Tall blazing-star

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Another thing that excited me on my visit to Bastrop State Park on September 6th was Liatris aspera, a species of blazing-star (also called gayfeather) that I’d never seen before, and one that doesn’t grow in Austin. Apparently the common name of this species is tall blazing-star, based on its relatively tall flower spikes. (The Latin species name means ‘rough,’ but I didn’t notice anything that made this species any rougher than the Liatris mucronata so common in Austin.)

The flower spike shown here was obviously leaning to the side, and I photographed just a portion of it in order to record the details in the clusters of flowers and buds. And what, you must be wondering, accounts for that rich orange background that sets off the purple flowers so well? What you’re seeing there, out of focus of course, is a patch of the sandy, iron-rich soil so characteristic of Bastrop, and once so conducive to the loblolly pines that grew there in abundance.

© 2013 Steven Schwartzman