Texas Wildflowers – part 2

Here are a few more of the wildflowers I photographed on my recent trip to Texas.

Engelmann’s Salvia & Blanketflowers – What can I say – I just love the look of a field of wildflowers.

(c) 2011 Patty Hankins

Butterfly Weed – Asclepias tuberosa subspecies interior – related to the Butterfly Weed I photographed along the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina.

(c) 2011 Patty Hankins

Green Milkweed – ascelpias viridis – like Butterfly Weed – milkweed is a member of the Asclepiadaceae family

(c) 2011 Patty Hankins

Purple Prairie Coneflowers – echinacea sanguinea – related to the Purple Coneflower I photographed here in the DC area

(c) 2011 Patty Hankins

Silverleaf Nightshade – solanum elaeagnifolium – related to the Nightshade I photographed at Acadia National Park

(c) 2011 Patty Hankins

And finally Texas Frog Fruit – lippia nodiflora – a very small white wildflower, The flowers are about 1/4″ long.

(c) 2011 Patty Hankins

I hope you’ve enjoyed a few more Texas wildflowers. I”ll be posting a few more to the blog next week.

New Photo – Butterflyweed

Butterflyweed (c) 2010 Patty Hankins

I’ve just added a new photo – Butterflyweed – to my Beautifulflowerpictures.com website.  Butterflyweed (Asclepias tuberosa), a member of the milkweed (Asclepiadaceae) family,  is a summer blooming wildflower that attracts many butterflies and bees.  It’s bright colors are a great addition to a native plant garden. I photographed this butterfly weed at Crabtree Meadows on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina last July.

This photograph is available as a 10X10″ gallery-wrapped canvas.  You can order Butterflyweed from my website and I will have it available at shows this year.

Butterflyweed – Asclepias tuberosa

I’ve photographed Butterflyweed twice this year. A type of milkweed, butterflyweed has very distinctive flowers that grow in flat clusters of about 20 flowers.

The first butterflyweed I saw was in northern Florida in early May. It was growing wild and we spotted it while taking the dogs for a walk. I thought it was such an unusual flower that I had to go back and get my camera to take some photos of it.

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

Over the summer, I saw signs in a couple of gardens indicating that there were butterflyweed plants in the area – but I never found them to photograph.

On Monday, I found a different variety of Butterflyweed at Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, VA. Instead of the orange flowers I saw in Florida, these are varying shades of yellow, orange and red.

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

In these last two photos, you can see the flower petals opening up out of the the round red balls. The petals are red on the outside and orange on the inside.

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

Butterflyweed is a perennial flower that butterflies and hummingbirds like. I’m hoping to photograph it next year with some butterflies.