Readers’ wildlife photos

I now have a comfortable backlog of photos, but please keep sending in your good ones. This site depends on the goodwill of photographers, so let’s give them all a hand.

Today’s submission, with lovely photos of flowers, comes from Rik Gern. I’ve indented his notes and IDs.

I’ve seen your requests for more submissions to your Readers’ Wildlife Photos section and have been meaning to go through my files to see if there might be anything worthy of inclusion. I love that feature and would hate to see it go away for lack of participation, so I dug around for some pictures and then tried to find the Latin names. I think I got most of them right, but more knowledgeable readers may offer corrections.

These pictures were all taken in Central Texas and represent just a fraction of the region’s natural beauty.

Bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis) are the signature wildflower of the region, but are more commonly seen in profile, so I thought an overhead view might present them in a different light.

For years I thought the Tufted Yellow Woodsorrell (Oxalis priceae) plants were clover, due to the shape of the leaves, but learned their true identity while preparing to send you this picture.

The identity of the Poison Hemlock (Conium maculatum) was also a surprise, because I’ve seen back yards full of them and never imagined that such a pretty plant was deadly!

Flowers like the Pink Evening Primrose (Oenothera speciosa) are so common that it’s easy to take them for granted, but they’re always worth stopping to enjoy.

The Dayflower (Commelina erecta) makes an appearance in my back yard every few years and is always a welcome visitor!

I don’t see Winecups (Callirhoe involucrata) that often, but when they’re there, they’re hard to miss!

There are a lot of flowers that look like the Goldeneye Phlox (Phlox roemerina), so I’m not sure I’ve identified it correctly.

The Cherokee Rose (Rosa laevitata) is another whose identity I’m not really sure of, but no matter what it’s called, I like it.

The Mexican Hat (Ratubuda columnifera) has seen better days, but hey, who among us hasn’t? It’s aging gracefully, as I hope we all are!

All of these photos were taken with a Canon Powershot SD400 and played around with in  Photoshop PS6. I hope you can use them, and look forward to seeing this feature continue for a long time to come.