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Woody Asters

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January 18, 2025 at 6:02 PM

Woody Asters

@liatris.bsky.social

Small observations on a wetlands trail in the Florida panhandle. #nature #photography #nativeplants

A close-up photo of of dried seed pods on slender, hairy stems. The pods have a translucent, papery texture with a delicate veining pattern that gives them a skeletal or lacy appearance. Each pod has pointed tips or lobes, resembling a crown or spire-like structure. The stems and pods are covered with fine hairs, giving them a slightly fuzzy texture. The background is a warm beige blur of out of focus plant stems.

A close up photo of a developing bud on a native azalea plant (Rhododendron sp.). The bud is oval-shaped, tightly closed, and features a vibrant mix of reddish-pink and green hues. Its surface is segmented by dark lines or veins, giving it a scaled appearance that resembles intricate armor. It is situated at the tip of a woody stem with a rough, slightly hairy texture. Surrounding the bud are remnants of two dried, reddish-brown leaves with a leathery texture that curl slightly at their edges. The background is softly blurred, featuring natural tones of brown, beige, and muted green, with out of focus plant stems.

A close photo of a crayfish chimney, a structure created by burrowing crayfish. The chimney is composed of small, irregularly shaped clumps of dark, moist soil, stacked to form a conical or tower-like shape. The surface appears rough and uneven, with soil clumps varying in size, indicating it was formed as the crayfish excavated its burrow and deposited the soil around the entrance. Surrounding the chimney are dry, fallen leaves which are different muted shades of brown.

A photo of the exposed root system of an overturned tree in a wetlands area, likely toppled by hurricane winds. The massive root structure, now vertical, reveals a tangled network of roots extending in all directions. The roots are coated in dark, moist soil. On the sides, clumps of grasses and other wetland plants still cling to the exposed soil. A small pool or stream of water is visible at the base of the root system. The backyard is a mixture of tall, slender trees with undergrowth of a muted green.

January 7, 2025 at 12:08 AM

Woody Asters

@liatris.bsky.social

Mural, East Village, NYC

A photo of a mural on a white brick wall, featuring a 6-armed figure dressed in red with a santa hat on, with an anarchism A on it's chest, who appears to be drinking a molotov cocktail with one arm, two arms rest on its thighs, while the other 3 arms (and both feet) are being used to roughing up and/or detain some smaller mustachioed tophat-wearing figures. It is in a cartoon style. There is a defunct payphone, some conduit, an air conditioning unit, and a catwalk on the wall. To the left a red doorway of a bar can be seen with small graffiti around the entrance.

December 25, 2024 at 7:27 PM

Woody Asters

@liatris.bsky.social

Another post from sunnier days! Here is Lupinus villosus 'Lady Lupine' in some FL panhandle coastalplain prairie, displaying a gorgeous spectrum of pink-purple among different specimen in the same area.

#nativeplants #FallBackFlowers #wildflowers

A photo of a cluster of Lupinus villosus plants in full bloom surrounded by scattered vegetation. Their tall, upright racemes are densely packed with pink/lavender flowers, each featuring darker maroon spots on the petals. The flower spikes emerge prominently above a base of silvery-green, lance-shaped leaves that appear thick and velvety. A treeline is blurry in the distant background.

A closer photo of Lupinus villosus racemes, these featuring a more distinctly lavender hue, surrounded by the dried stalks of the previous year's plants,

A close up photo of Lupinus villosus racemes, these distinctly pink in color. One is in focus, showing it's pea-like flowers packed along it's upright racemes, with darker maroon spots in the throat of each individual flower. Many others are blurrier in the immediate background.

December 22, 2024 at 2:46 PM

Woody Asters

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A post from warmer days, a bit of coastalplain prairie in the Florida panhandle in October, including flowering Liatris elegans 'Elegant blazing star', Agalinis sp. 'False foxglove', Pityopsis graminifolia 'Narrowleaf silkgrass', Eupatorium capillifolium 'Dogfennel"

#nativeplants #FallBackFlowers

A photo of a dense wildflower prairie, a dense profusion of various plant species stems, leaves, and flowers, with spires of light pink "blazing stars" Liatris flowering stalks closest, clusters of deeper pink bell-shaped Agalinis flowers nearby, and dense sprinkling of bright yellow Pityopsis flowers throughout the blurrier background, in which can also be seen the white-green, large, feathery plumes of Eupatorium capillifolium 'Dogfennel', and further back in the distance there are trees, a blue sky with fluffy white clouds, and a part of a utility pole

December 20, 2024 at 1:46 AM

Woody Asters

@liatris.bsky.social

Gorgeous day in the pines of North Florida. Here's Dalea pinnata 'Summer farewell' dried seeds heads- lots of them -and a patch of Pinus palustris 'Longleaf pine' babies.

Longleaf pines are a keystone species which defines this ecosystem.

A closeup photo of the dried seed heads of Dalea pinnata 'Summer Farewell' at the end of dried stems. covered in silvery-grey, feathery/hairy plumose calyx lobes. They are very frilly, shaggy, and feathery.

A photo of a pine tree understory, featuring a large patch of dried silvery-grey Dalea pinnata flowering stalks. The sky is overcast, the thatch beneath the dried stalks is a warm brown with hints of green and yellow.

A photo of Dalea pinnata seed head, with many more blurry in the background, along with pine trees.

A dense patch of young Pinus palustris 'Longleaf pine' plants of varying heights, none more than probably 8 feet fall. Their long, rounded needle tufts are a vibrant green, and prominent. Other pines - mostly slash or loblolly pines - are visible in the background. The sky is blue with few clouds. The ground is a thick thatch.

December 14, 2024 at 10:58 PM

Woody Asters

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Conradina canescens 'False rosemary'! A native shrub in the mint family, endemic to the sandy coastal plains of Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi, where it thrives on low-nutrient soil, is super drought tolerant and great at controlling erosion, and is visited by many pollinators (mostly bees).

A closeup photo of the flower of Conradina canescens, pale lavender, white, and two-lipped: the lower lip is three-lobed and bears dark purple spots. Stamens are prominent and run along the inside of the upper lip with end in dark purple tips. A few of it's short, needle-like, silvery-green leaves can be seen.

November 11, 2024 at 4:23 AM

Woody Asters

@liatris.bsky.social

Mimosa strigilosa 'Sunshine mimosa', native to all the states that border the Gulf of Mexico + Georgia and Arkansas. Creeping ground vine with deep roots, highly drought tolerant, lovely pink fluffy flowers. Well liked by bees. Host plant for Euroma lisa, the 'Little sulphur' butterfly.

a fluffy pink blossom of Mimosa strigilosa - a globular explosion of yellow-tipped pink stamen - at the end of a slender stem, with it's compound leaves blurry in the background

a closeup photo of the inflorescence of Mimosa strigilosa, showing thousands of long, wavy pink stamen radiating from the center mass and ending in small pale yellow tips, creating a vertically elongated pink globe of wiry stamen

the feathery, delicate, bipinnate compound green leaves of mimosa strigilosa as seen from above

November 1, 2024 at 2:56 AM

Woody Asters

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Trichostema setaceum 'Narrowleaf bluecurls', one of my favorite fall-time native plants of the Eastern US. Herbaceous annual, likes dry, sandy soils. Easily the best photo I've ever gotten of it! (on my phone... please send a real camera)

Closeup photo of two flowers of Trichostema setaceum 'Narrowleaf bluecurls' at the end of a green stem: two-lipped flowers with richly purple-ish blue upper lip, a white lower lip with purple/blue spots and purple bottom, and long, distinctively curled stamen curling upward and outward. Other plants are blurry in the background

October 17, 2024 at 10:16 PM

Woody Asters

@liatris.bsky.social

More native plants of the longleaf pine forest: Seymeria pectinata 'Piedmont blacksenna'. And Agalinis sp. 'False foxglove'. Both are favorites of common buckeyes and often are covered in their caterpillars. Interestingly both are also parasitic and feed off the roots of pine trees.

A closeup photo of the small, soft, wrinkled yellow flower of Piedmont blacksenna. It has five petals, with red spots on the upper lobes. There is a tangle of it's fuzzy green stems, and there are unopened buds which resemble fuzzy yellow balls

A closeup photo of the soft, wrinkled, pink flower of false foxglove. It is bell shaped, with 5 soft, hairy petals and a throat spotted with darker pink and pale pink stamen and style within. The afternoon sun illuminates it from behind. Spare stems and grass are blurry in the background

A closeup photo of a buckeye caterpillar climbing on a slender Yaupon blacksenna branch with thin leaves and many unopened buds. The caterpillar's skin is a complex, detailed pattern of orange, black, and brown, and many-pronged black spikes protrude at regular intervals along it's body. More yaupon blacksenna plants are blurry in the background.

[note, the plant is is not the species of Seymeria (blacksenna) seen in the other photo, this is the other species of Seymeria in Florida, S. cassioides 'Yaupon blacksenna']

October 15, 2024 at 1:37 AM

Woody Asters

@liatris.bsky.social

Some more backyard native plants! Liatris elegans 'Elegant blazing star', Melanthera nivea 'Snow squarestem', Liatris chapmanii 'Chapman's blazing star' (with a bee taking a nap on it), and Pityopsis graminifolia 'Narrowleaf silkgrass'

Closeup photo of many frilly flowers of Liatris elegans 'Elegant blazing star', with long stamens. They are a pale pink, almost white

A closeup photo of a clustered flower of Melanthera nivea, compromised of many tubular white florets

A closeup photo of frilly pink Liatris chapmanii 'Chapman's blazing star' flowers, with their long stamen snaking chaotically from the florets emerging from the central stem, with some kind of bee taking a nap on the shady side of the stem below a flower

A closeup photo of the bright yellow flowers of Pityopsis graminifolia 'Narrowleaf silkgrass' and their grey-ish-green stems, in a xeric, scrub-like setting. A cluster of insect eggs is visible on one of the stems

October 7, 2024 at 10:15 PM

Woody Asters

@liatris.bsky.social

A few of what's blooming in the backyard scrub restoration project. Trichostema dichotomum 'Forked bluecurls', Palafoxia integrifolia 'Coastalplain palafox', Dicerandra linearifolia var robustior 'Coastalplain balm', Calamintha georgiana 'Georgia calamint'

A closeup of a small purplish-blue flower of Trichostema dichotomum 'Forked bluecurls', at the end of a leafy stem, with long curled stamens surrounded by blue-purple petals, and an especially long lower petal which features a field of white with blue-purple spots within it.

A close up photo of a Palafoxia integrifolia 'Coastalplain palafox' inflorescence: a complex, frilly, pinkish-white disc flower, with petals emerging in many directions from a central tube.

A closeup photo of many tubular pink flowers of Dicerandra linearifolia var robustior 'Coastalplain balm', dappled in shadow in the noonday sun, long stamens tipped with spotted anthers hang from their pale throats, surrounded by pink petals featuring a pattern of darker pink spots.

A closeup photo of a couple flowers of Calamintha georgiana, 'Georgia calamint', tubular and 2-lipped, such a pale pink that they're basically white, the lower lip deeply lobed and patterned with a field of small purple spots.

October 6, 2024 at 9:47 PM

Woody Asters

@liatris.bsky.social

samesies

purple flowers of 'blue mistflower', yellow goldrod flowers, yellow swamp sunflower blossoms blurry in the background, and branches and leaves of various other unidentified plants, mashed together in a chaotic, immersed perspective of a marsh margin

October 6, 2024 at 8:35 PM

Woody Asters

@liatris.bsky.social

Hanging out in the marsh, Sabatia brevifolia 'Shortleaf rose gentian' and Cephalanthus occidentalis 'Buttonbush'.

September 29, 2024 at 6:05 PM

Woody Asters

@liatris.bsky.social

The morning after the hurricane, the first blossom on my prized Dicerandra linearifolia var. robustior

September 27, 2024 at 5:06 PM

Woody Asters

@liatris.bsky.social

A couple photos from the native prairie strip I've been working on this year

Vernonia angustifolia 'Narrowleaf ironweed'

Phoebis sp. 'Sulphur butterfly caterpillar' on Chamaecrista fasciculata 'Partridge pea'

Chamaecrista fasciculata 'Partridge pea'

September 10, 2024 at 4:00 PM

Woody Asters

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August 24, 2024 at 5:32 AM

Woody Asters

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August 13, 2024 at 12:34 AM

Woody Asters

@liatris.bsky.social

Meanwhile, their candidate is on the record like: "Jeff Epstein? Fantastic guy! Yeah, he likes 'em young! He sure is a lot of fun to be with!"

July 22, 2024 at 12:26 AM

Woody Asters

@liatris.bsky.social

Much more common but I got a pic of this (I think) gray hairstreak butterfly yesterday, hanging out in one of my Liatris starts

July 18, 2024 at 3:20 PM

Woody Asters

@liatris.bsky.social

I was curious if these two had ever been in something together, I ended up on a low-engagement 7 year old reddit thread about a hypothetical battle between them.

July 11, 2024 at 3:58 AM

Woody Asters

@liatris.bsky.social

Specifically Babymetal fans. The metal hand symbol is the sign of the horns (middle and ring finger are down and covered by thumb), whereas Babymetal's is the kitsune (fox), referencing the band's lore in which they're emissaries of the Fox God.