Monday, April 11, 2011

Pressed Flowers

Over the weekend, I found a little time to do something with a bunch of flowers I've had pressed in my field notebooks. I've realized some interesting qualities about certain flowers after they're pressed. Lantanas tend to not press well - the vibrant color fades quickly, and not to a paler version of the original brilliance but to ugly browns :-( Pink evening primrose petals are even more delicate and thin after weeks of pressing, but the color stays good (as long as you pick the "youngest" flowers to press - the younger the pinker, the older the whiter). I tore several while trying to lay them down on a thin layer of glue but thankfully I collected MANY. Asteraceae holds up well after pressing and it's easy to glue down because the petals remain robust. I was surprised how well Indian paintbrush held up, given that it squelched and screeched when I pressed it (but it pressed beautifully!).




The top one includes 2 plants collected in the Sierras, some kind of Indian paintbrush and a Gray's Lupine. The rest are Texas wildflowers (collected last and this spring). The bottom one are all Texas wildflowers, collected this spring.

4 comments:

Lee said...

these are nice. have you pressed your sundews? i bet they are hard to press.

Emily J. Chin said...

thanks! No, I didn't want to pick the sundews - plus I wasn't even sure if I was allowed to in the Big Thicket. Most of these flowers I picked off roadsides (incredibly, around my apartment there are patches here and there). I agree, the sundews would probably make a squelchy juicy mess!

Emily J. Chin said...

Actually, that lupine and the indian paintbrush in the big picture you picked on the trip with Allie and Peter last summer to the Sierras. I stayed in the car because I wasn't feeling well, remember? They preserved amazingly!

Emily J. Chin said...
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