Here was another new flower for me to find at Roundrock on our last visit. This, I've since learned, is lead plant, and I found it in many places on the forest edge on the south-facing slope over the pecan plantation.
I used the close-up function on Libby's camera to take this shot. That photo is larger than life size, and I had a hard time getting even one good shot given their long shape (and the breeze that seems to freshen every time I try to take a picture).
Lead plant (
Amorpha canescens) is a Missouri native I'm happy to report, and I'd hate to try to eradicate this if it weren't. The plant was seemingly "everywhere", and I understand that its roots run deep. As I said above, this was a new plant to me. Even though it should flower through the summer, I had never seen it before at Roundrock. And it is supposed to be a favorite of butterflies, so that should have attracted me to them long before now. I must learn to pay better attention.
Missouri calendar:
- Bobcat kittens are born through the month.
This entry was posted
on Saturday, June 16th, 2007 at 1:01 am and is filed under Green Things.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 16th, 2007 at 5:08 am
Neat! Never saw this one before, even in pictures.
It’s in the BEAN family. I see that now that I look carefully at each small flower, but it is an unusual inflorescence for that family to my experience.
Hmmm. Roots grow to 16 feet deep. No wonder if persists in arid grasslands!
Found this, let us know how it smokes:
“Native Americans used the dried leaves for tea and pipe smoking.”
June 16th, 2007 at 6:36 am
Love the color of those flowers.
June 16th, 2007 at 10:34 am
Wow – what a beautiful plant!
Looks like it might also be a caterpillar plant for Gray Hairstreak, Silver-spotted skipper, and Southern Dogface.
June 16th, 2007 at 10:38 am
What an interesting plant, pablo. Great color. A very cool find.
June 16th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
Nice.
June 16th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
New plant for me. Very striking, glad that you learned it belongs at Roundrock.
June 16th, 2007 at 9:35 pm
Glad you have it there; I have seen it before on a vacant lot in a housing development where I used to live.
June 16th, 2007 at 11:06 pm
I’d never seen a lead plant, as far as I know. That one is quite attractive. I see why butterflies would enjoy it.
June 21st, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Never heard of a lead plant. The color is so vibrant! I know exactly what you mean about the breeze that comes along exactly when you’ve got the shot centered well and in focus and your finger approaches the shutter button and…. *sigh*.