Purple bindweed flower on the wane
Click for greater clarity.
Two posts ago you saw three fresh flowers of purple bindweed, a species that as a dutiful member of the morning-glory family usually opens its flowers in the morning and lets them wither in the heat of the afternoon. The puckering shown here, a version of which you saw from the side late last year, is typical of that fading away. This view goes back to June 21 of 2011, a year in which, despite the horrendous drought, I found purple bindweed thriving in many places in central Texas, as if there were no drought at all.
For more information about Ipomoea cordatotriloba, including a state-clickable map showing where in the southeastern United States it grows, you can visit the USDA website. For those of you interested in photography as a craft, points 1, 3, 7 and 8 in About My Techniques are relevant to this photograph.
———-
Posted on today’s date in 2011: a pretty little syrphid fly on a camphorweed flower head.
© 2012 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
Schöne Blüte, sehr gutes Foto!!
Mathilda
July 13, 2012 at 7:42 AM
Mathilda finds this a pretty flower, for which I thank nature, and a good photo, for which I thank her.
Steve Schwartzman
July 13, 2012 at 8:00 AM
For me, one of the attractions of purple bindweed is how loosely it defines “purple”. I’ve seen it with a distinctly blue cast, a tendency toward pink and now this fuchsia. The color’s beautiful, and the tidiness of its rolling-up is striking.
shoreacres
July 13, 2012 at 7:49 AM
Like you, I was taken with “the tidiness of its rolling-up” as well as the five (counts the math man) curving, paler stripes: such regularity in the irregularity. As for colors, they vary so much, and people’s perceptions are so different, that I sometimes hesitate to name them (the colors, not the people, who usually have names already). In any case, I’m glad this is one wildflower that seems to be as accessible near the Texas coast as it is inland.
Steve Schwartzman
July 13, 2012 at 8:14 AM
I love these flowers, if only they wouldn’t wither in the afternoon ! A beautiful capture Steve.
Inspired and pretty
July 14, 2012 at 8:20 PM
On the plus side, there are usually plenty more flowers that follow in the days and weeks ahead.
Steve Schwartzman
July 14, 2012 at 10:36 PM