Colorful Bastrop
Of permanent appeal in the Bastrop area is the iron-rich earth.
The first two photos show varied shades of it along the path we trod in the state park on June 6th.
I also found a few prematurely colorful leaflets on a winged sumac bush,
Rhus copallinum. You’re looking at two of them.
© 2019 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
Amazing color indeed. My wife’s aunt‘s house was missed by several hundred feet in that fire. I believe it was one of only two or three left standing in the entire neighborhood.
Michael Scandling
June 17, 2019 at 7:50 AM
What a surprise to find you who live so far away have a personal connection to the Bastrop fire. Someone I know who lives out there had the fire burn an outbuilding but fortunately stop short of his house.
Steve Schwartzman
June 17, 2019 at 8:08 AM
I vividly recall us checking the news every few hours…
Michael Scandling
June 17, 2019 at 8:14 AM
I can understand why you would have.
Steve Schwartzman
June 17, 2019 at 3:19 PM
Another interesting comparison between the organic and inorganic world, Steve!
Peter Klopp
June 17, 2019 at 8:45 AM
You’re right, and in preparing this post I hadn’t thought about it in those terms the way I did in the recent post with that title.
Steve Schwartzman
June 17, 2019 at 3:21 PM
Lovely, rich colors. While I am enjoying this cool wet summer we’re having up here, those pops of red were most welcome this morning.
melissabluefineart
June 17, 2019 at 9:39 AM
I expected the red and orange tones of the earth there but the colorful sumac leaflets came as a surprise, given how many months away from fall we are. Be that as it may, I’m glad you welcomed the pops of color this morning.
Steve Schwartzman
June 17, 2019 at 3:24 PM
I, too, was surprised by the red leaves this early.
melissabluefineart
June 19, 2019 at 8:35 AM
Some leaves, like some people, are precocious.
Steve Schwartzman
June 19, 2019 at 9:03 AM
Have you seen the swirly greenish oxidation of coppery stone? It is common in Almaden.
tonytomeo
June 17, 2019 at 5:51 PM
I don’t know if I have. Can you point to a picture of it?
Steve Schwartzman
June 17, 2019 at 5:53 PM
I thought it would be easier to find picture of it, but I can’t. I just found this cinnabar with mercury in it. The stone I remember is not so sandy looking, and has greenish brown swirled in with the pink. https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/cinnabar-ore-mercury-beads
tonytomeo
June 17, 2019 at 6:01 PM
What you describe, coupled with the linked picture, seems appealing.
Steve Schwartzman
June 17, 2019 at 6:48 PM
Appealing? It is a rock. It is appealing to me because it is something that I remember from Almaden. It was a familiar sort of rock when i was a kid.
tonytomeo
June 17, 2019 at 7:55 PM
Things from the past often have a special value for us.
Steve Schwartzman
June 17, 2019 at 8:50 PM
This was a neat idea, and appealing colors. And, as a bonus, it reminded me I need to buy more turmeric!
Robert Parker
June 17, 2019 at 6:52 PM
Turmeric is one thing I couldn’t find for you in Bastrop State Park.
Steve Schwartzman
June 17, 2019 at 8:45 PM
Well I’ll substitute ocher, it’s low-cal and rich in iron.
Robert Parker
June 17, 2019 at 9:31 PM
The earth in Bastrop sure looks like it contains ocher. You may remember that I played with it (photographically) in British Columbia two years ago:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/?s=ochre
You commented at the time: “My great uncle once took us to see the remnants of an ochre mine in the Poconos, used to make barn paint in the old days.” Is that the same great uncle who also took you to buy turmeric?
Steve Schwartzman
June 18, 2019 at 5:27 AM
Spring has only just sprung here and you already have sumac color. Life is passing by much too quickly.
Steve Gingold
June 17, 2019 at 6:59 PM
Well, this sumac color was an anomaly. Almost all the other leaflets were their normal green. I have no idea why a few were different.
Steve Schwartzman
June 17, 2019 at 8:47 PM
Probably the same reason I had some gray hair at 18.
Steve Gingold
June 18, 2019 at 2:54 AM
Wow, and I thought I was precocious for starting to get gray hair by the end of my 20s. It seems to be hereditary on my father’s side, and perhaps on yours.
Steve Schwartzman
June 18, 2019 at 5:32 AM
The colors are delightful. I saw a few similar leaves last weekend, but I was so overwhelmed by other sights and sounds I walked right past them. I’m glad you didn’t walk past these; their colors are remarkably similar to the colors in the soil.
shoreacres
June 18, 2019 at 8:27 AM
So you’ve seen it, and in Austin this morning I noticed a flameleaf sumac with a cluster of leaflets that had turned colors. As with the kinds of stabilimenta, I don’t know what causes premature changing of sumac leaflets, but I imagine there are scientists who do.
Steve Schwartzman
June 18, 2019 at 1:06 PM
I like this group very much, Steve!
bluebrightly
July 3, 2019 at 7:11 PM
Had you been with us that day, I think you’d have focused on many of the same things.
Steve Schwartzman
July 3, 2019 at 10:05 PM