Flowering paloverde tree and clouds
On May 29th I stopped along Anderson Mill Rd. at Windy Ridge Rd., having never taken pictures there before. What prompted me to pull over was a flowering paloverde tree (Parkinsonia aculeata) that I wanted to play off against the moving (in both senses) clouds that had been with us all morning.
© 2020 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
I love your dramatic-looking picture!
Ms. Liz
June 13, 2020 at 4:55 AM
Glad to hear it: that’s how I felt about it.
Steve Schwartzman
June 13, 2020 at 6:17 AM
Steve, I’m putting together a ‘yellow’ post – may I include ‘flowering paloverde tree and clouds’?
Ms. Liz
July 1, 2020 at 1:48 AM
Sure, go for it. Yellow is such a happy color.
Steve Schwartzman
July 1, 2020 at 7:56 AM
By the way, since your theme is yellow, you might prefer a paloverde picture that shows more of that color, like the one at
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2014/05/27/paloverde-tree-in-full-flower/
or the second one at
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2015/08/31/wispy-paloverde-tree/.
Steve Schwartzman
July 1, 2020 at 8:00 AM
I love the overall drama of the one I chose but these are beautiful too – when I do the post I might include 2 or 3 of your photos instead of just one! Thanks for your support of my ‘yellow’ post Steve!
Ms. Liz
July 1, 2020 at 2:45 PM
Sure thing. I have a soft spot for yellow.
By the way, I took this picture precisely because of the drama in the sky.
Steve Schwartzman
July 1, 2020 at 6:25 PM
Yes I’d read through the comments and noted your motivation for taking the photo. It’s spectacularly successful Steve! Sssso well done 🙂
Ms. Liz
July 1, 2020 at 6:33 PM
Merci, Madame.
Steve Schwartzman
July 1, 2020 at 6:36 PM
I’ve seen these in my few travels through your environs, but I hadn’t known what they were. Thanks for the enlightenment. And the background of the clouds adds another dimension.
krikitarts
June 13, 2020 at 5:28 AM
Let there be light: I’m happy to have elucidated that for you. Without those clouds I probably wouldn’t have stopped, given that I know paloverde trees close to home.
Steve Schwartzman
June 13, 2020 at 6:21 AM
It is cool to see those skinny leaves, an adaptation I’m assuming to arid conditions.
melissabluefineart
June 13, 2020 at 7:54 AM
That sounds right. Here’s a closer look at one from six years ago:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2014/05/27/paloverde-tree-in-full-flower/
Steve Schwartzman
June 13, 2020 at 1:32 PM
Oh, that is a nice shot. Are the leaves sharp? They look almost like needles to me.
melissabluefineart
June 14, 2020 at 8:07 AM
The leaves aren’t sharp but the tree has thorns:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/a-third-color-for-paloverde/
Steve Schwartzman
June 14, 2020 at 11:23 AM
I knew about the thorns.
melissabluefineart
June 15, 2020 at 8:42 AM
Not till I looked back at that picture did I remember how long some paloverde thorns can be.
Steve Schwartzman
June 15, 2020 at 2:52 PM
I’m sure if you got too close the tree would remind you.
melissabluefineart
June 16, 2020 at 8:16 AM
I expect it would.
Steve Schwartzman
June 16, 2020 at 9:34 AM
I’m reading a book about redwoods, and it seems the first person to call them that was a Spaniard. He called them palo colorado, which evidently translates to red wood. So does palo verde in fact have green wood?
melissabluefineart
June 17, 2020 at 11:00 AM
Paloverde really is green:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2013/03/29/a-catkin-fallen-onto-a-paloverde-thorn/
Steve Schwartzman
June 17, 2020 at 3:05 PM
That is beautiful, and now I’ve learned what palo means. And colorado…didn’t know that meant “red’.
melissabluefineart
June 18, 2020 at 7:57 AM
Palo means many things in Spanish. Here are some translations:
https://www.spanishdict.com/translate/palo
Anthropologists and linguists have observed that if a language develops words for colors, the first one is universally red. Maybe that primacy of red accounts for colorado meaning ‘red.’ If you want to say ‘colored’ in Spanish the word is colorido.
Steve Schwartzman
June 18, 2020 at 8:07 AM
I think I would find one word to have so many meanings confusing. I know we do a bit of that in English but that list seems extreme.
Fascinating about the color red being the first one named. It makes sense.
melissabluefineart
June 19, 2020 at 9:36 AM
Palo in Spanish is small potatoes compared to get in English:
https://www.infoplease.com/dictionary/get
Steve Schwartzman
June 19, 2020 at 1:04 PM
Ha! You’re right.
melissabluefineart
June 20, 2020 at 8:56 AM
You have to pity a foreigner trying to learn the nuances of get.
Steve Schwartzman
June 20, 2020 at 11:45 AM
Yes and I’m sure there are other examples as well.
melissabluefineart
June 21, 2020 at 8:00 AM
Only a zillion of them. The category of verb + particle is especially difficult, because the meaning of the combination is often different from the individual meanings of the components, and the same combination can have more than one meaning. For example, make up can mean ‘create’ or ‘reconcile,’ and make out can mean ‘canoodle’ or ‘decipher.’
Steve Schwartzman
June 21, 2020 at 10:02 AM
This is just the sort of thing my dad and I used to like to chase down. 🙂
melissabluefineart
June 21, 2020 at 10:30 PM
Perhaps there was no wind on Windy Ridge Rd. that day, but in my mind, I see the paloverde tree branches swaying under the clouds.
Peter Klopp
June 13, 2020 at 8:09 AM
I think Windy Ridge is one of those street names that sounds good but doesn’t have much to do with the actual location. That said, there was some wind, which made it harder for me to compose my pictures because the branches moved around somewhat, and the clouds also kept moving.
Steve Schwartzman
June 13, 2020 at 1:36 PM
Love that perspective and yellow and blue.
circadianreflections
June 13, 2020 at 10:31 AM
The combination of blue and yellow
Makes for a picture that sure is mellow.
The combination of yellow and blue
Makes the scene come shining through.
As for the perspective, I was down close to the ground so I could aim upward and play the branches off against the clouds.
Steve Schwartzman
June 13, 2020 at 1:43 PM
😀
circadianreflections
June 14, 2020 at 10:24 AM
The three layers are nice: one represented by the tree, two by the clouds. It gives the photo a sense of depth as well as of movement. The amount of detail in the tree’s pretty nice, too. The flowers are the main attraction, I suppose, but you even captured the nubbiness that remains along the stems once the flowers have fallen.
shoreacres
June 14, 2020 at 3:57 AM
Congratulations on being the first person ever to leave a comment here with the word nubbiness in it. Not even a simple nubby had appeared. And good of you to separate the clouds into two layers. As for detail, you’ve heard me say plenty of times that the original photographs render so much more detail than the blog-size versions—something you know quite well, too.
Steve Schwartzman
June 14, 2020 at 6:54 AM
Rad! This is one of those species that vain people get for bragging rights, and then promptly kill with too much water. The best are on the edge of a freeway near San Jose. They do not seem to get any irrigation there.
tonytomeo
June 14, 2020 at 10:13 AM
I didn’t know that too much watering can be fatal for these trees. On the other hand, I’m not surprised, given that paloverdes flourish here in our semi-arid climate. I didn’t realize that this species makes it to California:
Steve Schwartzman
June 14, 2020 at 12:18 PM
It is rare in the wild. I have never seen it in the wild. The specimens that I know of are in landscapes. Any landscape here that is ‘maintained’ by so-called ‘gardeners’ gets too much water, even for plants that tolerate significant watering.
tonytomeo
June 14, 2020 at 1:01 PM
I like your composition. The trees frame the cloud nicely and almost seem to be holding it. The fine green leaves and subtle yellow flowers are a good pairing with the blue of the sky.
Steve Gingold
June 18, 2020 at 7:24 AM
I like your analysis. A big part of the appeal for me was that the branches and clouds were askew, with only a few insignificant elements vertical or horizontal. And yes, the colors worked well together.
Steve Schwartzman
June 18, 2020 at 7:39 AM
[…] 13. Snowy Egret – Twitter 14. Cinnabar moth caterpillars on ragwort – Twitter 15. Flowering paloverde tree and clouds – blogpost 16. Paloverde tree in full flower – blogpost 17. Wispy paloverde tree – […]
Hello Yellow – Exploring Colour
July 4, 2020 at 5:57 PM