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
Previously was growing along edge of pine plantation. Trees were recently clearcut when photo was taken.
Copyright © 2012 - Charles Bordelon, Texas Lepidoptera Survey
Det. Ed Knudson
First Confirmed U.S. Record
Copyright © 2017 Jan Dauphin
First U.S. Record
Copyright © 2017 E Cavazos
@quantumactivist
Spikelets 1.5 - 2mm long and glabrous to slightly pubescent.
Lower sheaths and nodes densely pilose. Upper sheaths and nodes sparsely pilose. Nodes with glabrous to glabrate band directly beneath
Only observed one plant.
Found at a depth of about 2500 feet
Durand White Oak (??) observed at Bird Pond unit of USFWS near Danciger TX. Single isolated (but large) specimen, in low swampy woods just east of Bird Pond. Leaves have minor usually-single points (bristles) on the ends of the lobes, and the trunk's bark seems more furrowed and less shingly/scaly, unlike other Durand Oaks in the area. Another difference is the low swampy ground, where Durands are usually found on upland sites near good drainage. No acorns were observed on low-hanging limbs or on ground. Magnificent specimen, whatever it is, and SO WORTHY of propagation for landscape use in this area (since it grows in low wet ground)! Please be sure to see adult (human) at base of trunk in left-most photo, to gain appreciation of its size.
Maybe, not sure if I keyed this out right.
This is a very early sighting as far as I can determine. I have seen a Harvester on one other occasion, in the summer.
Deep sand, hillside blowout.
Tentative, not many leaves to go off of