ONE day last fall I was photographing some ground cover in my neighbourhood,
carefully staying on the public sidewalk. The groundsel tree Baccharis
was growing all over the place. A gentleman came out of his front door. “What in
the world could be worth photographing in my front yard?” he asked.
He had a point. It was a drab landscape, drought tolerant and
low-maintenance, with little colour.
“I’m an allergy researcher,” I said. “I need a photo of these in bloom for my
book.”
“Is it bad stuff?” he asked.
“They’re all male plants,” I said, “lots of pollen.”
“That figures,” he told me. “My wife…
