Indiangrass
You’ve seen pictures in these pages of Indian blanket, Indian paintbrush, and Indian mallow; you’ve also seen three native grasses in the past week. Putting those two things together, here’s Indiangrass, Sorghastrum nutans, making its debut here today. The backlit leaf—one more small source of fall color in central Texas—is what first drew my attention, but then a closer look revealed details of the stalk I’d never seen before: the two-tone textured joint and the long wavy striae above it.
Like the last view, this one comes from November 19th along US 183 in Cedar Park, a fast-growing suburb to the north of Austin.
© 2013 Steven Schwartzman
Elegant, and magnificient light.
bentehaarstad
December 28, 2013 at 6:23 AM
Thanks, Bente. The backlighting through the warmly colored leaf made this grass come alive visually.
Steve Schwartzman
December 28, 2013 at 8:51 AM
Another beauty! Really nice Steve. Color, composition, clarity – one of my recent favorites. D
Pairodox Farm
December 28, 2013 at 6:56 AM
It’s one of my recent favorites too, D. Thanks.
Steve Schwartzman
December 28, 2013 at 8:53 AM
Wunderschön!!!
einfachtilda
December 28, 2013 at 7:00 AM
Danke, Mathilda.
Steve Schwartzman
December 28, 2013 at 8:53 AM
The colors and the movement in this one get my heart excited!!
Elisa
December 28, 2013 at 7:15 AM
It’s good of you to see movement in stasis, Elisa. From what you say, it went beyond heartwarming for you .
Steve Schwartzman
December 28, 2013 at 9:00 AM
Really beautiful lines in that image. Thanks for sharing this beauty with us.
Dawn
December 28, 2013 at 8:02 AM
I’d seen (and photographed) backlit grass leaves before, but the striation on this stalk was new and grabbed my attention.
Steve Schwartzman
December 28, 2013 at 9:03 AM
At first, quick glance, I thought this was a musical instrument!
mrsdaffodil
December 28, 2013 at 12:14 PM
Yes, and it plays the music of the “spears” (of grass). At the same time, I got to play with it visually.
Steve Schwartzman
December 28, 2013 at 12:59 PM
🙂
mrsdaffodil
December 29, 2013 at 11:22 AM
I did, too! I thought it was a beautiful wooden harp!
quirkyjazz
December 29, 2013 at 9:53 PM
The ambiguity of abstraction: with a scale of feet instead of inches this could be taken for a harp, couldn’t it?
Steve Schwartzman
December 29, 2013 at 10:39 PM
What a beautiful photograph, the colours conjure up so many other sights and sounds.
Julie
December 28, 2013 at 5:01 PM
Thanks, Julie. I’m happy to have been a conjurer for you.
Steve Schwartzman
December 28, 2013 at 6:17 PM
Gorgeous warm colours, Steve. As I’m going backwards, I expect I’ll see the other grasses you mention.
P.S. I’m finally dropping by my favourite blogs after a long absence from blogging. Life has been quite different here in SW France, much more mellow in many ways, but we’re off in a couple of weeks to an olive farm in Italy, just outside Florence, something we’re both looking forward to.
Mufidah Kassalias
December 29, 2013 at 6:56 AM
Living forward and reading blogs backward: a distinctive combination that I expect you’ll write about one of these days (perhaps when you’re blogging forward and living backward).
Steve Schwartzman
December 29, 2013 at 7:29 AM
As far as color and texture this grass is a beauty and your photography just catches the light perfectly. It radiates warmth.
Lee@A Guide to Northeastern Gardening
December 29, 2013 at 8:16 AM
Thanks, Lee. I was happy with this photograph because it records things I hadn’t seen before, and in a favorable light (literally and figuratively). I see you’re from the place where I grew up, Long Island, but I had no interest in native plants back then. I’m always surprised now when I discover that a species I know from Texas also grows on Long Island.
Steve Schwartzman
December 29, 2013 at 9:44 AM
[…] Do you remember eryngo, Eryngium leavenworthii, the prickly plant that produces what look like little purple pineapples? On November 19th I came across the remains of a few eryngo seed heads near some flameleaf sumac, Rhus lanceolata. This was within sight of the spot along US 183 in Cedar Park where I found the Indiangrass you recently saw. […]
Eryngo remains | Portraits of Wildflowers
December 30, 2013 at 6:04 AM
Amazing, top detail. The framing makes it for me.
Maria
December 30, 2013 at 6:23 PM
Yes, those wavy striations in the upper portion of the stalk grabbed my attention, too. As you’ve seen elsewhere, I sometimes like narrow framing, which seems quite appropriate for a single grass plant.
Steve Schwartzman
December 30, 2013 at 10:37 PM
The stalk, particularly, reminded me of a Christmas gift my aunt sent to me. It’s a cutting board made of bamboo. The grain in the board looks precisely like the striations in the stalk, right down to the “knots” which resemble that textured joint. I had no idea bamboo is a grass, but now, thanks to a happy coincidence between your photo and my new cutting board, I do.
shoreacres
December 30, 2013 at 8:16 PM
Aye, bamboos are grasses, and I’ve read that they’re among the fastest-growing ones. I’ve seen cutting boards and other objects, including tables, made from bamboo. The difference in scale between bamboo and Indiangrass might preclude some similarities, but certain common family traits persist. I didn’t know about the striations on Indiangrass until this close look, which richly rewarded me.
Steve Schwartzman
December 30, 2013 at 10:23 PM
I love the sculptural sense of this photograph. Brancusi, maybe?
Susan Scheid
January 3, 2014 at 5:19 PM
In terms of shape I can see Brancusi, but did he ever do anything textural (or colorful, for that matter) like this?
Steve Schwartzman
January 3, 2014 at 5:23 PM
No, he didn’t, you’re right. You’ve bettered him!!
Susan Scheid
January 6, 2014 at 5:38 PM
Now if my work could just better the prices his work fetches…
Steve Schwartzman
January 6, 2014 at 6:18 PM
Yes, http is the thing, isn’t it?
Susan Scheid
January 6, 2014 at 8:01 PM
How is it the auto spell-check, before I even notice it, turns “that” into “http”?
Susan Scheid
January 6, 2014 at 8:02 PM
That’s weird, isn’t it? Must be the Internet asserting its hegemony.
Steve Schwartzman
January 6, 2014 at 8:23 PM
I loved this photograph!
Nikki Truskett
January 5, 2014 at 2:52 PM
Thanks for letting me know. I’m fond of abstractions.
Steve Schwartzman
January 5, 2014 at 5:15 PM