Sometimes light, color and form come together in perfect alignment and I happen to be there to see it:
This is a Dayflower, also known as Widow's Tears, growing next to one of the stone steps on the bank of the river. Both of the common names for this flower have a good explanation. The flower bloom only lasts for a day, but there are usually four or five buds in a cluster that open over a succession of several days, thus the name Dayflower.
Widow's Tears has a less obvious, but more interesting story. There is a modified leaf called a bract below the flower. If one gently squeezes the bract, a small drop of water will form on the tip of the bract. This is the widow's tear. So the story goes, the widow will shed a single tear for her deceased spouse and then move on.
This set of photos was taken on the stone steps at the canoe / kayak put-in point on the bank of the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River at the VFW Blvd trailhead on Monday, September 30, 2013.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Brackenridge Park, from Mulberry Ave upstream
along the bank of the San Antonio River and back south
along the western half of the Wilderness Loop Trail
Today's photos:
The sky was completely overcast with fairly dense clouds, but the mood on my walk was definitely not "grey." Birds were very active. Trees are budding out. Flowers are blooming. Insects are appearing. Even though there wasn't any direct sunlight, the turtles were out on logs in the river.
The lighting was perfect. I almost always prefer doing nature photography with the diffuse light of a cloudy sky. I couldn't have asked for much more. (Well, a good soaking rain would be welcome now, but that is a topic for another day.)
It really was an amazing experience and these are only a few highlights from the multitude of photographs I took:
- The first photo is a female Northern Cardinal.
- The second, third and fourth photos are a male Northern Cardinal.
- The fifth and sixth photo are a male Mallard.
- The seventh photo is a point bar that has formed, as they typically do, on the inside of a curve in the River. The branch that had fallen on the gravel provided a perfect visual accent in the photograph to complement the vegetation beginning to grow at the downstream end of the bar.
- The eighth and ninth photos are Baby Blue Eyes. These flowers are blooming profusely along the Wilderness Loop Trail.
- The tenth photo is a Cedar Elm tree beginning to set its leaves. Compared to the other cedar elm in the park, this one tree was apparently ahead of schedule.
- The eleventh photo is a False Dayflower also known as Widows Tears. These flowers are also beginning to bloom in abundance.
- The twelfth photo is a Red-eared Slider turtle. This is one of the largest red-eared sliders I have seen.
