Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Aaaaaachooooo ?


Goldenrod, the gift that keeps on giving in the fall.  Actually that's a bad rap.  According to this source, goldenrod was chosen as the official flower of the US in 1893 and later became the state flower of Alabama in 1927.  It was replaced by the camellia because it was widely thought to cause irritation to those suffering from allergies.  Apparently the real culprit is ragweed.  I spotted this last week at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, which even in late October continues to be full of lovely flowering plants and foliage.  Our warm (tornado loving ) weather has helped.

THERE'S STILL TIME TO WRITE YOUR OWN TITLE FOR THE PHOTOGRAPH POSTED YESTERDAY. CONTEST ENDS ON FRIDAY.

10 comments:

Olivier said...

une belle fleur, avec une superbe profondeur de champs

Pat said...

Well, when I saw your photo, I thought it WAS ragweed, like I posted here a while back. They're desperately trying to eradicate ragweed here, but it's still around, even in urban areas.

Gesundheit to you!

brattcat said...

Poor maligned goldenrod.

Rob said...

A pretty composition to such a sneeze inducing plant.

Daryl said...

Allergies are strange .. some you can outgrow, others hit you late in life .. those are too lovely to be any one's irritation

Birdman said...

Around here... they're long gone!

TheChieftess said...

Wonderful lighting on the plant V!!! Beautiful!!!

FancyHorse said...

I've always loved goldenrod. I'm sorry so many people think it causes allergies, and I'm sorry it's not the state flower any more. I'm old enough to remember when it was!

Bob Crowe said...

The way you work the color and depth of field on this is magical.

Allergies can be a low-profile terror. I had a roommate in college who could possibly have died if he ate anything with peanut in it. One of my clients is off most of her psych meds because she is apparently allergic to the corn starch binders in most pills. Good thing we're not allergic to chardonnay grapes.

Nathalie said...

I fully agree with Bob. The light and DOF are stupendous.