April

Vetch we have here, but not the pink things, which evidently are pink evening primrose (Oenothera speciosa) ---though I took them mid-day.

Obviously, this is in the allium family...

More of those pink things. The light is very harsh, unfortunately, but taking pictures along the highway was after all, secondary to the purpose of getting myself to houston...and I was just so impressed by the sheer quantity of them.

Uh...blue-eyed grass, Sisyrinchium spp. (thanks, google...)

And here's a closeup. These pictures are in sequence, and note how the mix of flowers changes as I traveled south from Dallas/Ft Worth to Houston: the primroses gave way to tickseed.

Coreopsis, or tickseed. We have this in Michigan, but not growing wild along highways: we get black eyed susans (rudbeckia) instead...the cool variegated tickseed I got today was only one inspiration for this post. ---I never had much luck with it in Detroit, cuz something always ate it, but maybe if I surround it with chives, the beasties will leave my new one alone. I can hope, anyway.

Almost as famous as the bluebonnets are Indian Paintbrushes.

Okay. (Yeah, it's blurred. The breeze never failed when I clicked the shutter. But these are utterly cool.) Evidently they're a `crimson clover'---never would've guessed, given the conical form (we have round clovers, red and white, here...) and according to the site I used to identify it, also a non-native. Duh, guess its leaves are a give-away, here.

Mysterious purple flower, possibly a verbena.

Finally, something I know: the texas bluebonnet, a type of wild lupine. Naturally this utterly cool shot had a blade of grass in the foreground, so I just cropped it...

Texas even has a phone number you can call to check wildflower status on the highways. They noted the heavy rain meant the grass was covering the bluebonnets. You don't say...

This field was at a rest stop between the old highway and the new...