A little white snail on some blazing-star flowers
Little snails have appeared several times in these pages, but never on anything as appealing as this flowering spike of blazing-star, Liatris mucronata. I photographed the two together on a piece of the Blackland Prairie in northeast Austin on September 12th. For Austinites, this is the familiar (and only) species of Liatris that grows here, and that’s why I’d been excited to come across Liatris elegans and Liatris aspera when I visited Bastrop State Park in early September.
© 2013 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
Cela ressemble à une multitude d anémones de mer avec le coquillage c est encore plus réaliste 😉
Bon week end Steven
Sophie L.
October 19, 2013 at 6:24 AM
T’as une belle imagination toi. Je ne me suis pas du tout mouillé. Bon weekend.
Steve Schwartzman
October 19, 2013 at 7:44 AM
Merci et belle allusion à la mer par la métaphore de se mouiller😝
Bon week end et désolée d avoir écorché ton prénom c est mon ordi qui a décidé pour moi.
Sophie L.
October 19, 2013 at 7:46 AM
Steven est un peu plus formel, mais ça va. Il y a des moments où je suis formaliste.
Steve Schwartzman
October 19, 2013 at 7:51 AM
The diagonal composition suits the little snail best, I think. And I love the mirroring of the snail’s flower in the second stem. I do wonder how difficult it was for the snail to make its way through all of that budding and flowering, but clearly the snail knows how to travel.
Yesterday’s treat was the Crystal Bridges Museum. If I hadn’t promised my aunt I’d arrive today, I’d be back there for a second day and perhaps a third. The grounds, the architecture and the collection are far more interesting and beautiful than I’d expected. And for a wildflower person? Spring must be magnificent, as they’ve devoted a good bit of attention to restoring the native plant gardens of the fellow who owned the land previously, and all of the plantings on the grounds are native. More later, of course.
shoreacres
October 19, 2013 at 6:45 AM
The difficulty is one thing. How long did it take to come up from ground level is another I wonder about.
Jim in IA
October 19, 2013 at 8:07 AM
“How long did it take to come up from ground level is another I wonder about.” Now there’s a science project for someone who can spend lots of time observing.
Steve Schwartzman
October 19, 2013 at 2:50 PM
Some one has already done much of the ‘ground work’ so to speak.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/23815582
Jim in IA
October 19, 2013 at 3:02 PM
Certain species are very fast. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZopX05wXH0
Jim in IA
October 19, 2013 at 3:05 PM
Those snails are quite animated.
Steve Schwartzman
October 19, 2013 at 3:23 PM
Thanks for that moving account of snails. It’s good indeed that someone has done ‘the ground work.”
Steve Schwartzman
October 19, 2013 at 3:22 PM
I gave a workshop at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center this morning, and one of the topics was diagonal compositions (though I didn’t use this picture as an example because I had plenty of others).
Like you, I wondered how the snail had made its way so far up that flowering stalk. I can tell you that it was one of many other snails that I saw on Liatris stalks. I wonder if they climbed the stalks before the flowers opened.
The Crystal Bridges Museum is on my list, too. I might have gone now, but for the two consecutive weekends of giving nature photography workshops.
Steve Schwartzman
October 19, 2013 at 2:49 PM
Beautiful shot Steve. Great DOF and repeating diagonal lines!
Michael Glover
October 19, 2013 at 9:26 AM
Thanks, Michael. I noticed the potential for emphasizing diagonals here, so I did, even to including the out-of-focus “echo” of the farther Liatris.
Steve Schwartzman
October 19, 2013 at 2:54 PM
love the diagonal – not loving the snails much though as they do so much damage, though I guess they feed the birds 🙂
Heyjude
October 19, 2013 at 10:15 AM
The diagonal seems to be a hit, even if the snail leaves some of you indifferent or worse. You have a gardener’s perspective, while I’m looking almost exclusively as a photographer.
Steve Schwartzman
October 19, 2013 at 2:56 PM
What gorgeous colors!
nliakos
October 20, 2013 at 6:29 PM
It’s wonderful to see these flower spikes each fall.
Steve Schwartzman
October 20, 2013 at 7:13 PM
Great diagonal Steve, I also think the DOF is excellent.
M. Firpi
October 20, 2013 at 8:00 PM
Definitely diagonal, Marisa. I’ll be showing a whole colony of these plants in a couple of weeks.
Steve Schwartzman
October 20, 2013 at 10:10 PM
Now that is really cool!!!
montucky
October 21, 2013 at 9:54 PM
And there were snails on many other flower stalks, too.
Steve Schwartzman
October 21, 2013 at 10:12 PM