Bright yellow against a rich magenta

In the foreground is a flower head of broomweed, Amphiachyris dracunculoides, whose yellow stands out so nicely against the rich magenta of a nearby tuna, which as you know is the fruit of a prickly pear cactus, Opuntia engelmannii. Each broomweed flower head is small, typically 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch (6.4 to 9.6 mm) across. I’ve isolated this one so you can see its details, but colonies of broomweed can bear hundreds or even thousands of these little flower heads.

I found this scene on August 22 to the west of Morado Circle in my Great Hills neighborhood.

© 2013 Steven Schwartzman