Poverty weed tufts

A couple of weeks ago you saw some flowering poverty weed, Baccharis neglecta, both from afar and closer up. Now you get to see how the female flowers turn into silky tufts that in the 1800s reminded people of little paintbrushes and earned the plant the name pencil bush (because the word pencil originally designated an artist’s paintbrush). If you noticed a little bit of orange color peeking through at the left, it’s from a lady beetle.

This view is from October 19th alongside the Arbor Walk pond in north-central Austin.

© 2012 Steven Schwartzman