Wild Plum Flowers

Jacob Korte - UNT History Major

It has been about a month since we were out in our Mandalas, and a lot has changed. It appears as though winter is finally gone and spring is now here. The Mexican plums and post oaks in and around my Mandala have greened up, or at least have started to, and a few of the plums have their white flowers. The flowers of the Mexican plum are very interesting looking, they have almost a spikey/prickly look to them, however they are soft to the touch and more fuzzy feeling than anything.

Mexican plum flower: photo courtesy wildflower.org.

There is also a new layer of underbrush in the beds bellow all the taller trees and plants, last time I was out here nothing green could be seen. Only the old cottonwood shows little progress and even then small leaves can be seen growing out of a few lower branches. There has also been a huge increase of wild flowers in my Mandala, henbits, clover along with some unidentified purple flowers. Also a very large dandelion which took me off guard, it has spikey leaves and the bulbs are also covered in pins. This cactus like appearance along with the size of the plant doesn’t remind me at all of the small, single stemmed dandelions that grew all over the yard at my parent’s house. I look forward to seeing how quickly things change now that spring has started.