@thesouloftheearth.bsky.social

@thesouloftheearth.bsky.social

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I'm Betsey Crawford, wildflower & nature photographer. I post photos and write about ecology, nature, spirit, wildness, and beauty at https://thesouloftheearth.com

A tall purple fleabane (Erigeron perennis) hosts two orange, black, and cream field crescent (I think!) butterflies who look like they are enjoying a kiss. Taken in gorgeous Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada.
Face to face with an orange, black, and white butterfly (I think it's a field crescent) perched on top of a tall purple fleabane (Erigeron perennis) in Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada.
A Mojave woodyaster (Xylorhiza tortifolia) luminous in the desert in Death Valley, California. It's delicate lavender coloring fades to white as it goes toward the yellow center. As with all flowers in the Asteraceae family, everything you see is a flower. What look like petals are ray flowers, what look like a center is a cluster of disk flowers. A pollinator's feast.
Two deep orange San Joaquin blazing stars (Mentzelia pectinata) blooming above the Carrizo Plain in central California. The centers are deep red with a cluster of red stamens topped by orange anthers.
What look like 3 maroon-striped petals on fetid adder's tongue are sepals. The petals are pole-like, very dark purple on the outside, white inside. The whole flower puts new meaning into "wild" flower.
A brown, white-crowned sparrow on a twig, with orange beak and dark eye line. Seen from the back, looking right, slightly windblown. The words are from Drew Lanham's wonderful Joy is the Justice We Give Ourselves.
The bright yellow, daisy-like flowers of brittle bush cascade down a slope among boulders and other shrubby plants in the Anza Borrego Desert.
Under dramatic clouds and very blue sky, a red rock ridge slowly erodes into the sloping plain at its feet. Sagebrush and other shrubby plants are taking hold.
A prairie dog pops out of his or her burrow to check up on things on a sunny Colorado day.
The pale green and purple striped bud of fetid adders tongue (Scolipus bigellovii) rises from a cone of its green, mottled leaves.
Bright pink clouds fan up from the setting sun, which has disappeared into blue mountains. The pink is reflected on the lake at the bottom of the photo.
A cluster of five-petalled, vivid blue houndstongue (Cynoglossum officianale) flowers with raised white centers. They are named for their long leaves, like a hound's tongue, not their flowers.
Two David Austen roses, which are yellow but I find that photographs often show an underlying pink, as these do. These are in full bloom, from the side, slanting downward to the left, with hints of dark green leaves behind them.
Three very lush blooms of a white, double amaryllis. Double means that they have been bred to have many more petals than the species. The petals are wide and curve away from centers tinged with green. They look like extra lush lilies, but are only distantly related to real lilies.
A close up of a vivid scarlet staghorn cholla (Cylindropuntia versicolor) flower radant with late afternoon sun lighting it up from the right. Cholla flower petals have a tendency to grow upright on one side and flare out on the other. One of their very wrinkled buds is on the left.
A prairie mandala with grasses, flowers, leaves, roots, a butterfly, and a meadowlark displayed in and out of the circle. Flowers include yellow goldenrod, purple tradescantia, yellow rudbeckia with brown center, and pink blazing star. Grasses include side oats grama, goosegrass, and buffalo grass. The butterfly is a black and orange fritillary. Meadowlarks have yellow throats and chests and white tummies with brown and black stripes and markings.
Vivid pink, sun-filled sticky geranium (Geranium viscossimum) in profile with buds against a green background. You get a peak at the red stamens and yellow anthers between the petals.
A yellow columbine (Aquilegia flavescens) with touches of red on their flaring sepals. They're hard to describe! There are 5 upright structures that look like tubes that start narrow and open wider and flare like a skirt t the bottom. Halfway down each are petal-like structures that open outward like wings. The yellow anthers are on thin, pale stamens hanging from the tubular structures. The small green bud already shows that this interesting structure is coming.
The luminous lavender flowers of three tall purple fleabane (Erigeron peregrinus) against a green background of leaves with the sun shining through them. The shot is taken from the side of the flowers, so the yellow centers are peeking through the petals.
A vivid pink fairy slipper orchid (Calyso bulbosa) shimmering in the sunlight. The upright sepals and petals are hot pink, the lower, sac-like labellum red and white striped with fine white hairs to help lure bees and brush pollen off them as they enter.
A cluster of luminous pink, cone-shaped checkerblooms (Sidalcea malvifolia) which are not checked at all, but gently striped from petal tip to petal tip with lighter and darker pink.
A vivid purple monkshood (Aconite delphinifolium) bud and green triple seed head. Both are extra luminous and have their purple veins emphasized by the sunlight shining through them.
A light purple wild hyacinth (Dipterostemon capitatus) hanging upside down with an orange, red, black, and cream Chalcedon checkerspot butterfly (Euphydryas chalcedona) also hanging upside down, holding on with delicate bright red legs.
Buckwheat (Eriogonum species) flowers are round clusters of tiny, individual flowers. This one, likely a cultivated version, is white and pink with red markings. The cluster is being visited by a gray gorgon copper butterfly (Lycaena gorgon) which has black markings surrounded by white and orange markings on the lower wing flanked by black.
White stem frasera (Frasera albicaulis) has a green stem and pale blue four-petalled flowers with a central stripe of darker blue. Since there are both yellow and pink stamens, I assume they turn pink after pollination to let pollinators know not to bother. This cluster is being visited by an orange and black fritillary butterfly with white spots on its underwing.
Vivid yellow, round clusters of arrowleaf buckwheat flowers (Eriogonum compositum) against a dark background. On one cluster rests a matching black and yellow ornate checkered beetle (Trichodes ornatus).
The color of checker lilies (Fritillaria affinis) vary from yellow to chocolate brown. This one is yellow with maroon speckles and deep yellow anthers. They bloom downward, curving their stem with them. This one has a background of yellow light shining through trees to match.
A slanting stalk of Washington lilies (Lilium washingtonanium) set against a dark background. The buds, white full blooms, and fading, now pink blooms are all equally radiant with the sun on them. Some flowers change color when they are pollinated so bees will know not to waste precious energy on them. I suspect that's the case here.
Bright, bright red cardinal flower (Silene laciniata) with strappy red petals and silvery green leaves, stem, and buds. All upside down because it was tumbling over a rock along the trail.
The six white petals of fawn lily (Erythronium californicum) reflex backwards at the tips and have yellow-gold centers that shine in sunlight. The prominent anthers are also bright gold. The stem grows upright and then curves so the flower is slightly down facing. This stem has captured a couple of the sword-like green leaves.
Grass of Parnassus (Parnassia palustris) has white oval petals with green stripes curving up from the base of the petal. Those lose their green as they get close to the pointed tips. The center is the cream colored ovary and 4-lobed stigmas. The 10 stamens, both fertile and infertile, have tiny, shiny yellow, white, and green glands that look like miniature glass beads.
A single tall purple fleabane has a simple daisy look, but its complex structure shows well in photos. As is common in the Asteraceae family, the lavender petals are actually ray flowers around a yellow center composed of tiny disk flowers. A flower full of flowers, a pollinator's heaven.
A long stem of monkshood with purple flowers and green buds is hooked under a vivid orange downward facing lily and both just keep going.
Mount Diablo fairy lantern (Calochortus pulchellus) with thin green leaves curving over a downward facing yellow globe peeking from under yellow and green sepals.
A pair of pale blue-lavender western blue clematis (Clematis occidentalis) among leaves and curving grasses taken in Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta, Canada
The moon shines brightly in a gap between both clouds and the dark profiles of fir trees, sending a carpet of light across the water.
Brown, white and black sparrow perched on a twig, looking over her shoulder. Painted in watercolor from a photograph by Carl Bovis.
a stand of aspen (Populous tremuloides) tree trunks in the eastern Sierra filled with leaves so golden yellow that the air itself turns color.
Luminous, white fairy bells with their yellow stigmas emerging from the airy, flaring petals. They bloom tucked under a leaf, as shown here, so I had to take this photo sitting on the ground looking up. The plants were unusually large that year, as were the flowers.
The setting sun illuminates a section of the snowy top of Mt Shasta towering over a stand of evergreen trees. The very top of the mountain is lost in clouds.
Yellow and white Mentzelia albicaulis or whitestem blazing star with its pointed petals open to reveal lots of delicate, luminous stamens. The plant is a bit scraggly, growing out of dry, rocky ground, but the flowers are glorious.
A brick building with a small steeple, a taller white steeple behind it, another yellow building. All set among trees and reflected in a pond in Harrisville, New Hampshire.
An orange, red, black, and cream chalcedon checkerspot butterfly (Euphydryas chalcedona) hanging on to a lavender-blue wild hyacinth (Dipterostemon capitatus).
A very young, brown and beige spotted owl on a 'No Loitering' sign. Forest in the background.
Pink waterlily with yellow center emerging from under one of its green, leafy pads.
A colored pencil drawing of a tiny gray mouse I saw on a hike last year.
A long red layered stone ridge in Utah, with red desert spreading below it, dotted with green sage. Deep blue sky full of clouds bending down to the top of the ridge.
Autumnal colors, blue sky, and fluffy white clouds as we drove north on the Dempster Highway, Yukon.
A close-up of a deep red and yellow painted schinia (Schinia volupia) resting on a deep red and yellow blanket flower (Gaillardia pulchella). Their colors match so closely it takes a moment to bring the moth into focus.
Looking up from under the yellow ray flowers of brittlebush (Encella farinosa) at a fly drinking nectar from the disk flowers of the plant. In the Asteraceae family, everything you see is a flower: center disk flowers and what look like petals but are ray flowers. Photo taken in the Anza Borrego Desert in Southern California where they are bloom in masses.
A young girl in a blue shirt on the edge of the Pacific Ocean with arms outstretched as if she's taking wing over the roiling water of crashing waves.
The beautiful white fringe flowers — long, thin petals curling downward — of fringe tree (Chionanthus virginicus) against a background of the tree's bright green leaves.
White peony bud opening against a dark background.
A black and pale yellow forget-me-not moth (Gnophaela latipennis) feasts on mountain coyote mint (Monardella odoratissimma) in the Truckee Valley in the Sierra Nevada, California.
Mandala of a dark yellow and black box turtle from above on a nest of gray stones and tan and gray feathers. Done in watercolor.
A lavender petalled wild geranium (Geranium erianthum) with its long, thin, red-tipped seed pods and oval buds. Taken against the bright yellow and varying greens in Alaska's beautiful summer light.
White petals with green stripes, grass of parnassus (Parnassia palustris) looks like it's filled with chartreuse glass beads. This one was growing in a bog in Peterson Bay, Alaska.
A cluster of the white bells of lily of the valley tucked among their sword-shaped leaves.
The Western Veil Nebula cascading in reds and blues from upper right to lower left. Photo by Robert Hubbell.
A pencil drawing of a side view of a frog looking up.