Combinations

Click for greater size and better clarity and color.

Over the 13 years that I’ve been focusing on native plants I’ve often portrayed individuals, but I’ve also been fascinated by the combinations of species I find growing in the same place or even occasionally stuck together. Today’s picture, taken on May 3 in far south Austin, shows a threesome that appealed to me.

Playing a supporting role in the background were some firewheels, Gaillardia pulchella, a species you’ve seen several times and in several stages this spring. The frontmost wildflower is a Texas thistle, Cirsium texanum, another species you’ve seen several times this year. New to this blog is the plant that the thistle has gotten itself stuck on: prairie parsley, Polytaenia nuttallii. Please bid it welcome.

I hope this combination of colors calls out to you as much as it did to me.

———–

Posted on this date last year: a view of the toll the drought was taking on our ashe juniper trees.

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman