Spider Lilies, or Swamp Lilies–take your pick. I’ve heard them called both and a Google search finds an overwhelming number of variations on each name.
I do not know if these particular ones naturalized on their own around the swamp or if they were planted. The flowers are short lived, especially in the heat, and it is a delight to spot them in fresh bloom.
October 18, 2019
Swamp Sunflowers put on a great show this fall.
October 18, 2019.
South Carolina’s Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center is composed of 31 square miles on two barrier islands and include some open fields where these wildflowers were blooming earlier this month.
The field was surrounded by a wet ditch so I didn’t get real close, but a few plants were growing on edge of the dirt roadway.
It was very breezy that day and only a few tenacious insects were flying around. This was good for keeping mosquitoes away but not so good for photographing bouncing blossoms.
An unknown caterpillar was munching his way to the top of this plant.
We had some rain last night which left a few water drops on flowers along the river bank at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens.
Regrettably I did not see the Tree Frog at the time.
Although if I had I probably would have 100 images, not just four or five of a flower I have photographed before.
Facing a new day!
I was happy to see this aged and fallen Rose of Sharon left in place on a lawn at Rose Hill Plantation. While not thriving, it provided a nice burst of color when the actual roses in the formal gardens on the property had gone dormant.
Many blooms were managing just fine and were a very intense color.
A few bees buzzed around in the late morning heat, 90 plus degrees F (32 Degrees C).
This one got stuck down in the flower’s center then crawled his way up a petal, curling it as he went, to get out. I wondered if he was carrying too much pollen to lift off, but he eventually made it.
It was a lazy summer afternoon and a few rather large bees buzzed around a group of Trumpet Vine trumpets. They enter the blossoms head first…
… then awkwardly back out.
Lift off to the next flower.
This one appeared to pause for a moment on the flower ruffle.
Pollen sacks loaded but they kept working, this time with a sideways maneuver into the blossom.
A saw a wide range of colorful blooms in a walk around Magnolia Gardens last week.
A single Morning Glory blossom had opened for the sun pushing a strand of spider web.
The Black-eyed Susans were looking a bit bedraggled from the previous afternoon’s pounding rain.
Texas Star Hibiscus shouts out for attention wherever it blooms.
This stem of delicate orange blossoms in the shade hadn’t quite dried off. I haven’t noticed it before but sure will look again when I return.
There is a small patch of Canna Lilies at the edge of the big field at Magnolia Plantation and Gardens. It’s a wet spot and the lilies and cattails seem pretty happy there.
This dragonfly found an unfurled blossom a nice place to perch on a hot day. True to form he lifted off just as I was ready to shoot then returned to the exact same spot,
The orange and yellow combination of the flowers is quite attractive, shouting out “summer!”
Azaleas have been planted all around the swamp, many of them bloom off and on through the summer, despite the heat. This reddish colored one was a perfect complement to a Swallowtail Butterfly.
The flowers must have been providing some nourishment as the Butterfly kept going around the bush.
He went deep into each blossom, his head disappearing behind the petals.
Then he gracefully backed out before moving on.
