I was taking a break between climbs while climbing in Austin, Texas when I took this photo of a false dayflower. My brother, Nick, and I had been climbing along the Greenbelt when we took a break, and I saw this flower. I only needed one photograph to capture the beauty of this flower with my Canon 60D. I used a 40mm prime lens for the shot, f-stop of 2.8, and a 1/800^th of a second shutter speed. I had just completed the route at the “Kingdom of Ging” called “Jerry’s Kids”. This was my first, and is my only 5.11b while sport climbing. It involved a fun dyno at the start, which was literally jumping up and grabbing a ledge from the ground before you even got to your first bolt. It took me about ten tries, but I was finally able to get atop the ledge to place my first quickdraw on the first bolt at about 12 feet off the ground.

The false dayflower’s scientific name is Tinantia anomala. It also goes by the common name widow’s-tears. It belongs to the family Commelinaceae, which includes the Mexican wandering Jew, Tinantia pringlei. This flower is found exclusively in Texas, and one specimen has ever been found in the Mexican state of Durango. You are most likely to find it on rocky slopes, ravines, and the edges of woodlands. They prefer some shade.