Blackfoot daisy from below

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Here, from April of 2010, is a closer look at a blackfoot daisy, Melampodium leucanthum. The markings on the underside of the rays that you could barely discern last time are clear in this close view from below.

For those of you who are interested in photography as a craft, points 1, 3, and 5 in About My Techniques are relevant to this photograph.

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman

Two kinds of wildflowers

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Do you remember the lush wildflower meadow that appeared here on April 8? Prominent among the species pictured then was antelope-horns, Asclepias asperula, the most common milkweed in Austin; less conspicuously you saw some blackfoot daisies, Melampodium leucanthum. Now you get a closer look at both.

The blackfoot daisy in the foreground, though white, is called blackfoot because of its dark roots. Behind the daisy is a dome of antelope-horns milkweed flowers, each divided into five radially symmetric parts. Note the not-quite-open antelope-horns bud just to the left of the daisy, and another bud in the lower left. Also notice a few more blackfoot daisies in the background, including the one near the top of the frame that gives you a hint of the pattern on the underside of its white rays.

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman