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Atom FeedSpring has leapt forward this week. On the way to church in the city, I saw drifts of bluebonnets…but the following pictures are from our place, taken in the last day or so. They’re small and scattered, but beautiful–and very popular with the local small wildlife (insects, for instance.)
I haven’t had time yet to look up which eager little eaters these are.
The first blackfoot daisies, Melampodium leucanthum, are flowering now, only a few flowers to a plant–with enough rain, they form thick nosegays of pure cool white.
You can see the buds for more flowers on this one. Another wildflower, usually flowering earlier than this, is the Texas cranesbill, Erodium texanum. Its flowers are larger and a deeper purple with sufficient moisture–sometimes covering a patch on the roadside with royal purple.
This year the flowers and leaves are small, and the flowers more pinky-purple, but they’re still lovely little things.
Coral honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens, is one of several native honeysuckles that grow here (the commonest honeysuckle is Japanese honeysuckle and an invasive pest.) We planted purchased ones for several years with little success and then found this one, about 15-20 feet tall, nearly smothered by Japanese honeysuckle…now it shines out from the trees in the west creek woods and we hope it will propagate.
Hummingbirds and honeysuckle-nectaring moths are fond of it, but we haven’t seen a hummer yet this spring.
Comment by brother william — March 22, 2009 @ 8:25 pm
Looks like one of the ‘click’ beetles. I spent hours annoying these as I grew up. Rolling them over and waiting for them to ‘POP’ up in the air to turn over.
brother william
Comment by elizabeth — March 22, 2009 @ 8:43 pm
Could be…I’ll probably end up sending a photo to BugGuide.net, if digging into my field guides doesn’t help. I find beetles very, very confusing.
Comment by cdozo — March 22, 2009 @ 9:58 pm
It’s amazing how much longer it takes for Spring to get to my land.
I want to plant some of that honeysuckle on my land. It’s so pretty.
Comment by elizabeth — March 23, 2009 @ 7:53 am
Coral honeysuckle should grow well on your place, from what you’ve said. It’s a slow starter, where we are, but once it’s decided to live, it’s tough. Purchased coral honeysuckles are sometimes the result of long breeding by plant people–the one on the SW meadow brushpile is a purchased plant, and a darker red than the one shown here, a true native. My guess is that the true native will be a little tougher, and the purchased one (if messed with for pretty) will be more vivid in color but maybe more delicate. Try a native plant nursery if you want the true native.)