A steep bluff on the south bank of Cow Creek at this location has an immense seep/spring issuing from the hillside (2nd image). It supports a large fern population along with some other local plant species like this Stream Orchid. This is on a private ranch with a conservation easement held by Balcones Canyonlands NWR, and constituted the first Refuge record of the species.
Maidenhair Fern and Lindheimer Shield Fern dominate the seep area.
Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. Although both Z. drummondii and Z. chlorosolen occur at this site, this third less studied taxon is quite distinct from the other two.
This abberant population has been known for some time, especially documented on iNaturalist where we weren't sure where to place it, first trying to label it Z. traubii although in hindsight this is pretty obviously not Z. traubii (much broader leaves than Z. traubii). Z. traubii largely occurs in Texas in the vicinity of Houston, only sparse plants in the vicinity of Corpus Christi, and then occurs again disjunct far to the south in Tamaulipas, Mexico.
This taxon is characterized by a long floral tube, an exceptionally far exserted stigma & style, and somewhat broad green leaves. Z. longituba is a lesser known species of Zephyranthes recorded from Coahuila and San Luis Potosi - previously unknown from Texas or the United States.
Z. drummondii: short floral tube, anthers held within the floral tube, stigma hidden below the anthers, broad glaucous leaves held semi-erect to lax, blooming primarily in Spring.
Z. chlorosolen: long floral tube, anthers protruding outside the floral tube, stigma usually hidden below the anthers, narrow green leaves held erect, blooming primarily in Fall.
Z. traubii: long floral tube, anthers protruding outside the floral tube, stigma exserted free and clear above the anthers, very narrow green leaves held erect, blooming primarily in Fall.
Z. longituba: long floral tube, anthers protruding outside the floral tube, stigma exserted far above the anthers, green leaves broader than Z. chlorosolen but not as broad as Z. drummondii held erect, blooming primarily in Summer.
This historical set of images needs a bit of context; the 3rd and 4th images show pages of my field journal which describe this "observation." A longer version of the story will be uploaded to a journal post.
Short version: This is the first ever photograph of Texabama Croton (Croton alabamensis var. texensis) on the day I showed the population to graduate student Steve Ginzbarg (U. Texas Botany Dept.; L in photo). I had discovered the shrubs during field work on May 31, 1989. I invited Steve Ginzbarg and John Gee (R in photo) to examine the plants on my next visit to the tract. Steve went on to name the plants as a new variety of Alabama Croton (Sida 15(1):41-52, 1992):
https://www.jstor.org/stable/41967533
At the time, this was a private ranch. The croton became one of the focal plant Species of Concern for the Balcones Canyonlands Conservation Plan. The tract was later acquired for the Refuge of the same name, primarily for its population of Black-capped Vireos and Golden-cheeked Warblers, but also because this spot (where this photo was taken) is the "Type Locality" for Texabama Croton.
Thanks to my friend Reid @rlhardin , he found these beautiful orchids. Now I don't have to drive all the way to Lost Maple to see them.
BFL continues to surprise me. This orchid was only known in Texas from the Davis and Chisos Mountains until it was found in Dallas County in 2005. This may be the first Travis County record.
Texas iNat gathering in Dripping Springs on November 11, 2015.
Kneeling from left: @mchlfx (checkered shirt), @robberfly, @maractwin (blue shirt), @mksexton, @sambiology, @kueda (red bandana);
standing L to R: Bob (husband of taogirl) and Tuffy the dog, @greglasley, @lotus (sunglasses), @mikaelb, @blubayou (red blouse), @gpstewart (red shirt), @taogirl, @annikaml (sunglasses), @gcwarbler, @connlindajo, @brentano, @billdodd, Wilson (wife of cullen), @cullen, @cgritz, Aaron (husband of cgritz). Photo by Cheryl (wife of greglasley)
Possibly the same bird last seen at our feeders on 9/21/2021. The first bird showed small white feathers in the throat, maybe a molting progression?
This is the same Trillium plant discovered the previous year in the exact same spot.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/21600308
Remarkably, the same rootstock was still alive 35 years later when we revisited the location:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/21503136
This tract would later become part of the Balcones Canyonlands Preserves (Bunten tract).
Date in mid-March is estimated from context of slide roll.
Scanned from 35mm Ektachrome slide.
Observed during monthly amphibian monitoring. There had been 3.21" of rain during the previous four days according to a nearby USGS gauge station (https://waterdata.usgs.gov/tx/nwis/uv/?site_no=08105095&PARAmeter_cd=00045) which had improved the drought status from moderate drought to abnormally dry as per the U.S. Drought Monitor (https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/). The first two photos are from the slough by the playground; the last three photos and the recording are from this location.
Found on limestone hilltop, rare in Travis County.
The scone picture is UV photography.
It's very UV reflective!
on prickly pear
Growing on prickly pear. Historically used as red dye. Cochineal
I got a life bird today! I was tagging along with Mike Gray to refill hummingbird feeders on The Nature Conservancy's Davis Mountains Preserve for the Fort Davis Hummingbird Celebration. And I spotted this female White-eared Hummingbird at a distant feeder! This bird had been observed here before, but this was the first time in a few weeks. I hope some festival attendees get to see it!
Here are some of my original photos of the Travis County Trillium plant. I first discovered the plant on March 22, 1984 (first two images). I came back to measure the plant on March 24 (3rd - 5th images), and over the next few days invited several botanists and friends to view and photograph the plant. The 6th image (3/25/84) shows Dr. Marshall Johnston documenting the plant. The 7th image shows a young and curious Greg Lasley wondering what all the fuss is about.
This single plant was the target of our quest today. And finding it was extremely...EXTREMELY surprising. This plant (i.e. a stem from apparently the same underground rhizome) was first discovered in March 1984 by me. At the time, I tentatively identified it as Trillium gracile, a species of southeast Texas and eastward. The ID has been debated and the remarkable occurrence of the plant at this location is very curious (long story). I had rechecked this plant probably 15 years ago and it was still present, and now--some 35 years after its first discovery, it is still putting up a flower in a lonely attempt to propagate. (There is, and has always only been, just the one plant here.) All of us, including eminent botanist Bill Carr (4th image) and Dr. George Yatskievych (U.T. Herbarium, 5th image, kneeling to photograph the plant) were just floored that we could refind the plant.
The plant is found in a mesic shaded canyon head at a permanent spring. The plant is in moist silty loam at the base of a bluff adjacent to the springhead pool, with abundant leaf litter, under mature oak-ash-elm-juniper woodland. Aside from a wealth of recent invasives (Japanese Honeysuckle, Glossy Privet, etc.), the site includes several relictual species of very local occurrence in Travis County, including:
-- Spicebush (Lindera benzoin)
-- Cross Vine (Bignonia capreolata)
-- Bristly Greenbrier (Smilax tamnoides [= S. hispida])
-- Eastern Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)
On this first day of Spring, I went out to Doeskin Ranch to check on a couple of uncommon plants. I was pleasantly surprised to find one open Shooting Star flower--a nice touch on the day (even though @twylabirdjean had photographed the same exact flower the previous day!). The population looks very healthy this year and many incipient flower stalks were seen (3rd and 4th images). The population should be in peak bloom in another 1 to 2 weeks.
Most importantly, I recalled that this very population of plants was originally discovered in April 1998 by our wonderful Refuge friend John F. Kelly who just passed away March 11, 2019. This observation is dedicated to his memory (5th image).
On soil
I've gotten quite a lesson in pink-flowered Oxalises trying to ID these plants in the creek corridor near Salton Drive. Prompted by @alisonnorthup, I finally made the effort to document the crap out of these plants, and the verdict is Oxalis debilis. There are about a dozen clusters/colonies of plants along a 100 yard stretch of the creek, growing in loose sandy silt near the creek bank. I prepared a detailed description of these plants (below). The eFloras.org key for the genus is here:
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=123464
and the species account for O. debilis is here:
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=250031756
Here's the longwinded documentation for my plants:
GROWTH HABIT: Plants acaulous but clone-forming, 10 to 20 cm tall; individual clusters or colonies 10 to 80 cm across. BULBS present, creamy white or pale yellow, clustered in older specimens, to 2 cm tall and wide; bulb scales dark brown, conspicuously 3-nerved; many small crowded bulblets present on older plants, bulblets typically 3 to 5 mm diameter after calving; tap root present on one mature bulb, 5 mm diameter at base, about 4 to 6 cm long (broken during extraction); fibrous roots moderately numerous, rhizomes and tubers absent. LEAVES: Petioles 8 to 15 cm, glabrous to thinly pilose; leaflets green, slightly paler below, broadly oval to obcordate, to 25 mm long, 30 mm wide, notched 1/8 to 1/4 of depth, lobes rounded; venation slightly impressed above, 2 secondary veins evident on each side of primary vein on underside; base of leaflets with dense tuft of hairs, both surfaces of leaflets sparsely strigose to hirsute (need hand lens); single line of inconspicuous oxalate crystals along outer margin, more visible from the underside, few or none interior to the margin (again, need hand lens).
FLOWERS: Primary scapes slightly shorter to slightly longer than longer petioles, glabrous (?); flowers 4 to 8 (December specimen) in a simple to slightly branched cyme; pedicels to 3 cm long; sepals 5 to 6 mm, lanceolate, acute, green with a narrow hyaline margin and two conspicuous convergent orange tubercles at apex; petals oblong-oblanceolate, somewhat oblique on the bluntly rounded apex, 12 to 15 mm long, to 5 mm wide, pink with conspicuous purple veination in inner half, the petals and venation becoming green near base, stamens 10 in two series, anthers white, filaments green, short hispid; styles 5, green, appearing to be shallowly bifid at apex, short hispid on margins or outer side (?).
Burnet County, Balcones Canyonlands NWR
8/6/2018
Liatris glandulosa
Going to have to pay closer attention to Liatris species in the area...
Found at least a few of these embedded in what is likely a larger area of L. punctata. They seemed to be blooming early, so on attempting to verify that they were L. punctata, I found a least a few plants covered in stipitate glands on the uphill side of a trail/roadcut. Plants on the downhill side of the cut appeared to be L. punctata. As far as I know, L. glandulosa is known in this part of central Texas only from a historic collection on Bee Creek in Travis county in 1901. More investigation (and better photos than these tired end of the day ones) into the extent of the population would probably be good.
Given the apparent rarity of this species, I am obscuring the location.
After @rymcdaniel's earlier posting of this species*, we have been doing further searches for this rare species. In just the past few days, we have now confirmed its occurrence in at least 5 locations on/near Balcones Canyonlands NWR. We now expect that we have been overlooking it for decades. It turns out to be the common, dominant Liatris on certain layers of Glen Rose limestone, mostly on mid-slope on steep hillsides. It grows next to and intermingled with L. punctata/mucronata. It is readily distinguished by its stickiness, and the narrower, lax leaves. The abundant sticky glands can be seen on the close up images of flowers and leaves included here.
It's flowering period precedes that of L. punctata/mucronata as well. Many glandulosa are now beginning to bloom in early August but punctata/mucronata won't hit it's prime until Sept-Oct.
Ryan's and the present observation add Burnet County to the known distribution of the species.
http://bonap.net/MapGallery/County/Liatris%20glandulosa.png