I would have missed them if I’d missed them.
Our three-week trip to the Midwest in June took me out of Austin during the prime season for mountain pinks (Centaurium beyrichii). I hadn’t seen any before I left and didn’t know whether I’d see any after I returned. Fortunately I did, as confirmed by this picture from June 27th on the west side of Capital of Texas Highway just north of Champion Grandview Way. The pareidolia partisans among you can consider this photograph an Austin take on Mount Rushmore. For those of you who are more down-to-earth, below is a closer look at one of those flowering mountain pink plants.
© 2016 Steven Schwartzman
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Looks like Old Stoneface.
Jim Ruebush
July 10, 2016 at 6:42 AM
Do you mean the one in Minnesota?
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/13665
Steve Schwartzman
July 10, 2016 at 7:00 AM
Not that one. It is a good one, I’m sure. I was thinking of this one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Man_of_the_Mountain
Jim Ruebush
July 10, 2016 at 9:33 AM
I remember reading about the unfortunate collapse of that formation in 2003. The image lives on.
Steve Schwartzman
July 10, 2016 at 9:52 AM
I’m so glad you found your mountain pinks. These are nice ones, too: not at all in decline. Look at all those buds! I’m glad you showed them in closeup as well as tucked into the rocks.
When I was in Kerrville, the pinks were abundant, but tended to be in large colonies alongside the road. Eventually, when I traveled farther west, I did find a few “bouquets” like yours, growing on cliffs created by road cuts. I was surprised to see they had ferns as companions. I can’t remember ever seeing ferns so fresh and green along the roads, except at low water crossings, but I suppose that’s what ten extra inches of rain will do.
shoreacres
July 10, 2016 at 7:23 AM
Mountain pinks and ferns: now there’s a combination I’ve never seen, given the different environments those plants normally grow in. I sure would like to have seen the two together, especially with the ferns as vivid a green as you say they were. Did you manage to get any pink/green pictures?
Steve Schwartzman
July 10, 2016 at 8:27 AM
I didn’t. Although they were on the same cliffs, they were between ten and twenty feet high, well separated, and hard to get into the same frame except as small spots of green and pink. I did take a couple of photos of the ferns just as a record, and to try to identify the species. They were along the roads near Tarpley, Vanderpool, and Leakey.
shoreacres
July 10, 2016 at 9:45 AM
Ah, too bad the two weren’t closer together.
Steve Schwartzman
July 10, 2016 at 9:49 AM
Love the face…kind of a lurking glance to it, I think. So glad you didn’t miss the pinks 🙂
melissabluefineart
July 10, 2016 at 7:52 AM
I’m glad not to have missed them, but even if I had I’d just wait till next spring. In contrast, all the things I saw near you aren’t likely to come my way again, so the trade would have been well worth it. Even better is that I got to enjoy both.
Steve Schwartzman
July 10, 2016 at 8:41 AM
Yes indeed.
melissabluefineart
July 11, 2016 at 9:41 AM
Steven: Great job! Here’s one for you…I even coined it, I think?
“If I hadn’t seen it with my own Eyes I wouldn’t have believed my Eyes.”
elmdriveimages
July 10, 2016 at 8:00 AM
I’m tempted to reply that the things we see with our own eyes are no lies—except that optical illusions prove otherwise.
Steve Schwartzman
July 10, 2016 at 8:42 AM
I like that picture of the rock face very much. 🙂
Pit
July 10, 2016 at 9:18 AM
When I took that picture I was so intent on the cliff and flowers that I didn’t see a face. Only when preparing to use the image in this post did the face appear to me.
Steve Schwartzman
July 10, 2016 at 9:47 AM
Glad that you had some blooms at ground level so you didn’t have to play mountain goat for the mountain pinks.
Steve Gingold
July 10, 2016 at 2:32 PM
In my experience, this species is more likely to grow on the ground than out of the face of a cliff, so I’ve never lacked for accessible flowers. Of course the ones on cliffs add a certain drama, and that’s one of the times I put a long lens on the camera.
Steve Schwartzman
July 10, 2016 at 2:53 PM
This would be a perfect response to this week’s Daily Post Photo Challenge: Look up.
susurrus
July 11, 2016 at 4:11 AM
It’s surprising how many things go unseen because we often don’t look up. Experience with mountain pinks has taught me to look up as well as down.
Steve Schwartzman
July 11, 2016 at 5:23 AM
Aren’t they special! A little pop of pink on the bank 😊
Julie@frogpondfarm
July 12, 2016 at 3:06 AM
“A little pop of pink on the bank.”
It’s nature that I think we should thank.
Steve Schwartzman
July 12, 2016 at 4:14 AM