Here’s another installment of Terri’s Flower Hour ABCs. This week we are close to the end of the alphabet. My entries are pretty common in many places, but one flower is endemic to the Edwards Plateau region in central Texas. I have featured it here a few times, and I confess I’m always giddy when I spot it in the field. Let’s begin.
Scarlet Leather Flower
This is the Edwards Plateau region’s pride and joy. Scientifically known as Clematis texensis — also called Scarlet Clematis or Texas Clematis — it is endemic to the Edwards Plateau, meaning this stretch of central Texas is the only place on Earth where it grows wild. I photographed this one at the Balcones Canyonlands NWR’s Doeskin Ranch. The flower thrives here because of the soil: rocky, well-drained limestone, loam, and sand, the kind found on limestone cliffs, rocky slopes, and streamsides across the region. It’s a slightly woody vine that can climb up to 10 feet (3 m), producing its nodding, bell-shaped scarlet blooms only on new growth from March through July.
Turk’s Cap
This is a very common flower in Central Texas, with a whole list of nicknames—Wax Mallow, Red Mallow, Texas Mallow, Mexican Apple, and even Sleeping Hibiscus, since the twisted red petals never fully unfurl. Its scientific name is Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii. This image was captured at Berry Springs Park & Preserve in Georgetown, a wonderful place to photograph wildlife and wildflowers. Turk’s Cap adapts to sandy, loamy, clay, and limestone soils, though it does best in moist, well-drained woodland soil, and it tolerates everything from full shade to full sun. It grows as a spreading shrub, usually 2 to 3 feet (0.6–0.9 m) tall but occasionally reaching 10 feet (3 m), and blooms from May through November, with hummingbirds, butterflies, and moths all stopping by for nectar.
Upright Prairie Coneflower
Similar to the Scarlet Leather Flower, I also photographed this one on the same day I was at the Balcones Canyonlands NWR’s Doeskin Ranch. Its scientific name is Ratibida columnifera, and one common name for this flower is Mexican Hat—it’s easy to see why, with its drooping yellow-and-maroon petals hanging beneath a tall, cone-shaped center. It isn’t picky about soil, growing happily in well-drained, usually calcareous ground — limestone, caliche, clay, or sandy loam — which is part of why it turns up so reliably across Central Texas prairies and roadsides. This drought-tolerant perennial reaches up to 3 feet (0.9 m) tall and blooms from late spring through July, sometimes lingering into August or September with enough rain.
Violet Ruellia
The last flower goes by many names — Violet Ruellia, Common Wild Petunia, Violet Wild Petunia — and its scientific name is Ruellia nudiflora. I photographed it at San Gabriel Park’s Katy Crossing Trail in Georgetown, but I could have easily captured it right here beyond the fence in my backyard. It favors sandy soil and tolerates conditions from dry to moist, and light from full sun to full shade, which explains why it turns up in so many different spots. This perennial reaches about 2 feet (0.6 m) tall, blooms from April through October, and serves as a larval host for the Common Buckeye and White Peacock butterflies.
No matter which area I go to, beautiful flowers are always growing year-round. That is the story behind the shots. For more like this, enjoy these related stories: Balcones Canyonlands NWR, Berry Springs Park and Preserve, Doeskin Ranch, FlowerHour, Katy Crossing, Mexican hat, Parks, San Gabriel Park, Scarlet leather flower, Texas, Turks cap, Upright Prairie Coneflower, Violet Ruellia, and Wildflowers. Until the next shoot, keep chasing the light and the wonders it reveals.
- Posted for Terri’s Flower Hour #48.
Sources:
- Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center — Clematis texensis — https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=clte2
- Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center — Malvaviscus arboreus var. drummondii — https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=MAARD
- Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center — Ratibida columnifera — https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=raco3
- Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center — Ruellia nudiflora — https://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=runu
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Rebecca Cuningham
Fantastic flower photos! I love Mexican hat. I think I’ll try to grow it again.
Egidio Leitao
Thanks, Rebecca. Good luck with the flowers.
Rebecca Cuningham
Thanks, fingers crossed.
Anita
Wow! These are all so beautiful! A lovely and colorful set, Egidio. Each flower is striking, and you captured the week’s letters perfectly. And I must say, your photo montage and headline are outstanding. Well done!
Egidio Leitao
Thanks for the compliment. The montage was created on Gemini. I can’t do that on Photoshop. I showed the photos and gave the prompts, and Gemini created the montage. I had to refine the prompts a couple of times because Gemini kept repeating one of the flowers twice in the montage.
Anne Sandler
Egidio, beautiful! You know your flowers.
Egidio Leitao
Thanks, Anne. I am learning more with each new post.
Kirstin Troyer
Wow. those are gorgeous. I’ve never seen most of them and I love the montage you put together.
Egidio Leitao
Thank you for the compliment. As for the montage, it was my first time using Gemini. I showed it the four images and described how I wanted them to appear in the montage.
shoreacres
Where in the world did you find all of these flowers growing together? Was it at the LBJWC? I’ve never seen such a thing, attractive as the header photo is.
Egidio Leitao
Linda, they are not growing together in the header image. It was a collage. Maybe I should state that in the caption. The Alt Text says it, but not the caption.
shoreacres
For whatever reason, the alt text doesn’t appear for me, no matter which approach I use. In any event, a caption or information somewhere in the body of the post might be useful, to help people sort out what’s natural and what isn’t.
Egidio Leitao
After my previous reply to you, I edited the caption.
shoreacres
Now that my perplexity’s ended, I have to mention those pretty Ruellia. This week I found several growing at the edge of the curb around my apartment complex’s parking lot. They’d been missed by the yard crew with the string trimmers, and they’re making the most of their opportunity! Sometimes nature is closer at hand than we expect!
Egidio Leitao
I’m glad that is fixed. The Ruellia on the other side of the fence in my backyard was decimated by the mowers, but it’s resilient and has returned. I keep wanting to go out there to photograph it before the next mowing, but I’ve been putting it off.
KymPossible
The Scarlet Leather flower is really beautiful and I can see how it got its name. The Turks cap is unusual and attractive too.
Egidio Leitao
Thanks for your feedback. I appreciate that.
Steve Schwartzman
These flowers are all so familiar in central Texas. I like the way your title plays off the word “stupendous.”
Egidio Leitao
Thanks for the feedback, Steve. I was glad to come up with the title myself (no AI help!).
Steve Schwartzman
It wouldn’t have occurred to me to ask AI for help with a title. Now you’ve got me wondering whether that’s become (or is becoming) a common practice.
Egidio Leitao
I use Grammarly in my writing and am not worried about asking AI to do the research for me to save time in gathering info for my posts, if needed. AI can gather facts faster than I can.
Terri Webster Schrandt
A STUvendous collection indeed, Egidio. Nicely done generating the header collage with Gemini! Your florals are beauties, and I’m glad to know they grow well in sandy, drier soil. That’s what we have mostly in Eastern Washington.
Egidio Leitao
Thanks for this feedback, Terri. I thought I’d give a try to Gemini to generate the collage the way I wanted. It took a couple of revisions, but my vision was met.
Terri Webster Schrandt
I play around with ChatGPT for those fun edits. And its a good idea I might have to steal 😉
Egidio Leitao
It’s a lot easier than Photoshop, which I am ignorant about.
Terri Webster Schrandt
Me too! And they both us AI as tools to adjust and edit photos!
margaret21
These are all excitingly same-but-different from flowesr we know well here. For instance the scarlet leather flower resembles several plants we have here which are all either blue or perhaps white. Interesting stuff.
Egidio Leitao
Thanks for this very interesting feedback, Margaret. We have similar flowers to the scarlet leather flower, but in different colors, too.
pamperrault21
However did you make that collage? It’s brilliant! All your pictures are lovely and, ‘though you wrote “My entries are pretty common in many places” the only one I knew of is the coneflower. Great post, Egidio!
Egidio Leitao
First off, thanks for the comment. I generally use one of two programs to create my collages. This time, however, I asked Gemini to create the collage. I showed it the four images and gave it a prompt to do the collage. I had to refine the prompt three times because Gemini kept repeating one of the flowers. Thanks.
pamperrault21
Very, very cool. Well-done you. pp
pamperrault21
Oh, Egidio, thank you so much. I’ve just been playing on Gemini, I combined 4 flower images and got a beautiful field of wildflowers. The original shots were 4 different cameras, 4 different lenses and 4 different locations. What a great toy and I didn’t even know about it. Thank you so, so much!
Egidio Leitao
That is great, Pam. It was my first edit with Gemini. It was easy. I’m glad you liked your results, too.