Dry Flowering. Glandularia gooddingii, Southwestern Mock Vervain, and Natal Grass, Melinis repens, Temple of the Sun, Teotihuacán, Mexico
During its heyday in the middle of the first millennium CE, Teotihuacán - to the northeast of Mexico City about 40 km - was perhaps the world's sixth most populous city, with around 200,000 inhabitants. It had an enormous influence in Meso-America but all we know about it today is from later descriptions e.g. by the Maya and, of course, from archaeology. It is unclear why the city was abandoned but it has been conjectured that climate change made the entire area too dry for its people to survive.
Indeed, the place is very, very dry. But if you look carefully, there's plant life even on the stark 'pyramid' or Temple of the Sun itself. In its rocky crevices grow a few plants.
I've haphazardly picked out two for the insets. Left is a Glandularia gooddingii, Southwestern Mock Vervain. On the right is an invasive plant from southern Africa. It has been making inroads into the Americas the last quarter of a century or so. I think this grass is quite pretty: Melinis repens, Natal Grass.
Dry Flowering. Glandularia gooddingii, Southwestern Mock Vervain, and Natal Grass, Melinis repens, Temple of the Sun, Teotihuacán, Mexico
During its heyday in the middle of the first millennium CE, Teotihuacán - to the northeast of Mexico City about 40 km - was perhaps the world's sixth most populous city, with around 200,000 inhabitants. It had an enormous influence in Meso-America but all we know about it today is from later descriptions e.g. by the Maya and, of course, from archaeology. It is unclear why the city was abandoned but it has been conjectured that climate change made the entire area too dry for its people to survive.
Indeed, the place is very, very dry. But if you look carefully, there's plant life even on the stark 'pyramid' or Temple of the Sun itself. In its rocky crevices grow a few plants.
I've haphazardly picked out two for the insets. Left is a Glandularia gooddingii, Southwestern Mock Vervain. On the right is an invasive plant from southern Africa. It has been making inroads into the Americas the last quarter of a century or so. I think this grass is quite pretty: Melinis repens, Natal Grass.