Matelea cynanchoides

There are two species of Matelea I’m familiar with from central Texas: the relatively rare plateau milkvine and the common pearl milkweed vine (whose flowers are quite uncommon in structure and ornamentation: take a look if you haven’t seen that species before, and if you like the first view of it here’s a second one from a different angle and with the addition of a visitor). After an April 27th field trip to Bastrop State Park led by botanist Bill Carr, I could count M. cynanchoides, or prairie milkvine, among the Matelea species I’d seen. As shown here, the flowers of this species occur mostly in pairs.

If you’re interested in photography as a craft, you’ll find that points 1, 2, 6, 7 and 20 in About My Techniques are relevant to this photograph.

© 2014 Steven Schwartzman