Purple, yellow, green, and blue (plus an Oxford comma)

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You’ve recently seen a colony of Liatris mucronata, known as gayfeather and blazing-star, and one of Helianthus maximiliani, or Maximilian sunflowers. Now here’s a view of the two species together. I find it curious that the sunflower spikes seem to have leaned largely one way, and those of the gayfeather mostly the other. This is the first time I remember noticing a difference like that.

By the way, the less-conspicuous yellow flowers in the lower part of the picture are partridge pea, Chamaecrista fasciculata, which you also recently saw, but up close.

The date was October 6th, and the place a prairie remnant on Dessau Rd. in far northeast Austin. The survival of this plot is only temporary, alas; I photographed from close to the ground and at a good angle to keep from showing the stores and houses that have already encroached on three sides, and the poles and wires along the increasingly busy road that forms this parcel’s fourth boundary.

© 2013 Steven Schwartzman