Brazos Bend Nature Walk | Plants and Flowers

John and I continued our nature walk on Elm Lake Trail at Brazos Bend State Park, enjoying the sights and taking photos. While John photographed birds and alligators, I began to focus my camera on plants and flowers.

The "green scum" on the surface of the water is actually tiny free-floating aquatic plants called duckweed. Elm Lake is covered in it.

I was fascinated by the large leaves of the American lotus, a plant that is often confused with water lilies. 

It is not in bloom right now, but seed pods are everywhere. The photo above shows a fresh pod filled with seeds.

But, most of the seed pods I saw had already gone by and were drooping downward, looking like little shower heads or decorative landscape lights. 

The water hyacinth was blooming and was so pretty! But don't be fooled by its good looks. Its prolific and aggressive nature can quickly clog waterways. To keep it under control, Texas has made it illegal to transport this plant. 

This bright yellow flower was striking. I thought it resembled coreopsis, but I wasn't sure what it was. When I got home, I identified it as swamp sunflower from this site. It looked like an excellent source of nectar for this busy bee.

Patches of asters were bright spots on a cloudy day...

as were these happy flowers known as creeping spot-flower.

I hope you enjoyed this part of our nature walk. There are still a few more photos to share.

To be continued...