Clammyweed buds opening

In the first month of this blog I showed the flowers of clammyweed, Polanisia dodecandra ssp. trachysperma. On September 17 of 2012, a year ago today, and in a different part of my northwestern Austin neighborhood from the one I’d visited in 2011, I photographed some buds of this species opening into flowers.

If you’re wondering about the red things that look like maraschino cherry halves, here’s what Ellen D. Schulz wrote in her 1929 book Texas Wild Flowers: “The flower has an unusual appendage in the form of a red gland at the base of its petals.” Now you know.

© 2013 Steven Schwartzman