Wednesday, October 5, 2011

More Southeastern Sunflowers, October 5, 2011

The southeastern sunflowers (Helianthus agrestis) in the St. Johns River marshes continue to dazzle! On this day we took photos of sunflowers from SR 520, going west in the morning and returning east in the afternoon. Later we found several large patches of sunflowers along Pluckebaum Rd.
________________________________________




Heading West on SR 520

Heading west on SR 520 around 10 a.m., as we approached the St. Johns River, I stopped along the side of the road so that Julie could take photos of the sunflowers from the car. Above are three of her photos plus a panorama made from four of her shots.
________________________________________



View from the Bridge

On our return trip home in mid-afternoon, Julie took a few shots from our moving car as we crested the bridge over the St. Johns River. These two photos of the distant, eastern edge of the marsh give some idea of the spectacular view.
________________________________________





Pluckebaum Rd., North Side

Next, we decided to checkout Pluckebaum Rd., west of I-95 and south of the intersection of SR 520 and I-95. Sure enough, we found several large fields of southeastern sunflower there, especially on the north side of Pluckebaum, where I photographed the above scenes. The first two photos are of Pluckebaum Rd., which runs east-west; left is looking east; right is looking west.
________________________________________





Pluckebaum Rd. South Side

We found a patch of sunflowers growing close to the road on the south side of Pluckebaum Rd., which allowed me to get some nice, close, backlit photos. One of the characteristics of southeastern sunflower is the presence of relatively long hairs on the leaf margins near the base. The last photo above shows that feature.
________________________________________

No comments:

Post a Comment