Summer along the middle Rio Grande is announced by the blooming of the Yerba Mansa. This year the season started a little early, probably thanks to warm temperatures and some welcome rains.
The dense patches of fleshy green leaves blanket acres of the boggy cottonwood forest floor. The plants do well in the deep shade, but the blossoms are thickest where a bit of direct sunlight reaches them during the day.
These first pictures of the year were made with my Nikon F on TMAX 400 film. I look forward to visiting the Yerba Mansa several more times as they mature during the summer with other cameras. I am also pleased to see that the small Yerba Mansa which I planted a couple years ago beside the house look like they might finally produce a few flowers.
4 comments:
Nice - I've never heard of or seen this plant before. Thanks for sharing it!
Yerba Mansa seems to be pretty wide-spread along Southwest water courses. It has numerous medicinal applications. I first came across the plant beside the river when we lived north of Las Cruces. Every year since then I have looked forward to the early summer blooming.
How are you liking the F now that you've spent some time with it? It is the only classic Nikon I have not tried. I had one of the rangefinders and of course F2, F3, F4, FE, FE2, FM2n, FA...but never the original F.
The F inspires a lot of confidence. I generally prefer meterless cameras and the solidity and reliability of the F is unmatched in my own collection. I also like all the Nikon lenses, with my favorite being the old 2.5/105. I also have the F2, FE, EM and FG-20. They all have their charm, but none really seems better to me than the original.
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