Monday, September 24, 2012

A Slow But Certain Re-emergence

Monday, September 24, 2012

Olmos Basin

Today's photos:





"Those who contemplate the beauty of earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts."  -  Rachel Carson
This flowering plant is Chloracantha spinosa, also known as Mexican devil-weed. It is native to northern Mexico and the Southwest United States. It grows especially well in damp micro-environments in otherwise arid habitats. While it is a native plant to Texas, it is considered by many to be a weedy nuisance. 

The Mexican devil-weed is an interesting small, fall blooming shrub in the Aster Family. It produces leaves, but they rapidly fall off as they mature, so all that is left are a lot of spindly green branches. The flowers are very attractive to bees.

It is the first set of nature photographs I have taken since breaking my right arm two weeks ago. I took them late yesterday afternoon in my backyard. As I have mentioned in a few previous posts, I live in the Olmos Basin only a couple hundred meters or so north of Olmos Creek. This particular plant is doing quite well growing next to our compost pile.

I consider this set of photos to be a relative, if somewhat tentative, success. I will explain more about how they were taken in my next post.

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