Not a normal February juxtaposition

On February 7th I was driving north on the access road of Interstate 35 in far north Austin when I saw some unaccustomedly early square-bud primrose flowers, Calylophus berlandieri, also known as sundrops because of their bright yellow color. I pulled over and walked back to take noisy pictures of them (with the noise coming from the fast-moving traffic). Then I was surprised to notice some flower heads of small palafoxia, Palafoxia callosa, which is traditionally a species that blooms from late summer through fall, but here we were only a week into February. I assume the palafoxia is a holdover from 2015 rather than an advance guard from 2016’s seasonal crop. The shadowed structure is a set of palafoxia buds just beginning to open.

© 2016 Steven Schwartzman