Pink evening primrose colony

On the afternoon of March 27th we were beginning our long trek home from Floresville on US 181 when I noticed a colony of pink evening primroses (Oenothera speciosa) in the fringe between the highway and the parking lot of a CVS Pharmacy. There was no help for it but to turn around at the first opportunity and go back to take pictures of the wildflowers. Beyond the pink evening primroses you can see a few phlox flowers and Indian paintbrushes.

© 2019 Steven Schwartzman

Large buttercup flower and bud

Above is the flower of a large buttercup (Ranunculus macranthus) along TX 123 south of Seguin on March 18th. Below is a bud of the same fuzzy species.

Both compositions share a sweep toward the top right, but while the first view is bright and looks upward, the second is darker and looks downward.

© 2019 Steven Schwartzman

A long yellow flower mound

From March 21st along FM 1470 northeast of Poteet here’s a long mound of evening primrose flowers. I used a telephoto lens because the land was fenced, which also meant I couldn’t get close enough to even try to identify what species of Oenothera this was. The red flowers were Indian paintbrushes, Castilleja indivisa, and the others were sandyland bluebonnets, Lupinus subcarnosus.

© 2019 Steven Schwartzman

Categorically phantasmasepulchrofloragorical*

On March 21st, three days after spending time at the wildflower-covered cemetery in New Berlin, we reveled in the Sand Branch Cemetery on FM 2504 west of Poteet in Atascosa County. This time the dense wildflowers were even more widespread than before.

The first photograph sets the scene, while the second and third emphasize the way some of the tombstones were engulfed in a sea of wildflowers.

The other two pictures highlight the profuse wildflowers in their own right.

The red flowers are Indian paintbrushes (Castilleja indivisa). The yellows are Nueces coreopsis (Coreopsis nuecensis) and also some sort of daisy with a smaller flower head.

The purplish blue flowers are sandyland bluebonnets (Lupinus subcarnosus). The magenta flowers are a species of Phlox. The whites are white prickly poppies (Argemone albiflora) and a kind of smallish daisy.

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* I’d come up with sepulchrofloral while preparing this post and Susan Scheid independently created phantasmafloragorical to describe the previous cemetery views, so I hybridized the two hybrids.

© 2019 Steven Schwartzman

Red and white prickly poppies

Click to expand.

In Austin we have white prickly poppies, Argemone albiflora, and only white. After I saw online that someone had photographed Argemone sanguinea, known as red or rose prickly poppies, along TX 97 between Pleasanton and Floresville, I purposely drove that route when I was in the area on March 21st and found them. You could say that I, too, was sanguine.

© 2018 Steven Schwartzman

Goldenrod flowering in March

When I saw a bit of goldenrod flowering in Austin on February 27th I was surprised, and when I found some more in the Southwest Greenway at the old Mueller Airport on March 14th I was surprised again. That’s because normally the earliest we’d expect any Solidago species to flower here is late summer, with the peak coming in the fall. Coincidentally, when I saw the goldenrod flowering in February it was on the same outing that brought you the way-out-of-season Maximilian sunflowers that appeared here earlier this month.

© 2019 Steven Schwartzman

Huisache tree flowering in a field of bluebonnets

Along FM 1470 northeast of Poteet on March 21st I found this flowering huisache tree at telephoto length in a large field of bluebonnets (probably Lupinus subcarnosus) and Texas groundsel (Senecio ampullaceus). Huisaches for the last several decades passed as Acacia farnesiana but recently became Vachellia farnesiana. What an inconstant world.

© 2019 Steven Schwartzman

Like flames

Behold the opening bud of a prairie fleabane daisy, Erigeron modestus, in my neighborhood on March 10th. Call it modest if you like; my mind sees flames.

(I didn’t intend to do a burst of daily posts but it’s spring in Texas and so much is happening.)

© 2019 Steven Schwartzman

Can you say colors?

Along TX 123 south of Seguin on March 18th.

Magenta = Phlox spp.
Yellow = Texas groundsel (Senecio ampullaceus)
Blue = Bluebonnets (probably Lupinus subcarnosus)

© 2019 Steven Schwartzman

Blowing in the wind

One of the highlights in the cemetery at Christ Lutheran Church in New Berlin on March 18th was the Nueces coreopsis (Coreopsis nuecensis), whose range doesn’t reach Austin and that I get to see only when I travel south. The wind made closeups difficult but I did my usual thing of getting on the ground, setting a high shutter speed, and taking enough pictures that a few of them would likely be okay.

The orange in the background came from Indian paintbrushes (Castilleja indivisa) and the blue from bluebonnets (Lupinus spp).

© 2019 Steven Schwartzman