Vestigial ephemeral pond here
Wall Bog Trot
Monique only took 2 plants from this area for voucher specimens because of its uniqueness and the sparse population.
Hardin County, only one plant located.
spurs >10mm, less than 20mm
This population was found by another earlier last week
Image scanned from a slide taken August 22, 1999. We were doing field work on tortoises and iguanas for the Charles Darwin Foundation and the Galapagos National Park Service at the time. Estimate the true locality within a kilometer of this point.
ID’d by Keith Stephens
Rare in hillside seepage bog. Photo by Jason Singhurst
Second picture is a little better. Four petals on each flower. Three larger prominent petals on the side and bottom, with the top petal slightly smaller. Only found in one spot along the Outer Loop trail in dappled sun.
In a twist of fate, I was blessed with the great fortune of meeting two living specimens of the animal whose scientific name was the first I ever learned. I did my 9th grade biology presentation on this species (complete with overhead slides, because nobody used powerpoint yet).
What do I put for location? I met them in Austin, but they were "acquired" (on purpose!!!) in Belize. Do I mark them as captive/cultivated? (haaaa!). In these photos, the larvae are 7 weeks old.
My heart is full. I am so happy. :D
The fluid leaking from the "wounds" varied in color, from obvious plasma, to obvious blood, to... a dark brown mystery fluid which probably contained larval enzymes with anticoagulants and some numbing agent. They responded to light (my headlamp made them run back in to hide), and at one point, one of them stuck out her little snorkel so it extended several mm outside the wound... but of course my camera wasn't ready.
UPDATE! One of them pupated January 20, 2018! Going to add it as a new observation!
Pupa (before hardening): https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/9557897
Adult: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/10206805
Returned to get a specimen to key with @sonnia.
Super frustrated about this “lifer.”
In Texas, mountain lions have no protections or regulations. If it frustrates you like it does me, check out texasnativecats.org.
?
Oklahoma Grass Pink Orchid (Calopogon oklahomensis)
In August, 2023, the Shearwood Creek Fire destroyed almost 5,000 acres in Jasper County. These observations were made on private property that had its uplands planted in longleaf pines when the fire went through. The blooming plants that have come back seem more prolific than they were before.
Stems pubescent.
ID’d by Matt Buckingham from a photo.
What a great day trip to Houston! I was led by botanical guru (and City Nature Challenge species dominator!) Andy Newman -- the mission: find as many species as possible. I wish I would have taken some better photos...
This final stop for the day was roadside to see some Rayjacksonia aurea and Chloris texensis in a really unique barren. Lots of other cool plants were spotted here too. Hopefully the invasive grasses don’t completely take these areas over…
Mesic sandy hardwood - pine forest.
Very hertellous
Had to get some solo time this weekend, so I went to Lake Brownwood State Park. The park ended up being pretty crowded, but fortunately, I was able to enjoy some nature by myself. Temps were in the triple digits, and it was dry, dry, dry -- the plants needed a drink!
I sure enjoyed my time here as I hiked a few of the trails.
More than hundreds
The last picture is UV flora, aka UV flora bug vision
The flower doesn't have any unique nectar guide, maybe because it's a wet land plant that grow in low light.
Before presenting to the East Texas Master Naturalists about Teaming with Wildlife, I went and explored along this right of way north of Lindale. Saw some pretty neat plants! :)
Rough-stem aster has coarse, stiff hairs on the mid-stem, clasping (and ear-lobed shaped) leaf bases on the midstem, and recurved phyllaries (the leaf-like structures under the flower head).
In woods on edge of muck bog
Like last year, only saw 1 plant, but it was in a different location.
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)
Shrub to 4-ft on edge of forest on acidic clay of Redco Formation.
3 Adult Polydamas Swallowtails documented over several days often seen together. Ovipositing witnessed on Aristolochia tomentosa and fimbriata. Many eggs located. One eclosing from chrysalis was noted 2 days ago.
Observation in the survey at Lobanillo Swales, a park on the El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail.
It was a high point of the trip to East TX to see these in bloom. A large patch scattered about under the trees near the highway.
For more info on the Swales see:
https://www.nps.gov/elte/learn/photosmultimedia/lobanillo-swales.htm
I didn't know what this was, thought a freeze or disease had affected it. It was in a meadow by the Nails Creek Unit boat ramp & I was bending over taking photos of an Astragaus.
I thought this was a grey hairstreak at first, but as it was flitting about, the wings seemed to be almost light blue in color, which surprised me. I managed to get a shot of it after it landed, and the patterning seems different from the usual hairstreaks I see around here (though I don’t necessarily pay close attention).
For further details, this was at a nursery nectaring on a planted Buddleia marrubifolia before it took off and landed on the ground.
Protected species - location masked.
Growing near the water's edge, Lake Charlotte.
Some sort of liat?
I think