Lindheimer’s senna pods on prickly pear
Click for greater clarity.
It’s not unusual in nature to find things outside their normal places (assuming we can even say what a normal place for something in nature is). When I went walking through some undeveloped land in my neighborhood on February 13th I noticed these dry Lindheimer’s senna pods, Senna lindheimeriana, caught on the edge of a prickly pear cactus pad, Opuntia engelmannii. Notice how the curve of the two closest pods approximately follows the curve of the prickly pear pad’s edge.
If you’re not familiar with glochids (pronounced glow-kids), which are the tiny spines that appear in clumps here, you can read about them in this article. If you’re not familiar with having any of them in your skin, you’re fortunate.
© 2014 Steven Schwartzman
What an interesting photo – so many shadows and shapes. The pods look like tiny appetizers on toothpicks, served up from a very unusual buffet table. And yes, I well remember glochids from the day I learned that the so-called spineless prickly pear, isn’t.
shoreacres
March 4, 2014 at 6:47 AM
I like the alliterative sound of “shadows and shapes,” just as I like to play visually with the things themselves.
From what you say, I’m glad I never tried to test the inherent claim in “spineless” prickly pears. Along those lines, I wouldn’t recommend trying any of the “appetizers” in this picture.
Steve Schwartzman
March 4, 2014 at 6:56 AM
Not soft and inviting. We had pods that look like those on our locust trees out back. No prickly pear cactus in our woods.
Jim in IA
March 4, 2014 at 7:13 AM
I was surprised some years ago to learn that some kind of cactus or other grows in almost every state in the United States.
Steve Schwartzman
March 4, 2014 at 7:24 AM
Me, too. I’ve seen small prickly pear along the sandy river bottoms of the midwest.
Jim in IA
March 4, 2014 at 7:30 AM
Contrast in soft and sharp lines is so interesting. Nicely done! ~SueBee
SueBee and Kat
March 4, 2014 at 8:33 AM
I appreciate your noticing the contrast in soft and sharp lines. That’s a part of natural geometry.
Steve Schwartzman
March 4, 2014 at 8:48 AM
I can imagine this as a tiny landscape, with the cactus as the mountains, the seed pods as clouds, and the spines as trees! I really like the way the shadows help to accentuate the patterns!
Michael Glover
March 4, 2014 at 10:24 AM
I’m glad to hear you’ve got such a vivid imagination, Michael. Now that you’ve cast the cactus pads as hills, I’m reminded of the stylized way the painter Grant Wood represented hills in some of his paintings. As for the spines, if you scale them way up I can imagine them turning into some sort of yucca or sotol, plants that grow in this part of the world. I was pleased with the way one of the prominent large spines seems to run right down the middle of one of the spine shadows on the pad beyond it.
Steve Schwartzman
March 4, 2014 at 11:32 AM
So who is this Lindheimer fellow and why is he leaving his senna pods lying around on Opuntias?
Steve Gingold
March 4, 2014 at 5:16 PM
I can’t answer the second part of your question, but you’ll find answers to the first at these two sites:
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fli04
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Lindheimer
Steve Schwartzman
March 4, 2014 at 5:30 PM
The father of Texas botany. Nice picture of him there too.
Steve Gingold
March 4, 2014 at 5:32 PM
His house still exists as a museum and historic site in New Braunfels, a town about 50 miles southwest of Austin. The Austin chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas took a field trip to visit it last year.
Steve Schwartzman
March 4, 2014 at 5:40 PM
this is one of your best.
so good.
sedge808
March 4, 2014 at 6:55 PM
I’m glad you rate it so highly.
Steve Schwartzman
March 4, 2014 at 7:29 PM
I am one of the fortunates.
Gallivanta
March 5, 2014 at 12:28 AM
And you’ve probably guessed that I am not.
Steve Schwartzman
March 5, 2014 at 7:15 AM
A miniature landscape, this one.
Susan Scheid
March 5, 2014 at 4:44 PM
That’s how I often think of scenes like this one, Susan. Some photographers use the term “intimate landscape,” which I think works here, but I think they usually reserve the term for a real landscape that is looked at closely enough to eliminate the horizon and distant features.
Steve Schwartzman
March 5, 2014 at 4:49 PM
What a beautiful photo! I find myself wanting to paint the prickles and the pods – but separately – but they flow!
Kathy Sturr
March 5, 2014 at 5:51 PM
Feel free to paint them if you’d like. That’s not a talent I have, but I’m glad you do.
Steve Schwartzman
March 5, 2014 at 6:30 PM
SUPER!
absengeralois
March 8, 2014 at 12:47 PM
Thank you.
Steve Schwartzman
March 8, 2014 at 12:55 PM