In general, winter is not a time of year known for its beautiful flowers, but once in a while nature hands you a surprise. This Mexican primrose flower (Ludwigia peruviana) was blooming in a protected area of the plant at Payne’s Prairie State Park on Friday. The day was definitely a little cool by Florida standards, but it was the warmest one we’d had all week. For the most part, I photographed birds while I was there, but when I spotted the flower, it called out to have its picture taken. It’s bright yellow color made it hard to miss, even though it was down inside the plant, which is how it escaped the frost. There was a surprising amount of green plant life at the park, especially considering that we’ve had several frosts already this winter, but this was the only flower I saw all day.

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