Pearl milkweed flower

Also within sight of the kidneywood and the tan fungus that I photographed in my neighborhood on the damp morning of October 10 was this flower of a pearl milkweed vine, Matelea reticulata. There are relatively few green flowers in the world, and far fewer (are there even any others?) that have what looks like a tiny pearl at their center, but this little wildflower, only about 2/3 of an inch across, fits the bill on both counts.

Marshall Enquist’s Wildflowers of the Texas Hill Country gives the bloom period for the pearl milkweed vine as April to July, but an October photographer can be forgiven for quoting yet again the adage that plants don’t read field guides.

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WordPress says that this is post number 600 in Portraits of Wildflowers. That’s 2 x 2 x 2 x 3 x 5 x 5. Woo woo, let’s hear it for numbers!

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© 2012 Steven Schwartzman