A lot going on: another instance of “more is more”
On May 18th I spent an hour and a half at a pond on the Blackland Prairie in far northeast Austin. Giant bulrushes (Schoenoplectus californicus) grew lushly in places around the pond, as you see in both of these busy photographs. In the second picture the bulrushes formed an eccentric* frame for the purple flowers of a pickerelweed colony (Pontederia cordata).
Click to enlarge.
* Eccentric is literally ex-centric, which is to say ‘off-center.’ The familiar sense applies here too.
© 2020 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
that is so very interesting
beth
May 28, 2020 at 6:09 AM
The mind likes to find order in chaos.
Steve Schwartzman
May 28, 2020 at 6:19 AM
It absolutely does, I think that’s why I love puzzles and crosswords, I see the patterns emerge, just as in nature
beth
May 28, 2020 at 7:18 AM
Then we’re both patrons of patterns. (Patron is etymologically the same word as pattern.)
Steve Schwartzman
May 28, 2020 at 7:39 AM
❤️
beth
May 28, 2020 at 8:04 AM
I’d reply with an emoji symbolizing complexity but I don’t think there is one.
Steve Schwartzman
May 28, 2020 at 8:44 AM
I like your photos accompanied by etymological explanation, Steve.
Peter Klopp
May 28, 2020 at 8:18 AM
I’ve long felt that schools should incorporate a little etymology into all subjects. So many things make more sense when people understand where words came from and what they mean.
Steve Schwartzman
May 28, 2020 at 8:49 AM
Etymology would be a definite enrichment in the language arts department of our schools. Alas, so many useful subject areas have been removed from the curricula and are being replaced by trendy and ephemeral agendas.
Peter Klopp
May 28, 2020 at 10:20 AM
Amen. The very phrase “language arts” is an example of trendiness that came in after my time. Schools should give us back the class that used to be called simply “English,” along with the contents that went with it.
Steve Schwartzman
May 28, 2020 at 10:32 AM
I agree.
Peter Klopp
May 29, 2020 at 9:09 AM
I just realized I haven’t seen any pickerel weed yet this year. It grows at Armand Bayou, but they’ve been closed all spring. I’ll have to look more closely around the refuge ponds to see if I can spot some. Speaking of etymology, ‘pickerel’ refers to the fish: several species of pike are known as pickerel. Apparently pickerel weed got its name because pickerel fish can be found where it grows.
shoreacres
May 28, 2020 at 8:18 AM
When I was learning about native plants here a couple of decades ago I looked up the origin of the pickerel in pickerelweed and found the explanation you gave, with its connection to pike. I’m not surprised to hear that pickerelweed grows at Armand Bayou. With things beginning to open back up now, it shouldn’t be long before you can get in again. Keeping a nature preserve closed never made sense in the first place.
Steve Schwartzman
May 28, 2020 at 8:55 AM
And still, less is more. Back in my DJ days (radio, not club), if a person was a bit odd we’d say he was pressed off-center.
Michael Scandling
May 28, 2020 at 10:04 AM
“Less is more” doesn’t preclude more from being more as well. I list them as #14 and #15 in About My Techniques.
I remember the occasional record that got pressed with its hole off-center. Somehow that defect never led to the record becoming valuable the way that some misprinted postage stamps did:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_Jenny
Steve Schwartzman
May 28, 2020 at 10:23 AM
They can exist at the same time, as in the top picture.
Michael Scandling
May 28, 2020 at 10:31 AM
Ah yes, two for the price of one, a happy simultaneity.
Steve Schwartzman
May 28, 2020 at 10:34 AM
My kind of place! Pickerel weed is a favorite of mine.
The kind of exercises I do are eccentric, meant to lengthen muscles as they strengthen as opposed to compressing them, as in working with weights. Compressed muscles lead to compressed, and painful, joints.
melissabluefineart
May 28, 2020 at 10:54 AM
You won’t be surprised that I was the only person there, at least if you discount the people working out of the industrial buildings on one side of the pond. In other words, I was the only person there specifically for the pond and the plants it sustains.
I have a feeling that pickerelweed remains relatively unknown. I certainly hadn’t heard of it for most of my life.
Interesting that “eccentric” caused you to think of the kinds of exercises you do. My association has often been with the eccentricity of conic sections (ellipses, parabolas, hyperbolas) in mathematics. Most people would consider that an eccentricity.
Steve Schwartzman
May 28, 2020 at 11:05 AM
True but a scientist wouldn’t think you eccentric. I think you are right about pickerelweed. Very few people here know it either.
melissabluefineart
May 29, 2020 at 12:02 PM
We could do a promotional movie: “Pickerelweed Meets the Conic Sections.”
Steve Schwartzman
May 29, 2020 at 4:21 PM
Wonderful idea!
melissabluefineart
May 30, 2020 at 8:54 AM
If you can have flying mutant ninja turtles, why not pickerelweed meeting the conic sections?
Steve Schwartzman
May 30, 2020 at 9:33 AM
People might find it eccentric.
melissabluefineart
May 30, 2020 at 8:54 AM
Indubitably. I expect lots of people would find many of my activities eccentric.
Steve Schwartzman
May 30, 2020 at 9:32 AM
Mine as well 🙂
melissabluefineart
May 31, 2020 at 8:36 AM
Both are great plant portraits, and both would make terrific puzzles!
krikitarts
May 28, 2020 at 5:54 PM
Parallel thinkers.
Steve Gingold
May 28, 2020 at 6:12 PM
That makes two recommendations in 18 minutes and half a world apart.
Steve Schwartzman
May 28, 2020 at 6:14 PM
More jigsaw puzzle nightmares.
Steve Gingold
May 28, 2020 at 6:11 PM
I expect the pickerelweed flowers would make the second puzzle a little easier to solve.
Steve Schwartzman
May 28, 2020 at 6:15 PM
Pattern recognition.
Khürt Williams
May 28, 2020 at 8:37 PM
Followed by comment recognition.
Steve Schwartzman
May 28, 2020 at 8:50 PM
Cool name!
tonytomeo
May 28, 2020 at 11:25 PM
Do you mean Schoenoplectus californicus (presumably because of the second part) or pickerelweed?
Steve Schwartzman
May 29, 2020 at 6:15 AM
‘californicus’! (although, now that I say it, it does not sound so good.)
tonytomeo
June 1, 2020 at 2:47 PM
Reminiscent of this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Californication_(word)
Steve Schwartzman
June 1, 2020 at 3:55 PM
Yes.
The definitions does not mention that it was popular terminology in Oregon. I think that it was more common there than anywhere else. I can not imagine why it would have been popular in Oklahoma though, especially since so many Okies migrated here a few decades prior.
tonytomeo
June 3, 2020 at 7:26 PM
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