This is about it for photos, folks, so please send in your wildlife photos (and remember, “wildlife” is construed broadly).
Today we have some plant photos by Rik Gern of Austin Texas. The subject is (my title) “Ten ways of looking at a plant.” Rik’s notes are indented and you can enlarge his photos by clicking on them.
It appears that my current mission is to glorify the common weed, something that was never my intention, but just seemed to happen, probably because I’ve been too lazy to venture much beyond my own yard to take pictures.
The subject of this batch of photos is field madder (Sherardia arvensis). Apparently field madder is an introduced species, but that’s news to me; it just showed up in the yard without a formal introduction, or even so much as a howdy-do and made itself at home. No matter; it doesn’t bother anybody, and my yard is a melting pot, so immigrant species are welcome, especially the flowering kinds that attract bees or butterflies and contribute to the general well being.
The flowers on this plant are really tiny, but their bright pink color really makes them pop out against the green background. While in bloom the plant feels supple and strong, but once it’s out of season it turns brown and crumbles to the touch, so it’s not a great ground cover, but makes for a pretty seasonal visitor, as you can see.
Thanks Rik. They just showed up…no introduction…nature marches on and provides some color, beauty, and sustenance in your yard.
I can tell the style associated with the readers at this point – bravo!
I gotta say, there’s a superb wild turkey around that I wish I could photograph well but I just have to marvel at it instead. The other day one of the females flew about 100 feet horizontally from a height of about 100 feet, tree-to-tree!
Maybe I can contribute to a new feature :
Readers’ Wildlife Tales, Folklore, and Legends
… it’d be like talking to neighbors at the old stone walls back in the old days,… like Robert Frost maybe….
🪨🪨😁🪨🪨
^^attempted rock wall emoji
Very well done! I love those dreamy out of focus backgrounds too.
We have a number of ‘honorary ornamentals’, weeds of various kinds that are protected from weeding. If the pollinators like them, we keep them.
That’s a beautiful plant! I often take a second look at the “weeds” in our yard. Some I let grow. Anything lower than the lawnmower blade also gets a pass. The one evil that I always try to eradicate—with only modest success since it has a habit of staying low to the ground to avoid the lawnmower—is the Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens). It’s nearly invincible!
Love the photos and comments!