Texas, the Australia of the U.S.

[GeauxLSU]

There's a lot of flora and fauna out here in the Hill Country and West Texas that is not exactly hospitable to human presence. Rattlesnakes, mountain lions, coral snakes, scorpions, tarantulas, tarantula killers, etc etc etc.
Spring is starting to spring here and there is a ubiquitous plant known as the Texas mountain laurel. Absolutely gorgeous tree this time of year when it's blooming and has an amazing fragrance. The pollinators really love it. It produces these really striking flowers. In a few weeks it will be covered with seed pods and a few weeks after that they will begin to fall. Each seed pod contains a tiny bright red seed bean (infamous mescal bean) that native Americans used to use for a variety of purposes (and still do). These things will be all over the ground here in short order. Should someone be so inquisitive as to ingest one, like say a small child or someone just not too swift, it has all sorts of pleasant side effects including paralysis, involuntary evacuation of bowels and it yeah, death. Fun times.
The pod and seed are hangers on from last year so the seed isn't nearly as bright. They almost look neon when they're fresh.