Today we have backyard botanical photos from Rik Gern of Austin, Texas. Rik’s captions are indented, and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.
The first is a repeat species, adding to pictures I sent you a few years ago.
Here are some scenes from a blossoming Winterberry (Ilex verticillata) that I planted as part of a hedge when I bought my house about sixteen years ago. At the time I didn’t know that it wasn’t native to the region; I just liked the way it looked. Had I known, I probably would have planted something else, but I can’t deny that I’m happy to have it in the back yard.
The next plant is a gangly-looking weed called Henbit Deadnettle (Lamium amplexicaule). It is another non-native plant, but I take no responsibility for this one; it came to my yard uninvited, but not unwelcome. Henbit Deadnettle grows to a few inches in height and is easy to mow no matter how tall it gets. (first two photos below) Here at the tip of the plant (third photo) you can see a few buds getting ready to flower. The flowers aren’t your typical pretty flowers with a symmetrical ring of petals, but they give the plant a splashy, fountain-like look (fourth photo). When I look at the last picture, I like to imagine that it’s an exotic plant about four or five feet tall, and think how thrilled I would be to see such a thing. Then I can look at the original small plant that grows plentifully in the area and still be thrilled to be able to see this example of nature’s variety without even leaving home!
Interesting plants! Our garden has lots of non-native cultivars and it also has some non-native volunteers. I feel slightly bad that so many are non-native, but only slightly. My principle is to avoid anything that has the potential to become invasive—like English Ivy—but otherwise I’m OK with the non-natives. It would be interesting if the world’s gardens held only native plants. But, alas, that ship has already sailed, and it is not to be.
Spectacular photography, thank you, Rik. The Henbit Deadnettle is certainly weirdly wonderful.
What beautiful photos! Thank you!
Winterberry is one of my favorite plants. The urban birds in southeast Virginia tend to leave the berries until late winter. Then a flock of Cedar Waxwings show up in mass and devour whatever remains.