I whined, over and over (and over), about the long, cold, wet winter but now — from the perspective of a warm, beautiful spring — I’m actually feeling quite grateful for it. The Sandia foothills are covered with flowers and I’m seeing more butterflies with each passing day.
The flower above is a small aster whose common name is rose heath.1 Like most (maybe all) flowers in the aster family, it’s considered a composite. If you look closely at its center, you’ll notice it’s composed of many other tiny flowers — flowers within a flower.
Blackfoot daisies (above) are also members of the aster family. They’re larger than the rose heath asters — maybe 3/4” in diameter, as opposed to the asters topping out at about a half inch — and they’re also composites.
I’m completely fascinated by all the tiny flowers in the center of composites and I love seeing a butterfly’s proboscis as it nectars on flowers. So capturing the moment the Mormon metalmark sunk its proboscis into one of those teeny flowers (above) was quite a treat.
Here’s another view of a Mormon metalmark. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one before.
Many thanks to those of you who rendered an opinion on the various Sandia hairstreak photos, taken with three different lenses. As predicted, your favorites varied: each photo got a thumbs-up from at least one of you. Two of you liked Figure 3 best, as did I.
I sent back the lens I used to take that photo a week ago and I still miss using it, which helps me realize that’s the right lens for me. That three of us preferred one of the photos shot with it is just icing on the cake. Thank you again.
Its Latin name is Chaetopappa ericoides.
That butterfly has such a great name! Blackfoot daisies are prolific up our way too. So simple, so simply beautiful.
Hoping the forecast for some rain soon happens! Keep the wildflowers coming!