Another white
Around the corner from the white prickly poppy, and a short while earlier, I’d lain down among some rain-lilies, Cooperia pedunculata, to take pictures of their flowers and buds. The tissue-like petals of the prickly poppy have intricate patterns, and the tepals of the rain-lily do, too, along with a pink tinge absent from the other flower.
The date was April 9, and 2–3 inches of rain the previous week had precipitated the season’s first generation of these flowers. The green arcs in the background are leaves of nearby rain-lilies.
© 2013 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
The tiny bubble-like texture is part of the petal itself, and not moisture?
I know you must be tired of hearing this, but the images on this site are gorgeous. I’ve tried photographing flowers and am quite pathetic at it.
bronxboy55
April 26, 2013 at 7:43 AM
You’re correct: what you see here is the texture of the rain-lily itself, without any moisture. That texture and the finely incised lines running through it are two of the things that appeal to me in this species.
Thanks for your compliment on the nature photographs here. You may be pathetic at taking flower pictures, but I’m hopeless at drawing. We both like to play with words.
Steve Schwartzman
April 26, 2013 at 8:22 AM
Beautiful macrophotography, we can see lots of details !
Guillaume
April 26, 2013 at 1:10 PM
Thank you, Guillaume. I’ll agree that the fine details make this image distinctive.
Steve Schwartzman
April 26, 2013 at 2:08 PM
Very pretty, Steve!
montucky
April 27, 2013 at 12:06 AM
Thanks, Montucky. I look forward each spring to the first rain-lilies of the year, of which this was one.
Steve Schwartzman
April 27, 2013 at 6:05 AM
[…] The last post showed you the bud of a rain-lily, Cooperia pedunculata, along Stonelake Blvd. on April 9. The time before that you saw a white prickly poppy flower in a colony of four-nerve daisies, Tetraneuris linearifolia. This photograph from the same session as those two combines elements of both: in the foreground you have the lower portion of a rain-lily’s long flower tube, and in the background an out-of-focus four-nerve daisy nearby. None of the rain-lily’s characteristic whiteness is in evidence here, and that’s one reason I’m fond of this atypical view. […]
Rain-lily flower stalk by four-nerve daisy flower head | Portraits of Wildflowers
April 27, 2013 at 6:21 AM
Your photos are superb with great details!
azon
April 28, 2013 at 1:35 AM
There’s a saying that the devil is in the details, but I’ll change devil to delight.
Steve Schwartzman
April 28, 2013 at 6:10 AM
What a difference a season makes – I knew what this one was by the photo alone. After last night’s deluge, I need to start looking for them around here. We were at the low end of the scale, but we still got over 2″ of rain – enough to make a rain-lily happy, I think.
shoreacres
April 28, 2013 at 7:24 AM
Some of our other local members of the lily family have leaves that are a lot like those of a rain-lily, but once the bud comes out there’s no confusing a rain-lily with any of its relatives. There’s typically a gap of four days to a week between the rain and lily, so you’ll know soon enough whether the 2″ you got was enough. Let’s hope so.
Steve Schwartzman
April 28, 2013 at 7:35 AM
[…] A rain-lily bud; […]
When is a rain-lily black? — Take 2 | Portraits of Wildflowers
October 25, 2013 at 1:34 PM