Lotsa Bloomin' Mid-May Near Mid-year 2019

This year, May has been an especially eye-popping year for blooms. This blog and accompanying video represent sightings simply from short walks in and near the neighborhood on May 16, 17, and 18. (Includes coupla non-bloom subjects.)

While strolling in the 'hood one day,
In this kinda wet month of May,
Many blooms, so picturesque,
E'en a non-bloom piqued me, yes,
I meandered and pic'd another couple of days!

Acknowledgement to Ed Haley's "Strolling Through The Park One Day" music and lyrics. Want to sing along to the original?

The following subjects caught my eye:

• Two different prickly pear colonies with varying bloom stages (Dig those toes!)
• Small flattened snake with an intriguing pattern (to me) that looks even more interesting at the head
• Two different Mexican hat colonies, one trail with loads of color variations, one patch with a blink-and-and-you'll-miss-it bee
• Creek, somewhat vertically zigzagged
• Shoal Creek Chaste Tree, blooms sparse and pale so far this year

Prickly pear plants were predominant in this stroll. Some prickly pear references: "Prickly Pear Cactus", "Prickly pear cactus, our state plant". Mexican hat blooms were also prominent. Visit "Mexican hats el 5 de mayo, no mas el 7 de mayo" for more eyefuls and references.

Mexican hats el 5 de mayo, no mas el 7 de mayo

To bee'd

Or not to bee'd

During a short walk on Sunday, May 5, I took a few pix of some small clutches of Mexican hat flowers. (I hadn't actually thought of the date coincidence as a Mexican theme.) Two days later, I had hoped to show them to someone else. ¡Ay caramba! They were nowhere in sight! Where'd they go? Did someone pluck them? To take inside? To take them somewhere else? To throw them away? Eh, I wasn't going to be brave enough to knock on the homeowner's door to ask.

Separate places in the past (May last year, May 2014) bloomed wildly with Mexican hats, but nada on the 5th or 7th this year. Fortunately for me, more recently, I did manage to spot additional crops of Mexican hats and took pix and video. My compilation videos (bee'd and beeless include Mexican hats from four different areas (shot May 5, 16, 17, and 23). Hope you yourself spot such striking cute blooms where you live, work, play, or wander!

A few online resources to visit—

• "Upright prairie coneflower Ratibida columnifera" is a good starting point, with very basic description and some images.
• "Ratibida columnifera" lists "Mexican Hat, Red-spike Mexican Hat, Upright Prairie Coneflower, Prairie Coneflower, Long-headed Coneflower, Thimbleflower" as common names. The website has more extensive information and a link to almost 200 images.
• "Wildflowers of Texas", besides providing its image of Mexican hats and short description, also includes similar thumbnail info on other Texas wildflowers. (Note: Because of inconsistency in vertical placements of images near flowers' descriptions, it helps if you already know some of these specimens.)
  

  Mexican hat (Ratibida columnaris)—Blooms May to July, later with favorable weather. Common throughout most of state. Named for its resemblance to the traditional high-crowned, broad-brimmed Mexican sombrero.

  
  Seeing both "Ratibida columnifera" and "Ratibida columnaris" terms confused me. I've not been able to find much to clarify the difference. "Ratibida columnifera" shows up a lot more in hits, even when searching for "columnaris". "Mexican Hat / Ratibida columnaris / 500+ Seeds Perennial" indicates both terms are acceptable. (Prices look a lot more economical than some other sites that sell seeds and plants!)
• "Ratibida Species, Mexican Hats, Thimbleflower, Upright Prairie Coneflower Ratibida columnifera" caught my eye for a pic that shows a striking batch of yellow-only petaled blooms.
• A friend blogger Steve Schwartzman's blog collection of Mexican hat flowers reflects different times of years that he's caught 'em.