I cotton to snake cotton
I rarely come across snake cotton (Froelichia gracilis), so I got excited on August 2nd when I discovered a colony of it in a dry sump at the edge of Great Hills Park. On one of the snake cotton plants I noticed spiderwebs and soon saw the spider. Below is the picture I took of it using daytime flash and a small aperture; that combination gives the impression of dusk rather than broad daylight.
Then on August 14th out beyond Bastrop I found a few stalks of snake cotton
and was able to get a picture showing one of the plant’s small and inconspicuous flowers:
Here’s an unrelated quotation for today:
“Qui grate beneficium accipit primam eius pensionem solvit.”
“Anyone who receives a benefit with gratitude repays the first installment of it.”
Here’s an alternate translation (I wanted to make it sound more colloquial):
“If you accept a favor with gratitude you’ll repay the first installment on what you owe.”
— Seneca the Younger in De Beneficiis (On Benefits).
© 2020 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
I am very grateful that you have favoured us with these beautiful snake cotton images. I particularly like the background in the second photo but all the photos made me froelich.
Gallivanta
August 28, 2020 at 5:53 AM
That makes grateful squared (I’m grateful that you’re grateful). And you must be grateful for a German-based genus name that lets you make a play on words.
Steve Schwartzman
August 28, 2020 at 6:46 AM
And speaking of foreign languages, I don’t know if the American-English idiom in the post’s title makes it across the Pacific to a speaker of English in New Zealand:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cotton%20to#
Steve Schwartzman
August 28, 2020 at 6:52 AM
I am. I couldn’t manage anything with ‘slender’ except to say that I am not.
Gallivanta
August 29, 2020 at 2:22 AM
You could, however, slip gracile into a conversation and see if anyone recognizes the word, which English has borrowed from Latin:
https://www.wordnik.com/words/gracile
Steve Schwartzman
August 29, 2020 at 8:35 AM
I will give it a try!
Gallivanta
August 30, 2020 at 12:29 AM
I’m delighted you found the snake cotton, and got the added pleasure of that spider. The plant fascinates me: especially those tiny flowers. I finally decided they remind me of the flowers of ball moss. The lighting you created in the first photo certainly complements the plant; I like the golden glow.
shoreacres
August 28, 2020 at 7:08 AM
Agreed: it’s a fascinating plant. After your recent post about this species, finding snake cotton here for the first time in ages came as a welcome surprise. Now let’s hope I can catch up to you by managing to get a picture of a ball moss flower for the first time ever. The background in the first picture the lower part, that is—reminds me of the background of out-of-focus heliotropes I showed a few weeks ago:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2020/08/07/nerve-ray-and-white-heliotrope-flowers/
Steve Schwartzman
August 28, 2020 at 7:15 AM
I am sure I have run across snake cotton before, and just did not know what it was. The USDA plant guide shows it is quite prolific throughout the Midwest US. It’s an unusual plant, and has me wondering what purpose it serves in nature. Well, other than what we see in the second image where it has produced the perfect structural element for a spider’s snare!
Littlesundog
August 28, 2020 at 8:29 AM
It is an unusual plant. I can’t think of anything else like it. With regard to the second picture (as well as the first), I noticed that many of the stalks in this colony had curves in them, sometimes even several curves, so that seems to be the way this species grows. That makes less work for spiders, as you pointed out.
Steve Schwartzman
August 28, 2020 at 5:09 PM
Interesting little plant, and a new one for me. I quite like the first photo too, and of course, the spider is always a nice addition.
melissabluefineart
August 28, 2020 at 8:43 AM
You’re in luck. The USDA map has snake cotton marked for Lake County and several of your neighboring counties:
https://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=FRGR3
Now that you’re aware of it, perhaps you’ll notice some. As for the first picture, I like the dark area across the top; I aimed toward a grove of shaded trees.
Steve Schwartzman
August 28, 2020 at 5:16 PM
I see in my reference that it does indeed grow here as an introduced species. I’ll have to keep an eye out for it.
melissabluefineart
August 29, 2020 at 10:30 AM
Given how much further north of us you are, you might still find some this season. Does your reference say how it got introduced to your area? I’m guessing it happened inadvertently, because snake cotton doesn’t have fancy flowers that gardeners would favor. On the other hand, I find the cottony look appealing.
Steve Schwartzman
August 29, 2020 at 10:35 AM
No, it doesn’t, and that is an interesting point. I suppose it must have hitchhiked in some hay or something like that.
melissabluefineart
August 30, 2020 at 8:12 AM
A crafty spider made good use of the bend in the stalk of the cotton snake.
Peter Klopp
August 28, 2020 at 8:45 AM
Lori (Littlesundog) also noticed how the spider made use of that bend in the stalk. I this species the stalk are often curvy or sinuous. I wonder if a study would turn up more spiderwebs on average for this species than for others of similar size with straight stalks.
Steve Schwartzman
August 28, 2020 at 5:19 PM
I wonder how a banker or landlord would interpret the quote. Most of them would likely not be satisfied with gratitude as a payment, as countless unfortunate people can attest.
tanjabrittonwriter
August 28, 2020 at 6:47 PM
Ah, but Seneca described gratitude as the first installment. It seems other installments were meant to follow.
Steve Schwartzman
August 28, 2020 at 6:56 PM
Of course.
tanjabrittonwriter
August 28, 2020 at 7:07 PM
Sinuous stalks surely simplify spiders’ settling solutions.
krikitarts
August 30, 2020 at 3:55 AM
You’ve outdone S.S. (i.e. me) on that one.
Steve Schwartzman
August 30, 2020 at 10:40 AM
Did you get a closer look at the spider? The abdomen looks like it might have an interesting pattern. Nice use of the flash.
Steve Gingold
September 5, 2020 at 2:43 AM
It was a pretty small spider. I looked at the full-size image just now and found that the patterning on its abdomen wasn’t as interesting as you’d hoped. Only every now and then do I use flash in the way I did here, and part of the effect as I presented it is due to how I processed the image.
Steve Schwartzman
September 5, 2020 at 5:30 AM