Hi everyone. I've recently taken to stopping and snapping a picture of any wildflowers as I'm driving about, and this morning the wife and I took a hike around our little state park and took quite a few photos. We've had a pretty wet and mild spring so the flowers are really popping up right now. I thought I'd show you what we have in my neck of the woods seeing that many of you are from much more gentle parts of the country.
First let me give you some background. I live in a geographical area known as the Llano Estacado. Essentially it's a gigantic mesa/plateau spanning over West Texas and Eastern New Mexico. It's known for having very little elevation change (II think it's somewhere around an average of <10ft change per mile) and it sits higher up than the rest of the great plains; our elevation is 4000ft. We get very little in the way of rainfall and an average of <20%RH, this and constant winds over 20mph have a habit of desiccating most plants. However, there is a lot of beauty if you look for it.
Abronia fragrans
Calylophus hartwegii
Carduus nutans
These were over 6ft tall
Convolvulus arvensis
A highly invasive species believed to be brought in from contaminated seed. It only lives where there's quite a bit of water for the area, primarily drainage ditches and crops.
Cryptantha flavoculata
Curcurbita foetidissima
Just a flower bud, but I'll probably post a pic of the full bloom later on. I think this a a very interesting plant. Known as buffalo melon or buffalo gourd.
Dimorphocarpa wislizenii
Erigeron spp.
Gaillardia pulchella
Firewheel
Hedyotis acerosa
Glandularia bipinnatifida
Linum lewisii var. lewisii
Melampodium leucanthum
Melilotus officinalis
Oenothere pallida subspecies gypsophila
Primrose
First let me give you some background. I live in a geographical area known as the Llano Estacado. Essentially it's a gigantic mesa/plateau spanning over West Texas and Eastern New Mexico. It's known for having very little elevation change (II think it's somewhere around an average of <10ft change per mile) and it sits higher up than the rest of the great plains; our elevation is 4000ft. We get very little in the way of rainfall and an average of <20%RH, this and constant winds over 20mph have a habit of desiccating most plants. However, there is a lot of beauty if you look for it.
Abronia fragrans
Calylophus hartwegii
Carduus nutans
These were over 6ft tall
Convolvulus arvensis
A highly invasive species believed to be brought in from contaminated seed. It only lives where there's quite a bit of water for the area, primarily drainage ditches and crops.
Cryptantha flavoculata
Curcurbita foetidissima
Just a flower bud, but I'll probably post a pic of the full bloom later on. I think this a a very interesting plant. Known as buffalo melon or buffalo gourd.
Dimorphocarpa wislizenii
Erigeron spp.
Gaillardia pulchella
Firewheel
Hedyotis acerosa
Glandularia bipinnatifida
Linum lewisii var. lewisii
Melampodium leucanthum
Melilotus officinalis
Oenothere pallida subspecies gypsophila
Primrose