiery for the next couple of weeks and is only now beginning to move on—in time—to its next phase.

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman