The tetragon gives way to the cone

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After the fragrance of nerve-ray fades, after its seeds have matured and fallen to the ground, what remains is often a conical core with a stiff fringe surrounding its base. At this stage Tetragonotheca texana resembles some of its neighboring relatives in the sunflower family when they’re similarly advanced. And speaking of advancing, this is the fourth and last post in the current miniseries about a species known colloquially not only as nerve-ray but also as square-bud daisy.

For those of you who are interested in photography as a craft, points 1,3 4, and 8 in About My Techniques are relevant to this image.

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman

A double dose of four and nerves

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The last post might have left you wondering how a four-sided bud of Tetragonotheca texana opens into a flower head. The post before that one showed two fully open flower heads stuck together, but you saw only glimpses of green representing the four bracts that had surrounded each developing flower head. Today’s picture should make clear how the bracts separate and fold down as the flower head opens.

If you’re also wondering about the title of this post, the first nerve is the one in nerve-ray, a colloquial name for this wildflower. The other nerve comes from the Tetraneuris linearifolia, or four-nerve daisies, that were in the background and account for the yellow haze across the bottom of the photograph. The two fours are the tetras at the beginning of the genus names Tetragonotheca and Tetraneuris.

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman