Monday Morning Backs Into Winter

I woke up this morning to a blustery north wind driving temperatures into the 40’s. Tonight the weather prognosticators are predicting lows in the 30’s. It would appear winter (at least our kind of winter) isn’t through with SE Texas. As I wait for springs return and the yard work honey-dews that will accompany it, here are some more of my spring photo’s fropm last week…

One of the most common “wildflowers” in my back “yard”.

THIS IS PROBABLY MY FAVORITE NATIVE PLANT. I’m not completely sure why the unassuming wildflower commonly known as “blue eyed grass” enchants me the way it does. Maybe it’s because it’s a member of the iris family, and many species resemble doll’s house versions of that plant, which is also a favorite of mine. Maybe it’s because many species resemble grasses, but with a twist—the flat but fleshy (more iris-like) leaves are tougher, and on sunny days in June and July the “grass” explodes with small but conspicuous flowers. Many people think that these little blue “eyes” seem to wink at you when wind rustles the plants’ foliage.

There are many species of Sisyrinchiums, all native to the New World. No matter where you live in North America, you can probably find one or more locally native species. Here on the East Coast, S. montanum (shown in the photo above) grows in abandoned fields and along roadsides, where it spreads readily by seed and manages to survive despite competition from far more aggressive plants. Many of my neighbors don’t distinguish the blue-eyed grass from the Eurasian weeds that also flourish on roadsides here, and I often think they don’t appreciate it enough.

via Wild Flora’s Wild Gardening: Meet the Natives: Sisyrinchiums.

Now that the purple vetch has started to die out, it is the clumps of blue-eyed grass that turns the fields around here blue. Shortly the blues and purples of spring will give way to the yellows of summer.

Another of the flowering plants that is quite prevalent at this time is this one…