Four-nerve daisy bud opening

Click for greater clarity, even if not greater size.

I photographed this opening bud of a four-nerve daisy, Tetraneuris scaposa, a year and a day ago in northwest Austin. January and wildflowers aren’t mutually exclusive terms in central Texas the way they are in many other parts of the country, though I’ll confess that wildflowers are at their sparsest here now.

In case you’re wondering about size, I’ll add that this bud was about half an inch in diameter, so we’re talking about a small daisy. And did you know that the English word daisy started out as the equivalent of day’s eye? The Anglo-Saxons, those linguistic ancestors of ours, knew how to be poetic.

For more information, and to see a state-clickable map of the places in the south-central United States where Tetraneuris scaposa grows, you can visit the USDA website.

© 2013 Steven Schwartzman