In the pink again
Having already shown you a colony of pink evening primroses this spring, I’d be remiss in not adding a closeup. Today’s view of an Oenothera speciosa flower dates back to April 14th in southeast Austin. The light coming from in front of me cast shadows of the stigma, stamens, and pollen strands onto the petals. The multi-pointed green member at the lower right is the sheath that used to enclose the flower’s bud.
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United becomes its opposite, untied, if you flip it around.
© 2022 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
that is an incredibly beautiful shot of that flower
beth
April 28, 2022 at 4:33 AM
Thanks. I appreciate it. The shadowed stamens and pollen add to the portrait.
Steve Schwartzman
April 28, 2022 at 4:38 AM
BEAUTFUL 🙂 Made me smile. Happy Day – Enjoy!
cravesadventure
April 28, 2022 at 8:03 AM
So it’s fair to say you crave beauty as well as adventure.
Steve Schwartzman
April 28, 2022 at 8:05 AM
You GOT me – hehe 🙂
cravesadventure
April 28, 2022 at 11:54 AM
You announce it in your blog’s name, so I can’t claim too much cleverness.
Steve Schwartzman
April 28, 2022 at 5:14 PM
I love the light on it!
circadianreflections
April 28, 2022 at 8:19 AM
Me too. Let there be light!
Steve Schwartzman
April 28, 2022 at 8:32 AM
Great shot. I am a sucker for backlit/translucent petals. (And on hirsute plants, it really makes the hairs stand out}. Flipping it to ti to change the meaning of a word to its opposite. Glabrous bit of wordplay.
RobertKamper
April 28, 2022 at 8:25 AM
Hey, don’t forget about hirsute photographers. Your use of “glabrous” reminds me of Lewis Carroll’s “O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” And yes, backlighting is a favorite photographic technique of mine.
Steve Schwartzman
April 28, 2022 at 8:36 AM
glabrous, frabjous simply fablous – (I ventured out yesterday morning and saw countless rain lilies, some with a few rain or dew drops on them.When I got to the hedgehog cactus lane, I found that I was a few days late. Still haven’t finished processing all the shots, even after quickly dismissing most of the egregious examples.
RobertKamper
May 1, 2022 at 9:22 PM
And you’d better believe I portrayed a slew of raindrop-covered rain lilies in my part of town. In fact two of them posted this morning.
Steve Schwartzman
May 2, 2022 at 5:57 AM
When I was living in Berkeley in the 70’s, bumper stickers still were a thing, and one I remember was “Dyslexics, Untie.” Of course, that was in the days of free and unfettered Berkeley. Today anyone who sported that particular sticker probably would be pilloried or tarred and feathered: metaphorically or not.
That’s an interesting shadow in your flower portrait. It certainly looks as though there’s some spider silk in there that caught some of the pollen; the shadow’s more complex than I would have expected.
shoreacres
April 28, 2022 at 8:26 AM
What? Free speech in Berkeley? Your memories have led you into an alternative universe from the one there today. Five years ago anti-free-speech rioters did $100,000 in damage at the University:
https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/01/us/milo-yiannopoulos-berkeley/index.html
My understanding of pink evening primroses is that the pollen forms sticky strands and clumps on its own, without the usual sort of arachnid help. Of course I might be wrong about that.
Steve Schwartzman
April 28, 2022 at 8:47 AM
I don’t think you’re wrong at all. Down at the coast this weekend, the beach evening primroses (Oenothera drummondii) were blooming, and I took a good look at them. The freshest ones didn’t seem to have the pollen strands that you show here, but many of the flowers did. Now I’m wondering if this happens in other primroses. Both cut-leaf primrose and thread-leaf primrose are on Galveston Island, so I can check those out.
shoreacres
May 2, 2022 at 9:01 PM
We’ll see if your stick-to-it-ive-ness as a sticky pollen inspector pays off.
Steve Schwartzman
May 3, 2022 at 7:02 AM
Your close-ups are as impressive as your floral carpets, Steve.
Peter Klopp
April 28, 2022 at 9:14 AM
Seeing from near and from afar:
They both reflect the way things are.
Steve Schwartzman
April 28, 2022 at 9:19 AM
Such delicate beauty.
Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter
April 28, 2022 at 4:06 PM
Delicate the petals are, and they don’t last long, either.
Steve Schwartzman
April 28, 2022 at 5:11 PM
Beautiful backlighting. The shadows of the stigma etc make me think of shadow puppetry.
Gallivanta
April 29, 2022 at 6:41 AM
There’s no stigma attached to thinking of shadow puppetry.
Steve Schwartzman
April 29, 2022 at 6:43 AM
Light is so good
sedge808
April 29, 2022 at 11:16 PM
Let there be light!
Steve Schwartzman
April 30, 2022 at 8:16 AM
Nice use of light.
Steve Gingold
April 30, 2022 at 3:08 AM
Thanks. Backlighting is our photographic friend.
Steve Schwartzman
April 30, 2022 at 8:17 AM
A stunning shot!
Birder's Journey
April 30, 2022 at 12:02 PM
Sorry for the late reply: I just noticed that 431 comments had accumulated in my WordPress spam folder. Before deleting them I scrolled through them all to see if WordPress had mistakenly put any legitimate comments there, and that’s when I discovered yours. Yes, backlighting served me well here, as it has done in plenty of other places.
Steve Schwartzman
May 7, 2022 at 4:44 PM
☺️Glad you found it!
Birder's Journey
May 7, 2022 at 4:46 PM
Me too. It bothers me to have people think I didn’t answer them.
Steve Schwartzman
May 7, 2022 at 4:51 PM
🤗
Birder's Journey
May 22, 2022 at 2:59 PM
A stunning flower!
Birder's Journey
April 30, 2022 at 12:09 PM
These are quite common here in the spring, and people know them because of their ability to form large colonies. Less often noticed and appreciated is an individual pink evening primrose.
Steve Schwartzman
May 7, 2022 at 4:47 PM
Beautiful – love the light and shadows.
Ann Mackay
May 1, 2022 at 7:49 AM
Shadows and light:
Artist’s delight.
Steve Schwartzman
May 1, 2022 at 7:54 AM
Absolutely!
Ann Mackay
May 1, 2022 at 8:43 AM