A new wildflower cemetery

 

After our April 5th visit to scenic and flowerful Inks Lake State Park we drove about half an hour northwest. The destination was Flat Rock Cemetery on TX 261 in Llano County, which I’d learned online currently had wildflowers on it. When I parked outside the cemetery it didn’t initially seem like much, but once I got closer and entered I found it was indeed covered with wildflowers. Most conspicuous because taller than the rest and forming yellow-green clumps was peppergrass (Lepidium sp.), which I believe I’d noticed in a cemetery just once before, and then only sparsely. As Know What Your Ancestors Knew reports:

 

North America has over 100 different species of Lepidium and Texas has 23. They are all very similar in appearance and edibility. The seeds have a spicy/peppery taste similar to radishes. I usually just bite the young, green seed-stalks off the plant. The young leaves also have the horse-radishy taste but by the time the seeds appear the leaves have become too power-tasting for most people to eat. The young, tender seed pods also add a bit of a kick to salads.

 

 

The cemetery was home to lots of Texas dandelions, all still in the budding stage; you can discern a little group of them standing in front of the tombstone in the second picture. The bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis) were past their prime as flowers and had already produced seed pods. A few Indian paintbrushes (Castilleja indivisa) remained fresh. And filling in the otherwise mostly bare ground by the thousands were small white daisies, presumably lazy daisies (Aphanostephus skirrhobasis).

 

  

  

© 2024 Steven Schwartzman