A wildflower in mid-December

Several recent freezing nights did away with many of the wildflowers in Austin, including two still-blooming sunflower plants along Mopac that I’d been keeping an eye on. Nevertheless, some wildflowers survived, and there are already even a few new ones. Yesterday afternoon, with the temperature in the 60s, I found this four-nerve daisy, Tetraneuris linearifolia, in the right-of-way beneath the power lines to the west of Morado Circle in my hilly part of town. Notice how the rays have begun curling down as the flower head matures.

© 2013 Steven Schwartzman