Still more profusion

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The late spring of this year brought a profusion of wildflowers to central Texas. In this blog I often show closeups of native plants, but I balance those with views of dense wildflower colonies from time to time. Today is another one of those times.

The most prominent flowers here are horsemints, Monarda citriodora. Next most numerous are firewheels, Gaillardia pulchella. There are also a few sunflower plants, Helianthus annuus, and at the left edge the narrower leaves of some Maximilian sunflowers, Helianthus maximiliani, which won’t flower till late summer or early fall. The white dots in the distance are basket-flowers, Centaurea americana.

The date was June 3, and the location was Mammoth Cave Blvd. at Pflugerville Pkwy. in Pflugerville. This was a place I’d never photographed before, but it’s at the entrance to a recent subdivision, so I don’t know how much longer this piece of the Blackland Prairie will hold out.

© 2013 Steven Schwartzman