Succession

Click for greater clarity.

The whitened ghosts of last year give way to the growing greens of this one. So it is with giant ragweed, Ambrosia trifida, whose sturdy new stalk and upside-down flowers that push pollen out into the air long-time visitors to this column have already seen. Ragweed’s wind-wended release of pollen happens in the latter part of the year, but until then the desiccated stalks of deceased ancestors, often in dense colonies, linger in the landscape from the previous autumn and winter.

On July 4, 2011, when a few of you were reading about my visit in 2010 to the old Union Hill Cemetery, I went back to see what the cemetery was looking like a year later. Not long before getting there I stopped in northeastern Round Rock after I spied a large mound of earth that giant ragweed had conquered and planted its tall stalks on top of. With some difficulty I climbed part-way up the slope to photograph a new plant springing from the ruins left behind by the colonizers of 2010. As I was a traveler there, so had some purple bindweed vines been; you can see their curving remains left behind in a couple of places as well.

————

The daily posts that you’ve become accustomed to will continue while I’m away from Austin. Feel free to comment if you’d like, but please be aware that it may be a while before I can respond.

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman