Friday, May 2, 2008

Wildflower of the Week or Debbi In Ditches

I went for a ride in my truck today looking for my wild flower of the week. The trip started in Combine and went through Warsaw, Scurry, Cottonwood, Peel Town, Styx, and ended in Lively. I went into the Lively Store and bought myself a Mountain Dew. This was turning out to be a great day.

Several times during this trip, I pulled over on the side of the road, careful to avoid any flowers, and took pictures. Three different ranchers pulled over to make sure I did not need any help. Apparently, it is not quite normal for a woman to wander around in the ditches in Styx, Lively, or Scurry. I would think that with town names such as those they would have their share of characters. The folks along the way were friendly and helpful. Farmers waved from tractors and each truck I passed gave the two-fingered Texas Wave. The radio even played ZZ Top and Stevie Ray Vaughan for me.

I guess I should get to the point now. So here it is my wild flower of the week.

Indian paintbrush or Castilleja indivisa.




















This flower has a wonderful story. Legend has it that a young brave became frustrated when he tried to paint a sunset with his war paints. He asked the Great Spirit for guidance. The Great Spirit gave him paintbrushes laden with the colors he wanted. He painted a beautiful sunset and left the paintbrushes in the fields. The paintbrushes sprouted the flowers we see today. The flowers are actually white . The red/orange we see are leaf like bracts.

If you would like to share a wild flower, leave me a message and I will link the post. It doesn't have to be a wild flower. Last time I linked a raccoon. Why not, lets do it again. I like to see wild flowers, wild life, and general wildness.

I didn't get any players this week, so I went out and found a wild flower post on Blotanica. From Digging are Hill Country Wildflowers right here in Texas. Check it out.

13 comments:

  1. Debbie your header chnaged again ! It is really nice : )
    Beautiful wild flowers .. we won't have much for a while yet .. but Dame's Rocket, Chicory (love that blue) golden rod , Queen Ann's Lace .. will all follow.
    Great post !
    Almost all the Americans we got to know in Europe drank Mountain Dew .. whats up with that ? LOL

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  2. Hi Joy, thank you on the header compliment. Favorite Sister did it again. Isn't she talented.

    When you wild flowers show up, write about them and I will link you. I want to know what is going on up there with you too.

    Mountain Dew has so much caffeine it is like a double espresso only lime green and full of sugar.

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  3. Stevie Ray Vaughan! Styx!!! Indian paintbrushes! Sounds like you had a wonderful day! (But, er, did you find those tadpoles?)

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  4. Hi ofb, I did have a great day. Um, about those tadpoles, apparently they are canibals. Don't tell Baby Monkey.

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  5. Sheesh! Ya leave for a few days and come back to find out about canibal tadpoles?!? What did I miss anyway?

    No wildflowers here yet either. (Nor in MN. Grr.) At least we can go online and see virtual flowers. We did have a few pansies blooming which I promptly had Mom dig up for me.

    At least the locals were friendly and stopped to help a poor lady in distress. That doesn't seem to happen as much as it used to.

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  6. Hi Cinj, sorry about the canibalism. Who knew. Glad your home.

    Deb

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  7. Wow! beautiful! WE won't have anything like this in New England for a few months yet

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  8. After half of year of protecting my pond from raccoons by putting bird netting over it, today I removed it because we accidentally caught and killed a beautiful leopard frog.

    The raccoons had never actually caught any of our goldfish but they trashed the plants trying. The only goldfish eaten by an animal was one of the stray neighborhood cats. So your first photo makes me wince.

    I hope both our goldfish can keep away from the cats.

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  9. Thanks Melissa, let me know when they show up for you.

    MSS, yikes racoons. I don't seriously thinks Trixie or Tisha has the nerve to get their feet wet. Notice, no toes in water. We found a leopard frog in our jacuzzi (which had not been cleaned out) a couple of years ago. We took it to Mom's pond and let it go.

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  10. I love those indian paintbrushes! I bought seed last year, and if I find them there may be flowers forthcoming. :)

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  11. Thanks for the shout-out, Debbie. I didn't make a wildflower pilgrimage this year (too busy with the Garden Bloggers Spring Fling), so it's nice to see what you spotted this year.

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  12. Hi pam, it is a good link. Sorry I took so long to reply.

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