Navajo tea from below

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Another kind of wildflower I saw on June 20 at the Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve was Navajo tea, Thelesperma simplicifolium, a species making its debut in these pages today. If these flowers remind you of the greenthread that has appeared here several times, it’s because the two are closely related members of the same genus. The “prongs” visible at the base of each Navajo tea flower head are similar to those on the base of a greenthread bud I showed early last year.

© 2013 Steven Schwartzman