Posts Tagged ‘spring’
Two-leaf senna
Here’s a native wildflower I’ve never shown you before. That’s surprising, given that it grows in my neighborhood and that on several occasions I’ve shown the other species of senna that grows here. This one is Senna roemeriana, known as two-leaf senna or two-leaved senna. The common name refers to the fact that each of the plant’s leaves is made up of two leaflets; you can see one leaflet and part of its symmetric twin at the lower left in the photograph.
I took this picture beneath the power lines west of Morado Circle one month ago today.
© 2018 Steven Schwartzman
Blister beetle on Penstemon cobaea
On April 8th in Round Rock I came across this blister beetle in the genus Pyrota, apparently P. lineata or P. bilineata. The flower is the kind of foxglove, Penstemon cobaea, that you saw from farther back in a post here last month. Thanks to bugguide.net for identifying the genus of the beetle.
© 2018 Steven Schwartzman
Blackfoot daisies, one and many
Way back on March 31st I made a portrait of a blackfoot daisy flower head, Melampodium leucanthum, along Yaupon Dr. in my extended neighborhood. Then on April 17th I photographed a colony of flowering blackfoot daisies beneath the power lines west of Morado Circle.
© 2018 Steven Schwartzman
It’s been a good spring for the Engelmann daisy
Click for better clarity.
That’s right, it’s been a good spring for the Engelmann daisy, Engelmannia peristenia, the wildflower you got a good look at yesterday. Above you see a flourishing colony of Engelmann daisies along Gattis School Rd. in Round Rock on April 16th. The white flowers are old plainsman, Hymenopappus artemisiifolius. In the back left you can make out some bluebonnets, Lupinus texensis, and greenthreads, Thelesperma filifolium. Below is a little closer view of a part of the Engelmann daisy colony.
Did you know that Engelmann in German means Angel Man?
© 2018 Steven Schwartzman
Engelmann daisies
I know the Engelmann daisy, Engelmannia peristenia, only from central Texas, yet the USDA map shows a distribution up through the Great Plains into South Dakota. Botanists refer to the genus Engelmannia as monotypic, meaning that it contains just one species. Call that species an only child and no one will fault you for the analogy.
The picture above shows the bud of an Engelmann daisy opening in front of an Indian paintbrush, Castilleja indivisa. The photograph below lets you see what the open and opening flower heads of an Engelmann daisy look like. Both pictures are from Blackland Prairie remnants in Round Rock on April 8th.
© 2018 Steven Schwartzman
More pink (and white) evening primroses
A recent post showed you two less-than-pristine pink evening primrose flowers, Oenothera speciosa, and then compensated with one fresh specimen. Now here are two flourishing groups from April 10th along TX 20 east of Red Rock in Bastrop County. The colony above was mixed with some Indian paintbrushes, Castilleja indivisa. In the group below, the majority of the pink evening primrose flowers were natural white variants.
Two days earlier, at the site in Round Rock documented in the other post, I’d already found a few isolated white pink evening primroses, including the one below that I photographed with the sun beyond it to create shadows of the flower’s interior parts.
© 2018 Steven Schwartzman
Two closer looks at Texas dandelions
The previous post showed you a happy colony of Texas dandelions, Pyrrhopappus pauciflorus. Above is a closer look at a single flower head of one that I found growing by a colony of bluebonnets along Sam Bass Rd. in Round Rock on April 8th. Below from the same location is a Texas dandelion that had already gone to seed and formed the familiar puffball.
© 2018 Steven Schwartzman
