New Mexico Thistle (Cirsium neomexicanum) is just as beautiful in dried form as it is when blooming! Shot before sunrise this morning on the Marcus Landslide Trail. Even at 5am, it was very hot.
New Mexico Thistle
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Red Soldier Beetle
The best and most fun part of this Spring has been identifying flowers, plants and insects for my photo a day. This beetle turns out to be a common Red Soldier Beetle (Rhagonycha fulva). Not so common to me but maybe they will be by this time next year. They apparently really like to eat New Mexico Thistles (shown) and find it a good location for a love connection 🙂
New Mexico Thistle
Some common names for this thistle is New Mexico Thistle and Desert Thistle. I used a little photoshop to try to make it stand out from the background but green twiggy stuff against green twiggy stuff is difficult to capture.
I wanted a macro shot of the head but I was lucky to get anything because of high winds.