Tag: wildflowers

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04/14/2023 who grew?

The prairie parsley dug from TX home is about to bloom!!! It is a biennial, so I hope it likes it enough to reseed here.
Bluestars make it to another year! I think they must need a second individual to seed as they haven’t spread.
The little grayish friends are rabbits tobacco! I think I may have finally hit critical mass with them as a few are in the tiered cactus planter too.
Speaking of needing two individuals, I bought a Salvia azurea to supplement my otherwise happy one from TX. I hope they start spreading now!
One of the two potted Baptisia bracteata have emerged! So excited. I haven’t had luck with them from seed.
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04/14/2023 maybe possibly hopefully a Spiranthes rosette!!

The below three pictures are of leaves I found on the east side of a grass clump in the backyard prairie. It feels less fleshy than the invasive introduced dayflowers and most of those also have a reddish stem. I have flagged it and we’ll wait and see if it disappears (probably a Spiranthes!!) or keeps growing into a dayflower. As a reminder, I seeded them from a pod from my parents’ house last winter.

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04/16/2023 new Solomon’s seal

Today while pulling invasive introduced dayflower I ran across a little baby Solomon’s seal! I am holding a dayflower next to it for comparison.
Paula also found a new pair of Solomon’s seals just south of the red oak on April 11.
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04/09/2023 spring at home

All photos by Paula as she is the one at home! Thank you Paula!

Perennial blue flax blooming!
A few peach flowers are turning into peaches in spite of the hard frost!
Camassia angusta isn’t ready to bloom.
But it looks like Camassia scilloides is thinking about blooming!! Mom says this is the species she sees at home in north central Texas.
Last but not least the front yard lyre leaf sage is spreading nicely and has a bloom!
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04/08/2023 Bird Haven Trail at Black Mesa SP

Invasive storks bill geranium in the mowed areas near camp and road.
Clove currant is thinking about blooming!
Don’t know what this seedhead is but it has cool divisions inside like a pinwheel!
Last year’s dried up silver leaf nightshade.
Saltbush (Atriplex sp) leaves
This trail has one bench before it merges with the Vista trail. There is a second bench on the Vista Trail towards the park office, overlooking the RV camp area. The trees shading it are hackberries.
Briar thought the flat rock was boring but Mom and I saw lots of good stuff here.
We saw several fast ants on the big flat rock.
Here are two smaller rocks together. Look carefully in the crack for a small green bit.
Zoomed in- do you see the green nub yet?
Here it is, an adorable baby cactus seedling!
Most of the cacti here seem to be the ribbed Echinocereus. I’m not sure about the baby since I don’t know if the seedlings should be ribbed yet or not. we saw one Escobaria type earlier on the trail.
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04/08/2023 Picture Canyon, Comanche National Grasslands, Colorado

We hopped across the border this afternoon to Colorado (and time traveled to Mountain Time). Here is the sign for Picture Canyon under a cloud-speckled blue sky!
This sign points the way to more prairie! (Or, you know, the trail to the petroglyphs. )
Great rocks and lichens along the trail.
Just a hint of green spring on this tiny tough little bluestem!
This rock was very rectangular.
The chollas here were less sad than the Black Mesa ones. Maybe because this is an arroyo?
The sandstone cliffs were very tall but also a nice cooler microclimate!
A series of vertical line petroglyphs higher up in an eroded hollow area. There is another line through them so they almost look like fish ribs.
A human figure petroglyph!
The horse petroglyph was my favorite!
The horse petroglyph with Briar for scale.
Mom looked at holes in the rocks but didn’t see anyone home. I did hear and see some kestrels flying nearby and heard a Canyon Wren singing though!
These petroglyphs seem to show a horse on the left and two tipis (?). Without more signs it was hard for me to tell what were petroglyphs vs vandalism but most vandalism seemed to be names and initials.
This disk-shaped erosion in the sandstone was neat.
The cooler microclimate with shade and a different rock nearby resulted in some foliose lichens!
We found a flower blooming that wasn’t skunk bush sumac! Mom identified this as Ribes leptanthum, trumpet gooseberry. It has lovely flowers and very friendly spines too. We didn’t see many insects out on either species though, presumably because it’s such a drought.
Little sprinkles to the west (if it even hit the ground) on our way back to camp!
A multipurpose state line sign on a county road.
On the way back we stopped to see the replica of a brontosaurus femur that the park brochures note is on private property by the roadside. It is for commemoration of many dinosaur fossils found on the private property.
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03/26/2023 field trip to Lexington WMA

Cruising around! We heard an upland chorus frog sing from a pond as we drove by. It sounds like a finger running over teeth of a comb!
I need to add captions and descriptions to the rest of the pics, but this Spiranthes sp was neat to see coming up!
Briar and Paula in safety hunter orange.
False garlic with tiny moths.
Paula caught a Little Brown Skink!
The skink did not want to stay for a visit.
A prairie verbena!
Armadillo!!! Briar ready, but actual briar vines kept her from following it far.
First Lomatium of the day. Briar helped by putting her nose by it.
Arnoglossum sp! Leaves
Bigger Arnoglossum species leaves!
The lovely valley we walked around. Had some damp spots.
Milkweed! Probably Asclepias verticillata??
Echinacea probably angustifolia? Leaf and last year’s seed head.
Thanks for laying down in the mud puddle, BRIAR.
Nostoc algae and scale lichens!
Paula found this great potter wasp nest!
Eventually found a big patch of Lomatium blooming.
Some Lomatium in light shade.
Some Lomatium almost done blooming.
Some Lomatium out in the sun.
Another prairie verbena.
A puccoon just opening!
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03/29/2023 baby yucca????

Paula and I were out planting some seeds and she noticed this baby spike in a tray of yucca seeds that have been out all winter!!
The Baptisia sp seeds before we planted them. I nicked each seed surface then soaked in room temperature water overnight. We put some on either side of the patio plus some in a pot for more controlled monitoring as that seems to help with germination sometimes.
Paula also noticed the persimmon seed at the seedling base. I appear to have planted several.