thejonathanesmith's Identifications

Honey Locust (Gleditsia triacanthos)

15 June 2016
Elm Fork Park
Greenbelt Corridor Ray Roberts/Lewisville Lake FM 455 Access Area
Denton County, Texas

Honey Locust overlooks the Elm Fork Trinity River and provides a home for any number of songbirds during spring and summer.

Yellow Puff (Neptunia lutea)

22 May 2016
Ray Roberts Lake State Park - Isle Du Bois
Pilot Point, Denton County, Texas

We couldn't help but think that this indigenous wildflower was aptly named. It is a ground-covering wildflower that grows sporting seemingly magical multiple blooms which invariably show a Yellow Puff for a flower. One has to photograph it on bent knee to get the best effect. Yellow Puff was growing in numerous places along the trail. Yellow Puff is also known by the common name of Yellow Sensitive Briar. According to the United States Department of Agriculture's Plants Database range map, Yellow Puff grows only in the following six states (listed alphabetically): Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas. Its range extends from the west-central counties of Alabama to the east thence west to Texas where its westernmost occurrence appears in Taylor and Coleman counties in the high plains of the Edwards Plateau and it extends as far south as McMullen County to the southwest of Bexar County. Yellow Puff is a regionally occurring wildflower and is endemic to the region indicated within the United States. Because of its US range in North America, Yellow Puff is an authentic resident of the Western Hemisphere. Ray Roberts Lake State Park, Isle Du Bois, is administered by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

Sources:

"Neptunia lutea," Native Plant Database, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, University of Texas at Austin, photographs, description, resources, accessed 5.26.16, http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=NELU2

"Neptunia lutea (Leavenworth) Benth. - Yellow Puff," Plants Database, US Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, range map, photographs, classification, resources, accessed 5.26.16, http://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=NELU2