May Day

Today is May Day, the beginning of the new month. In contrast, “Mayday” is a distress call, but I think you’ll agree that this densely floral portion of a wildflower meadow was not feeling distressed at all. Flourishing is how I found it on the morning of April 23rd along Yaupon Dr. on the far west side of my Great Hills neighborhood. The yellow flowers are the familiar (because often shown here) four-nerve daisies, Tetraneuris linearifolia. Many people might overlook the equally numerous but much smaller flower heads of pale blue-violet mixed in among all those sunshiny yellow daisies. They’re Chaetopappa bellidifolia, appropriately called least daisies; you’ll get a much better look at one in the next post.

The four-nerve daisy colony served as a bright and conveniently out-of-focus backdrop for some blue curls, Phacelia congesta, that had completely uncurled. The plant farther back still shows some curling at the left.

© 2020 Steven Schwartzman