On May 6th I drove out to a portion of the Llano Uplift close to and then inside of Inks Lake State Park. I found better stands of wild onions, Allium canadense var. hyacinthoides, than I’d seen in years. I also found colonies of brown bitterweed, Helenium amarum var. badium. Here you see the two species growing in adjacent and even partly interpenetrating colonies.

Moving off to the side some distance and zooming out, I portrayed a different combination of wildflowers. In addition to more of the brown bitterweed there were Indian blankets (Gaillardia pulchella), prickly pear cactus (Opuntia engelmannii), and yellow stonecrop (Sedum nuttallianum). The trees were mostly Ashe junipers (Juniperus ashei).

© 2016 Steven Schwartzman