Let me tell you a story about the best-laid plans of mice and men … I was thrilled to find a couple of these plants growing just off the gravel road near my driveway in late June. Since, like the dainty seed balls of dandelions, the huge wild salsify seed balls are easily damaged if the wind pushes them up against anything else, I cleared out the competing plants around my little patch to keep them safe and awaited the magical moment they would burst into unblemished goatsbeard glory.
And came home one evening to find that Mills County had mowed the shoulders of the gravel road that day. My carefully-tended wild salsify patch had been mulched just a few days before it could bloom.
There is, of course, a happy ending (it’s not like southwest Iowa is short on goatsbeard) but it took a good deal of searching to find replacement specimens that were intact and camera-ready. And camera-ready is important because human beings are really quirky in how we visually process photos – small imperfections or details that don’t register when we see something in person will flash at us like neon lights when we see the same something in a photograph.
So here’s the ditch photographer’s quandary: you need to find specimens that are as close to perfect as possible … but you’re dealing with plants growing in ditches, exposed to deer and bugs and wind and hailstorms and the Mills County mowing department, and perfect is pretty hard to come by.
Which is why, after much searching, I ended up climbing an embankment that was protected from the summer’s prevailing south wind and the county mowing crew to collect these pristine Goatsbeard puffballs. Photography makes you do weird things.
Wild Salsify, Salsifies (species of Targopogon), AKA Goatsbeard
Shoot date: June 27, 2019
Possible use as a cut flower: The seed balls will stick around for the long haul, no water required. I’m hanging onto three dried ones to give to my nieces and nephew in December. Blowing on dandelions was a popular summer activity for them and I’m hoping that Christmas puffballs will earn me an Awesome Aunt award.
