I like Fringed Puccoons. They are a delight in the spring when things are perking up from their winter sleep and not much color is available for photographs. These fuzzy green plants with the ruffled yellow flowers belong to the Forget-Me-Not family Boraginaceae.
Depending on where you find them, you will see some variations in the way they look due to differences in growth conditions and possibly genetics. Notice here the long tubular flowers which terminate in petals that look like French Ruffles seen on shirts popular in the 1970’s and further back in time.
This image shows the fuzzy surface of their leaves and stems. Also, the tiny bee and the little black ant on the perimeter of an upper flower indicates that these flowers are a needed food source for many insects.
Sometimes, you will find Fringed Puccoons that aren’t as ruffled on the edges of their flowers as other examples. This is when your experience with many of these flowers pays off. You can notice the fuzzy surfaced leaves, clustering of the flowers near the top of the stem, and the five petals on the tubular flowers with some wrinkles on their edges. Also notice on the lower flower, the end of the pistil coming out of the center. Compare this to other images in this post and see if you can find any more like that.
Here is another individual that illustrates the arrangement of the flowers in Lithospermum incisum.
This specimen has a more open arrangement of its flowers, but still has the typical characters of Fringed Puccoon.
I have found this species in grassland environments in the Fort Worth area, and in West Texas where these were photographed.
Sometimes, you are treated to a situation where the light is right, the subject is gorgeous and a click of the shutter captures a moment of beauty.
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