Category Archives: wildflowers

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Echinacea purpurea – Purple Coneflower

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Echinacea purpurea - Purple Coneflowewr

Echinacea purpurea – Purple Coneflowewr

 

This is a pretty shaggy specimen of a Coneflower, with a couple of ants crawling about the petals, but here it is October and nominally outside its blooming period (April-September) and it has just recently bloomed.

I’ve made a tea from the leaves of the passion flower vine, but I haven’t actually made Echinacea tea, although I’ve had tea with Echinacea in it.  Yet.

In years previous, I’ve had some pretty healthy looking Purple Coneflowers, but this year they seem to have lagged a bit. It has been a year to remember for being off the norm. Or perhaps it’s a year in which a new normal is being established.

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Oxalis drummondi – Drummond’s Woodsorrel

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Here we are again with two phtos of Oxalis drummondi, Drummond’s Woodsorrel. This time there is a deliberate intent to get a shot of the woodsorrel’s distinctive leaves, as well as a shot of the blossom with its pinkish to purple color accented by striations of green leading down into the cup of the trumpet shaped flower. There is quite the little colony of these dainty little beauties along the side of the gravel path, almost to the point of aggressiveness…but not quite.

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Gaillardia aestivalis var aestivalis – Prairie Gaillardia

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Gaillardia aestivalis var aestivalis - Prairie Gaillardia

Gaillardia aestivalis var aestivalis – Prairie Gaillardia

 

Although this Gaillardia is indeed a native to Texas, and was photographed next to Gaillardia pulchella, the familiar Indian Blanket or Firewheel, this particular specimen is located at the Cape Canaveral National Seashore. It is found mainly in the coastal states, in dry, sandy soils. So I would guess in Texas it would be familiar along the Gulf Coast, while this Florida native was next to the Atlantic Ocean.

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Oxalis drummondii – Drummond’s Woodsorrel

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Oxalis drummondii - Drummond's Woodsorrel

Oxalis drummondii – Drummond’s Woodsorrel

This modest little flower is a native volunteer that just showed up in the yard this year. It has the distinctive leaves of a woodsorrel, but which one I didn’t know until I looked it up at http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=OXDR. That’s one of the pleasures of having a wildscape garden – the diversity of plant life that just “happens” from year to year. The photo above was chosen because it happens to include the leaves at the bottom of the photo, which aids in identification (although in this picture, not so much).

A slightly more aesthetically pleasing photo, but without the leaves, appears here:

Oxalis drummondii - Drummond's Woodsorrel

Oxalis drummondii – Drummond’s Woodsorrel

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Anisacanthus quadrifidus var wrightii – Hummingbird Bush

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Anisacanthus quadrifidus var wrightii - Hummingbird Bush

Anisacanthus quadrifidus var wrightii – Hummingbird Bush

Also known as Flame Acanthus, this post goes with the Hummingbird Bush appellation because that’s what has been appearing in the yard lately. I believe that they are Black-throated Hummingbirds. Apparently this is the time for migration for these little feathered jewels.

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Proboscidea louisianica – Devil’s Claw

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Proboscidea louisianica - Devil's Claw

Proboscidea louisianica – Devil’s Claw

 

Can’t tell you how pleased I am that this plant, which has popped up in the greenbelt behiind the fence, is a native rather than an exotic or invasive. According to Enquist, this is an occasional plant of roadsides and wastes., common only in Mason County. The seeds apparently attach themselves to bypassing animals, thus spreading and propagating the species. Apparently the seed pods were used for food by various native tribes of the Southwest, as well as plant fibers which were used for weaving. The plant has a rather strong unpleasant odor, which means that the photograph is more pleasant than the taking of the photograph.  Ajilvsgi recommends it for the xeriscape garden, if there is room. It blooms from June to September, usually only a few flowers at a time.