MNOtably Floral

The time has come for another edition of Flora ABCs. This week, Terri’s Flower Hour #44 reaches the letters M, N, and O. No matter where one goes in springtime in Texas, one will always be presented with a diverse array of native wildflowers, so the hard part is usually narrowing down rather than finding.

The three photographs come from three places, two of which I return to whenever I want flower pictures: Zilker Botanical Garden in Austin, the National Butterfly Center in Mission, and Berry Springs Park & Preserve in Georgetown. The first two were captured in the spring; the last one in early August.

Except for the first entry, I couldn’t find a common name starting with N or O in my own archives, so I did what Krameria taught me two rounds ago and let the Latin bail me out.

I captured the photo below in early August at Berry Springs Park & Preserve in Georgetown, late in the day with the sun low and behind the Mealy Blue Sage (Salvia farinacea) flowers. An American Bumble Bee (Bombus pensylvanicus) arrived with both hind legs already packed with bright orange pollen, hung in the air just long enough, and moved on. More on that bee at the end of the post.

The next photo was captured at Zilker Botanical Garden on an April morning. I went to the gardens and ended up on the ground instead, working a patch of pale violet flowers barely an inch (2.5 cm) across. A Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) settled onto one while I was still framing — the kind of luck I never plan for and always take. I absolutely love Texas Baby Blue Eyes (Nemophila phacelioides).

The last photo is from a good deal farther south than I usually roam: the National Butterfly Center in Mission, down in the Rio Grande Valley. I was there for butterflies, naturally, but this bloom stopped me on the way past. Set on grey-green pads behind a fence of spines, it looked far too soft to belong to the plant holding it up. Luckily, the Texas Prickly Pear (Opuntia engelmannii var. lindheimeri) is easy to find.

More About Each Flower and Visitors

M is for Mealy Blue Sage (Salvia farinacea) — the tall purple spikes in the first photograph. It is a Texas native perennial, 1 to 3 feet (30 to 90 cm) tall, and it blooms from April all the way into October, which is how I photographed it in August while the other two were long finished for the year. The “mealy” in the name is not poetry. Look at the calyces cupping each flower, and you will see a fine, whitish, floury coating — which is precisely what farinacea means in Latin. Bees, butterflies, and birds all work these spikes.

N is for Texas Baby Blue Eyes (Nemophila phacelioides) — the pale violet flowers. Each bowl-shaped bloom is about an inch (2.5 cm) across, violet at the rim and fading to white at the center, with dark stamens standing up out of the middle. It is a spring annual of woodland edges and openings in sandy or silty soil, native to Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, blooming March through May before going dormant for the summer. It belongs to the waterleaf family — not to the forget-me-nots, which is where the eye wants to file it.

O is for Opuntia engelmannii var. lindheimeri, the Texas Prickly Pear. It is easily the most recognizable plant of the three. What I did not know is that the flower color is not fixed: the petals on this variety run from yellow through yellow-orange to red, and a single plant can carry the whole range at once. It grows to about 5 feet (1.5 m) tall, blooms March through June, and its fruit — the tuna — ripens to a deep purple. The Xerces Society lists it as especially valuable to native bees.

A word about the bumble bee, since it turned out to be the best thing in the frame. I uploaded the photograph to iNaturalist and got an identification: American Bumble Bee (Bombus pensylvanicus). The field marks are there once you know to look — yellow hairs across the front of the thorax and a black patch between the wing bases. It was once the most common bumble bee in the southern United States. It is not anymore: its population fell by roughly 90 percent in the first two decades of this century, it has disappeared outright from several northern states, and it has been petitioned for protection under the Endangered Species Act. I had no idea any of that when I pressed the shutter. I am glad the sage was still blooming in August.

Three plants that could hardly look less alike — a knee-high sage, a sprawling spring annual, and a cactus built like a wall — and the thread running through them turned out to be bees. Two of them brought their own pollinator into the frame without being asked — one of which turned out to be a species in real trouble — and the third is on the Xerces list for exactly that reason. I went looking for letters and came away with a pollinator story instead. Whether I am at Zilker Botanical Garden in Austin, the National Butterfly Center in Mission, or Berry Springs Park & Preserve in Georgetown, one step in nature always leads to wonderful discoveries.

That is the story behind the shots. For more like this, enjoy these related stories: American Bumble Bee, Bee, Berry Springs Park and Preserve, FlowerHour, Mealy Blue Sage, National Butterfly Center, Parks, Prickly Pear Cactus, Texas, Texas Baby Blue Eyes, Western Honey Bee, Wildflowers, Wildlife, and Zilker Botanical Garden. Until the next shoot, keep chasing the light and the wonders it reveals.

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• Posted for Terri’s Flower Hour #44.

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Sources:

• Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center — Salvia farinacea (Mealy Blue Sage) — https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=safa2
• Native Plant Society of Texas — Salvia farinacea (Mealy Blue Sage) — https://www.npsot.org/posts/native-plant/salvia-farinacea/
• Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center — Nemophila phacelioides (Texas Baby Blue Eyes) — https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=neph
• Native Plant Society of Texas — Nemophila phacelioides (Baby Blue Eyes) — https://www.npsot.org/posts/native-plant/nemophila-phacelioides/
• Wikipedia — Nemophila phacelioides — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nemophila_phacelioides
• Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center — Opuntia engelmannii var. lindheimeri (Texas Prickly Pear) — https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=openl
• Native Plant Society of Texas — Opuntia engelmannii var. lindheimeri — https://www.npsot.org/posts/native-plant/opuntia-engelmannii-var-lindheimeri/
• National Butterfly Center, Mission, Texas — https://nationalbutterflycenter.org/
• Wikipedia — Bombus pensylvanicus (American Bumblebee) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombus_pensylvanicus
• Smithsonian Magazine — The American Bumblebee Has Nearly Vanished From Eight States — https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/american-bumblebee-has-vanished-from-eight-us-states-180978817/
• Native Bees of Texas — Bumble Bees, Genus Bombus — https://www.wildbeestexas.com/bombus