Colorful Weed

[brad]

I have no idea what this is... I spotted it while wandering the grounds at the DFW National Cemetary yesterday...

[Jim Victory]

Nice shot Brad!

It looks like a Beebalm, possibly a Lemon Beebalm.

You didn't happen to smell it did you? The Lemon Beebalm has a lemon fragrance to it.

[Mike Roden]

Wow! What a beautiful weed. The out of focus background ( I hate that word, bokeh) is really nice. What lens was this taken with?

[brad]

This was shot with my Canon 10D with the Tamron 28-300mm Zoom.. at ISO400, 300mm, f/8.0, and 1/180 shutter... hand held. PSP9 used to reduce digital noise and enhance color a little.


And no, I didn't smell it.. my nose doesn't work that well. :lol:

[heinecke]

That is one good looking weed! My only nit is the slender stem to the left. Kind of wish that wasn't there. But exposure, background and everything else was handled very well.


Glenn

[pudaniel]

Originally Posted by brad

I have no idea what this is... I spotted it while wandering the grounds at the DFW National Cemetary yesterday...

One of the more pleasantly fragrant wildflowers in our gardens is purple horsemint (Monarda citriodora). It is a tall growing annual, which is easy to start from seed. horsemint in fieldHorsemint is very common in open fields, usually growing amidst tall grass and other plants, and the colors of its blossoms range from almost white to a rather deep lavender. Close up, the flowers are fairly ornate, with speckles and a complex structure of petals and bracts. On each tall stem, the flowers are arranged in clumps spaced about an inch apart, so that, from a distance, it looks as if there are large, round flowers with a stem growing right through the center. If grown in shade, the stems get very rangy and often fall over.

The leaves of horsemint have a citrus smell, but the most noticeable odor comes from the dried seed heads. They are quite pungent. Other names for this plant are plains horsemint, tall horsemint, lemon-mint, and lemon beebalm.