Elucidation

Most of the prominent brightness in yesterday’s photograph came from the white-margined (marginata) bracts of Euphorbia marginata, a species known on account of that whiteness as snow-on-the-mountain. As I understand it, the five-segmented white collars aren’t technically part of the plant’s flowers, nor are the smaller five-segmented dull-green collars within the white ones. Only the nondescript little elements at the heart of those concentric rings comprise the flowers. Geyata Ajilvsgi notes that there are “30–35 male flowers and one female flower congested in [each] small, cuplike structure.” If that works for snow-on-the-mountain—and it clearly does—then who are we to knock it?

This downward-looking view comes from August 29th along US 183 in Cedar Park, a rapidly growing suburb just to the north of Austin.

© 2016 Steven Schwartzman