Countryside in the middle of the summer is a dusty and a very hot place with merciless sun drying up everything that still managed to survive till that time. You pass by fields of dry grasses and some small summer flowers that managed to bloom.
And then you see those huge white and purple splashes of colour!
(Oh yes.. and yellow. The yellow is always there!)
I had to stop the car to take some photos. Both of them grew next to each other luckily. I have tried to find a proper ID for them, but there is so many similar ones out there...
The purple one looks like Cynara humilis. The white one could be the same judging by the shape of the flowers and size. But please do not quote me on that :)
The plants were about 1m tall and the flowers are the size of a small tangerine. Of course bees were happy to have them around and after I noticed those, I started to see them everywhere!
They seem to be doing well in Portuguese climate. The plants start to grow in late winter/early spring where the weather is mild and they get tons of rain. Flowers start to appear around April and they continue to bloom until the end of summer. The the seeds are released and they wait for the raining winter.
The cycle repeats.
Shot with Nikon D5500 + Sigma 105mm lens
All photos and text are my own.
