The Dangerous Bastard Cabbage

For all my readers who live in the Seguin area, I have a question. Have you noticed how many fields and roadsides are absolutely covered with this billowy, tall, bushy yellow flower?

It is called the bastard cabbage (Rapistrum rugosum). I don't remember seeing such a profusion of this particular wildflower, but I have enjoyed taking pictures of it. I love the simplicity of the lemon yellow flowers with their spindly and nubby green stalks against the blue, blue sky. In order to get this type of shot, I literally have to lay on the ground on my belly and set the camera on the dirt and point it upwards just right. 

If I just kneel, as I did for the two next pictures, and if I get pretty close to the blooms, I can get them in sharp focus, and get a very blurred, Monet type of backdrop of bluebonnets or bluebonnets mixed with Indian paintbrushes.

What I did not realize, until I did a little research to identify the wildflower, is that it is so invasive a species that it is crowding out almost all other wildflowers. If it is not brought under some sort of control, it will crowd out all our precious bluebonnets in the near future. Evidence of it's success in overtaking its habitat is the numerous fields in the area that are blanketed in a thick cover of the plant.

It seems it's nickname of bastard cabbage is very appropriate.

A Whole Field of Wildflowers For A Backyard

Yesterday, I took my young future photographer on a trip to look for wildflowers. We drove west of Seguin down Farm Road 467 and stopped when we spotted this yard. This house is located on the corner of FM 467 and a much smaller back road, so we pulled off the highway and parked on the side of the road. If you look very closely, you can see an old bicycle leaning against the side of the house, and a plastic white lawn chair in the yard.

We took several pictures and then we walked along the perimeter barb wire fence and took in the glory of several acres of Indian paintbrushes and some yellow wildflowers covering the field.

I can tell that the wildflower season is winding down, as far as photography opportunities go, because people are beginning to mow along the sides of the road, now. Also, we went to a rural church which has a 90 year old four-room school house on it's property, and they had also mowed their field.

Nonetheless, I will still try to go on a few more wildflower outings before they are all gone.

Beautiful Mystery Flower Stumps Photographer

Generally, when I decide to post photos of a flower, I do some research first. I identify the flower and learn a little about it, and share some of what I find with my readers. This little beauty has evaded all attempts to discover it's name.

I found it in a field of many different kinds of grasses and wildflowers, just south of Seguin, Texas.

It is only a few inches tall, and easily missed in a field of wildflowers because it is so tiny. If anyone recognizes it, please share what you know about it in the comment field. It would be greatly appreciated.

Finding an Indian Blanket During the Texas Wildflower Season

Here are a couple of photos of the red and yellow Indian Blanket. I haven't seen hardly any in the fields and meadows yet, but I expect that more will bloom in the days to come. 

 As I have been driving along the central Texas highways and byways, I have thoroughly enjoyed the masses and masses of wildflowers that have bloomed this spring. We have been in the most terrible drought in living history, so last year, there were no flowers at all. There was hardly any grass, in fact.

Praise the Lord, Texas finally started to get some rain this fall, and by spring, we can almost forget the months and months of drought. This spring we are not taking the blooms for granted.

I hope you have been enjoying the different flowers I have been posting. Today, I am featuring  the red and yellow Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella). Once again, we get to look at another state's official state flower. The Indian Blanket is the state wildflower of Oklahoma. There are a couple of other names it goes by, the firewheel and the blanket flower.

Here is one of the fields I passed today. I love the rustic cedar fencing and the old and gnarled live oak tree.