Rain-lilies along Mopac

Click for some zesty zooming.

During the morning rush hour on September 15th I worked my way gingerly across the west-side access road of Mopac, the second-busiest expressway in Austin, to photograph this long colony of rain-lilies, Cooperia drummondii, that had sprung up after some rain a few days earlier. Contrast this multitude with the single flower I found behind Central Market on August 26th after an earlier rainfall that called forth many fewer rain-lilies.

If you look carefully at the far left portion of the zoomed version of the photograph you’ll see parts of a few lavender-colored flowers. They’re silverleaf nightshade, Solanum elaeagnifolium, and several of them were mixed in with the taller, more prominent, and far more numerous rain-lilies. On the other hand, in the four days since I took this picture, the rain-lilies have already shriveled and faded, while the hardy nightshade flowers are still going strong.

© 2015 Steven Schwartzman