Pfloral Pflugerville
Pflugerville has once again been Wildflower Central this spring. As last year, the intersection of E. Pflugerville Parkway and N. Heatherwilde Blvd. was a particularly good floral hotspot, with wildflowers in all four quadrants. (The church on the northwest corner lets wildflowers cover its lawn; the property adjacent to the convenience store on the southeast corner also has plenty of wildflowers). On March 30th I found that parts of the field on the southwest corner offered the best displays of densely mixed wildflowers.
Yellow with brown center: greenthread, Thelesperma filifolium
Blue: Texas bluebonnet, Lupinus texensis
Red-orange: Indian paintbrush, Castilleja indivisa
Red with yellow fringes: Indian blanket, Gaillardia pulchella
Less intense sections of that southwest quadrant still had interesting things going on. The “wreath” in the second picture is a square-bud primrose, Oenothera berlandieri, and the little purple flowers next to it are Texas stork’s bill, Erodium texanum.
© 2024 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
Adorable wildflowers! Pflugerville sounds German, at least the Pfluger part.
Alessandra Chaves
April 12, 2024 at 7:07 AM
You’ve got that right. German Pflug is the cognate of English plough—often now spelled plow—so a Pfluger is a man who plows.
You may be the first person who’s ever referred to wildflowers here as adorable. Good word.
Steve Schwartzman
April 12, 2024 at 7:41 AM
Pfantastic pfotographs.
The first image looks like an advertisement from a seller of wildflower seeds. “Your yard could look like this!!”
This wonderful variety of beauty contains three species with which I was not familiar. I have so much to learn.
Wally Jones
April 12, 2024 at 7:10 AM
You’re on to something. A few weeks ago someone from a wildflower seed company in Texas contacted me to ask if they could use a picture of mine on a packet for a species they are going to sell seeds for. I said sure, and they’re supposed to send me a few packets of seeds once they’re ready.
Don’t feel bad about not knowing some kinds of wildflowers. I’ve often pointed out that if you ask someone in Austin (including me 30 years ago) to name some of our most common wildflowers, the typical person might name bluebonnets, pink evening primroses, sunflowers, and a few others. In fact we have hundreds of native species here. I now know the main ones but am still getting acquainted with others.
Steve Schwartzman
April 12, 2024 at 7:50 AM
A gorgeous mix, photos that are definitely seed packet worthy!
Eliza Waters
April 12, 2024 at 9:40 AM
The wildflower extravaganza has made it hard for me to stop going out photographing—and what I’ll do with those hundreds of pictures I don’t know.
Steve Schwartzman
April 12, 2024 at 10:44 AM
Make cards and sell them to the Lady Bird gift shop, among others!
Eliza Waters
April 12, 2024 at 1:12 PM
Actually their gift shop used to sell a CD-ROM I produced with over a thousand of my central Texas nature photographs on it. That was 20+ years ago.
Steve Schwartzman
April 12, 2024 at 1:34 PM
Exceptional flowery fields, fine captures of the dense blooms. Perfect for a seed packet!
tomwhelan
April 12, 2024 at 7:03 PM
As they (don’t actually) say: we’ve had an embarrassment of floral riches here this season. I’ve been wearing myself out trying to keep up.
Steve Schwartzman
April 12, 2024 at 7:12 PM
It looks magnificent. Keep on keeping up!
tomwhelan
April 12, 2024 at 8:19 PM
I keep on taking pictures. Keeping up with the processing and posting is time-consuming, but as the song says, “It’s now or never.”
Steve Schwartzman
April 12, 2024 at 9:51 PM
So much beauty! Why anybody anywhere would choose to mow down similarly splendid swaths of wildflowers is beyond me.
tanjabrittonwriter
April 12, 2024 at 9:30 PM
So much beauty indeed. Worse than the mowing is the fact that all the remaining properties, being at a busy intersection in a fast-growing suburb, will get developed in the next few years, like so many other properties I’ve lost over the past two decades. At least they won’t have gone undocumented.
Steve Schwartzman
April 12, 2024 at 9:54 PM
We seem to have this exchange every year. Documentation is good, but what would be better is if we humans finally realized that some things, once lost, are lost forever, and we are the poorer for it.
tanjabrittonwriter
April 12, 2024 at 9:57 PM
Yes, the exchange follows the sad reality. Every January 1st people make New Year’s resolutions. Me, I wonder what properties I’ll lose in the coming year. I’ve already become aware of several losses in 2024. Two decades ago some of us tried to get an adjacent suburb to sequester a particular property from development but we failed.
Steve Schwartzman
April 12, 2024 at 10:04 PM
It’s depressing. I know you believe humanity has made much progress, and while that is true to some extent, I’m convinced that we are in the process of devolving now, if we ever evolved.
tanjabrittonwriter
April 14, 2024 at 4:22 PM
I’m seeing more and faster devolution than I ever thought I would.
Steve Schwartzman
April 14, 2024 at 5:10 PM
Not a happy thought. Not a happy reality.
tanjabrittonwriter
April 14, 2024 at 5:38 PM
I’m perplexed by your square-bud primrose wreath. What are the bits of red in the midst of the leaves? Given that the flowers are yellow, the only thing I can come up with as a possibility is seed capsules. I like the way the bluebonnets have formed a concentric ring around the primroses.
The colors in the first photo are amazing. You’ve clearly been on the prowl, which cuts both ways; it shows us how much splendor is out there, and reminds us how much we’re missing!
shoreacres
April 12, 2024 at 10:04 PM
Zooming in on the “wreath” in one of my full-size pictures confirms that the red bits are all “square” buds about to open. I just went to the Lady Bird Johnson website to see if I could find a picture with buds in it to link to so you could see, and the first appropriate photograph I found turned out to be one of my own. None of the buds in the “wreath” had yet advanced to the yellow flowers we’re familiar with. Good observation about the bluebonnets forming an outer ring around the square-bud primroses.
Yeah, I’ve been a prime prowler for weeks now. So much suddenly began happening a month ago in so many places that I’ve been wearing myself out, not wanting to miss the opportunities. Now I’m faced with the “problem” of having way more things to show than I ever can, even with daily posts. I’ve more often been including two or even three pictures per post in an attempt to get more things seen.
Steve Schwartzman
April 13, 2024 at 6:48 AM
The more the merrier, from my perspective. I can’t imagine anyone fussing over posts containing two, three, or even four photos. After all, part of the pleasure of seeing these flowers is sharing the sight.
shoreacres
April 13, 2024 at 7:06 AM
It’s the conflict between striving to be a “serious” photographer, with attention paid to each picture, and acting as a documentarian who wants to put pictures out there before they get too far out of date. A couple of close portraits I was working on last night gave me the feeling I was in new territory, artistically speaking.
Steve Schwartzman
April 13, 2024 at 8:00 AM
I have a stopover in Dallas today. I don’t do well in Dallas airport.The bustle and crush tends to befuddle me. It will be comforting to know that somewhere in Texas there is little bit of serene loveliness. A little mind candy to think on in the crush. (There might actually be a silly pun in that sentence?)
Lynda
April 13, 2024 at 6:43 AM
We wish you a vicarious welcome to Texas! I know what you mean about the DFW airport, where we’ve changed planes a bunch of times. Too bad you can’t hop down to Austin so we could give you some of our floral mind candy to sweeten your trip. Bon voyage, wherever you’re headed.
Steve Schwartzman
April 13, 2024 at 6:54 AM
How I wish that I could have! I had planned on a drive to Wichita Falls, I know, I know, but it was where I was born and I have never been there since the age of two weeks old. As to where I was, you will easily guess when I post about it in the next week. HINT: It involves a lot of deer… 😉
Lynda
April 20, 2024 at 12:46 PM
Ah, dear deer.
I was born in Tacoma but only lived there as an infant and so had no memory of it. It was just a name that followed me around on documents. In contrast, one of the guys in my Peace Corps group was born and had always lived in Tacoma. Finally in the 1970s I visited him there. We snuck into the old and at-the-time-closed obstetrics wing in the hospital where we’d both been born a few months apart. I understand why you want to see Wichita Falls.
Steve Schwartzman
April 20, 2024 at 6:25 PM
The fields and bouquets you’re seeing are wonderful and beautiful!
This town’s name always make me giggle in a good way! It sounds like a name Dr. Seuss would come up with.
circadianreflections
April 13, 2024 at 6:56 AM
Yes, it’s been an excellent spring for wildflowers, both on the prairies to the east of Austin (including Pflugerville) and in the hilly country country to the west of here. It’s one of those times when I want to be everywhere at once. The finite number of places I’ve been to have provided more pictures than I can show here.
I agree there’s something comical about the name Pflugerville. That comicalness hasn’t deterred people from moving there. When I came to Austin in 1976, Pflugerville had maybe 700 residents. The population has now passed 80,000 and is still rapidly growing. Maybe a modern-day Dr. Seuss can set some stories there.
Steve Schwartzman
April 13, 2024 at 7:45 AM
I have a friend that moved there but recently moved back to CA last year.
circadianreflections
April 13, 2024 at 9:03 AM
I hope your friend got to enjoy the wildflowers there before moving back to California. Do you know the reason for the moving back?
Steve Schwartzman
April 13, 2024 at 9:11 AM
I think it was to be closer to her kids and Grandkids.
circadianreflections
April 13, 2024 at 9:17 AM
Makes sense.
Steve Schwartzman
April 13, 2024 at 9:39 AM
Stunning!!
Birder's Journey
April 13, 2024 at 8:28 PM
That was two weeks ago and we’re still finding great wildflower displays. May it continue.
Steve Schwartzman
April 14, 2024 at 8:04 AM
I love these fantastic mixes of color. Such a beautiful time of the year. Thanks much for sharing these.
Todd Henson
April 14, 2024 at 9:14 AM
It’s hard to beat Texas in the spring. Let’s hope you get to experience it in person one of these years.
Steve Schwartzman
April 14, 2024 at 9:38 AM
Wonderful color palette in the first!
denisebushphoto
April 15, 2024 at 5:48 PM
It sure is, and I found it enchanting.
Steve Schwartzman
April 15, 2024 at 6:11 PM
Love the wreath effect of the square-bud primrose. It would be deeply tragic if these wonderful spreads of wildflowers were to be lost to urban development.
Ann Mackay
April 17, 2024 at 5:29 AM
If only I could wish away your “if”. Unfortunately the prime location in a rapidly growing suburb essentially guarantees development of the properties at that busy intersection.
I couldn’t not see the square-bud primrose as a wreath.
Steve Schwartzman
April 17, 2024 at 7:03 AM
A gorgeous floral hotspot!
Julie@frogpondfarm
April 20, 2024 at 2:32 PM
Be careful or the hotspot might give you a flower burn.
Steve Schwartzman
April 20, 2024 at 6:26 PM