American justice

What an injustice it is that I’ve gone 4 years and 5 months without ever showing you the common wildflower known as American water-willow, Justicia americana. In central Texas these plants are a familiar sight in wet soil along creeks and even occasionally in the shallow water of the creeks themselves. The flowers, which vary from about a quarter of an inch (6mm) to five-eighths of an inch (15mm), are mostly white but bear purple markings on the middle lobe of the lower lip. Most water-willows aren’t as cobwebbed as this one, which I saw on the Shield Ranch as part of a field trip on October 18.

© 2015 Steven Schwartzman