Window on a Texas Wildscape

Mountain laurel and agarita

noreply@blogger.com (Sheryl Smith-Rodgers) — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 23:49:00 +0000

The agarita across the street is in bloom!

And our neighbor's mountain laurel is blooming (ours is too young to bloom, I guess).

More hints of spring

noreply@blogger.com (Sheryl Smith-Rodgers) — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 00:50:00 +0000

A feather flower!

This afternoon, I wandered around the Wildscape with my camera. How lovely, how wonderful this spring will be! Thank you, Lord! Thank you so much!

Coralberry

Dewberry...I give up. You win! You can stay!

This is a really pretty volunteer grass that I'm thinking of making "legit." (I need to figure out the common name and species.)

Thick and green green green, the oxalis is blooming!

Gotta love those squirrels!

noreply@blogger.com (Sheryl Smith-Rodgers) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:25:00 +0000

Walk around our Wildscape, and you'll spot "volunteer" sunflower plants popping up here and there. Volunteer? Hardly! They've been planted by our industrious, neighborhood squirrels! The eastern fox squirrels, to be precise. Last year, we had corn coming up, too!

Squirrels have been at this for a long, long time. Year around, they stash seeds away for anticipated meals in the future. Trouble is, they forget sometimes where they've squirreled them away (pardon the cliche, please...couldn't resist). As a result, we have wonderful trees and forests across our lands, no doubt thanks to our squirrel farmers.

Now scientists say they've grown plants from fruit stored away by squirrels eons ago! Today, the New York Times reported, "Researchers grow plants from 32,000-year-old cells."

Gotta love those squirrels!

Variegated fritillary

noreply@blogger.com (Sheryl Smith-Rodgers) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 23:14:00 +0000

Variegated fritillary out sunning today

Budding out everywhere

noreply@blogger.com (Sheryl Smith-Rodgers) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 22:49:00 +0000

Mountain sage

Over the weekend, we had about 3 inches of rain, a HUGE blessing! Most plants had already started budding out, but now they're going gangbusters. It's so neat to watch how they bud, either from new growth at the ground or on old growth. Sometimes both! I love to see how some also multiply and spread. It's going to be a BEAUTIFUL spring!

Fall obedient plants (they're spreading!)

Baby spiderworts 'Purple'

Mealycup sage 'Augusta Duelberg'

Fragrant mistflower

Galeana red sage

Chile pequin

Blue mistflower

Flameleaf acanthus

Black-eyed susans

Salvia 'Otahal'

Blue curls

Mealycup sage 'Henry Duelberg'

Mexican salvia

Heartleaf scullcap (it's spreading!)

Lyreleaf salvia

The baby bluebonnets that I transplanted are surviving!

Copper Canyon daisy

February 2012 in our Wildscape

noreply@blogger.com (Sheryl Smith-Rodgers) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 20:15:00 +0000

Three inches of rain just this weekend continue to green up our Wildscape!

Six-word memoir

noreply@blogger.com (Sheryl Smith-Rodgers) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 04:43:00 +0000

Wishes. Everyone. Loved. Nature. Like me.

Counting those birds!

noreply@blogger.com (Sheryl Smith-Rodgers) — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 21:12:00 +0000

Lesser goldfinches at our thistle feeder

Day two of the Great Backyard Bird Count...I'm getting addicted!

Record ID: S9876760
Email: Blanco County, TX
Observation Date : FEB 18, 2012
Start Time: 1:00 PM

Number of Species: 10
All Reported: yes
Checklist:
    White-winged Dove - 2
    Carolina Chickadee - 2
    Black-crested Titmouse - 1
    American Robin - 3
    Northern Mockingbird - 1
    Chipping Sparrow - 21
    Northern Cardinal - 2
    House Finch - 2
    Lesser Goldfinch - 8
    American Goldfinch - 11

Don't forget about the GBBC!

noreply@blogger.com (Sheryl Smith-Rodgers) — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 00:43:00 +0000

Tomorrow's the first day of the four-day count! Here's a video to get you started:

Spiderworts

noreply@blogger.com (Sheryl Smith-Rodgers) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 23:09:00 +0000

Spiderwort (Tradescantia sp.)

Isn't the spiderwort above just beautiful? We bought it nearly two years ago at the Natural Gardener in Austin in celebration of our fourth anniversary. It was labeled spiderwort 'Purple'. The first year in the back yard of our Wildscape, it just piddled and barely bloomed. I really thought the drought would finished it off. Nope! This spring, it's just grown and grown and GROWN. Then I happened to notice a spiderwort child coming up in a pathway a good 3 or 4 feet away from the parent plant. So I dug it up and planted it a foot and a half away from mom.

Spiderwort child

Another one!

Yesterday, when I was outside in the front yard, pruning salvias, I just happened to notice what looked to be a spiderwort child hiding behind the Texas betony and salvia. How'd a seed get to the front yard, eh? Awhile ago, I dug it up (they've got tough taproot) and transplanted it to another bed in our back yard.

I looked around some for information on spiderworts, which are considered to be herbs. Ronald H. Livingston wrote a lengthy and interesting piece, "Wildflowers: Spiderworts." Delena Tull and George Oxford Miller in Wildflowers, Trees and Shrubs of Texas state that the leaves and stems (but not the roots) are edible, either fresh or cooked. In Wildflowers of Texas, Geyata Ajilvsgi writes that the genus name Tradescantia honors "John Tradescant, who served as gardener to Charles I of England. Tradescant started plants from seed sent to him from America, and, today spiderwort is still commonly cultivated in English gardens."

Spiderworts are perennials and members of the dayflower family (Commelinaceae). So they're related to dayflowers. "If they are picked, the petals quickly become pulpy or liquid," state Campbell and Lynn Loughmiller in Texas Wildflowers: A Field Guide. "Hence, they are sometimes known as Job's tears or widow's tears."

New location

I'll be curious to watch and see how fast these plants reproduce and spread. I may be offering free spiderworts plants here in a few years. Stay tuned!

UPDATE FEBRUARY 22, 2012

More photos of my spiderwort

Mother with children

Mystery of well-armed seed SOLVED

noreply@blogger.com (Sheryl Smith-Rodgers) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:41:00 +0000


Have you even seen one of THESE? James is holding its curved tip. When I was outside, working today, I felt something sticking my arm through my long-sleeved top. Yikes! This is what I found! UPDATE FEBRUARY 24, 2012 Master Naturalist Edie Z. identified this seed for me! "I knew I had seen this seed, couldn't remember why it stuck in my mind," she emailed me today. "So after doing some research on the internet and then checking my Texas Wildflower book, I am pretty sure the seed with the little corkscrew on the end comes from the plant called stork's bill (Erodium texanum). The geranium family, of which this is one, has several members that have this type of seed. The end coils when the air is dry and then uncoils when the humidity rises. Neat way to disperse. Problems occur when this seed gets in the fur or wool of an animal and then works its way under the skin."

Let the blooming begin!

noreply@blogger.com (Sheryl Smith-Rodgers) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 22:37:00 +0000

The elbow bush (Forestiera pubescens) is blooming...

We have one elbow bush in our Wildscape, and it was already growing madly before I arrived on the scene. Elbow bush is a deciduous shrub that blooms January through March. Thanks to a recent post by Plano Prairie Garden, I learned that this species is either male or female. This one appears to be a boy because the flowers have stamens, not stigmas. Cool!

...and attracting pollinators.

Carolina anemone

Flower notes to myself

noreply@blogger.com (Sheryl Smith-Rodgers) — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 17:40:00 +0000

The first daffodil bloomed about two or three days ago!

Yesterday, I pruned my 'Belinda's Dream' rose bush. Only time will tell what kind of job I did–good or bad!

...and some Canyon Lake fauna, too

noreply@blogger.com (Sheryl Smith-Rodgers) — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:06:00 +0000

White-tailed deer at Potter's Creek Park, Canyon Lake

Roadrunner at Potter's Creek Park

Resident rock squirrel on the lakeside of Canyon Dam

Red harvester ant, hard at work

I was THRILLED to find several colonies of harvester ants on a service road near the Guadalupe River South Trail at Canyon Dam.

Cattle egret on a limb above the Guadalupe River (photographed from the Guadalupe River South Trail)

Black vulture near entrance to Guadalupe River South Trail, Canyon Dam

Flora around Canyon Lake

noreply@blogger.com (Sheryl Smith-Rodgers) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 23:45:00 +0000

Agarita

This past week, James and I visited the Canyon Lake area on a magazine assignment. Naturally, I paused here and there to photograph plants and critters. Above, I spotted this beautiful leaf on an agarita at Overlook Park at Canyon Dam above the spillway. Some plants I could identify; others I couldn't. Some are perennials putting out new growth.

Evergreen sumac (Overlook Park)

Texas thistle (Cirsium texanum), photographed at Canyon Lakeview Resort.


Mullein (Verbascum thapsus), a nonnative that's naturalized across Texas. Photographed at Canyon Lakeview Resort.

Lindheimer's senna (Senna lindheimeriana)–The long, dark brown seed pods are barely visible from the old-growth stem. Photographed at Canyon Lakeview Resort.

Black-eyed susans (Rudbeckia hirta) ???? ...This plant and the rest that follow were photographed at the Guadalupe River South Trail below Canyon Dam.

Inland sea oats (Chasmanthium latifolium)

Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) ??

Soft-hair marbleseed (Onosmodium bejariense var. bejariense)
A BIG THANK YOU to Edie Zaiontz, a Texas Master Naturalist, for identifying this species!

Povertyweed (Baccharis neglecta)...on the trail, when I saw adult povertyweeds and young ones beneath them, a light bulb went off in my head. "So THAT'S what we have growing in our yard!" I exclaimed. I'd been letting a mystery volunteer stay in the back yard. Now I know what it is!
UPDATE: Now I've concluded that we don't have a povertyweed in our Wildscape; it's an offspring from a nearby wedelia! Even better!

Turk's cap...we have lots of these growing in our Wildscape.

Help!

Soft-hair marbleseed (Onosmodium bejariense var. bejariense)

Engelmann's daisy (Engelmannia peristenia) but more likely
a Plains coreopsis (Coreopsis tinctoria Nutt.)

Recycling batteries

noreply@blogger.com (Sheryl Smith-Rodgers) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:24:00 +0000

Last February, as reported here, I purchased an iRecycle Kit 5 from Battery Solutions. My year's up this week for filling up the box so I sealed it up this morning, and James dropped the package off at the post office. Sure, the box cost me $24.95, but I believe the price was well worth it. It's just not environmentally safe or sound to toss used batteries in household garbage!

Please RECYCLE, everyone!

Must be March, right?

noreply@blogger.com (Sheryl Smith-Rodgers) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:50:00 +0000

We got outside today. Again. James mowed the dandelions, and I cut back Mexican bush sage, blue mistflower, mealy sage and other plants with dead growth. James spotted a handsome he wolf spider on the front porch. And I found some native lantana BLOOMING! It feels like March, not February, right? And nature seems to agree, too.

The Great Backyard Bird Count's coming

noreply@blogger.com (Sheryl Smith-Rodgers) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:57:00 +0000

This week, Texas Master Naturalist Sue Kersey encouraged her fellow Highland Lakes chapter members to join the Great Backyard Bird Count. I'd heard and read about the citizen-scientist project but never participated. (I do help with the Lost Ladybug Project, which is also run by Cornell University.) So I'm in the process of reading the guidelines and finding out what I need to do to help.

Here's a news release with more info from the Bird Count website:

Anyone can participate in this free event and no registration is needed. Watch and count birds for at least 15 minutes on any day of the count, February 17-20. Enter your results at www.birdcount.org, where you can watch as the tallies grow across the continent. The four-day count typically records more than 10 million observations.

The event is hosted by Audubon, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, and Canadian partner Bird Studies Canada. The results provide a snapshot of the whereabouts of more than 600 bird species.

"When thousands of people all tell us what they’re seeing, we can detect patterns in how birds are faring from year to year," said Janis Dickinson, director of Citizen Science at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "

The Great Backyard Bird Count is a perfect example of Citizen Science," says Audubon Chief Scientist, Gary Langham. "Like Audubon’s Christmas Bird Count, volunteers help us with data year after year, providing scientific support that is the envy of many institutions. It’s also a lot of fun."

"We’re finding that more people are taking part in our bird count programs every year--and the more that take part, the better it is for the birds," says Richard Cannings, Senior Projects Officer for Bird Studies Canada.

The 2011 GBBC brought in more than 92,000 bird checklists submitted by participants from across the United States and Canada. Altogether, bird watchers identified 596 species with 11.4 million bird observations. Results from the 2011 GBBC included:

• Increased reports of Evening Grosbeaks, a species that has been declining;

• A modest seasonal movement of winter finches farther south in their search for food;

• The Eurasian Collared-Dove was reported from Alaska for the first time, more evidence of an introduced species rapidly expanding its range.

Although it’s called the Great “Backyard” Bird Count, the count extends well beyond backyards. Lots of participants choose to head for national parks, nature centers, urban parks, nature trails, or nearby sanctuaries. For more information, including bird-ID tips, instructions, and past results, visit www.birdcount.org.

The count also includes a photo contest and a prize drawing for participants who enter their bird checklists online.

That time again

noreply@blogger.com (Sheryl Smith-Rodgers) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:44:00 +0000

Oh, yes. Here we go again. Could THIS be the year that we get our very own purple martins? You gotta give us credit for tenacity. This will be our fourth spring to try.

I was such a big help this year. We couldn't find the bolts that secure the telescoping pole. I even checked inside the martin house, the logical place for them to be stored. Right? So James took off and checked the garage and shed again. I went in the house and looked in a closet. No luck. While he strode off to the shed again, I returned to the martin house and proceeded to do a better compartment check.

Well....you guessed it. Just as James reappeared on the horizon, what should I find in a plastic baggy in a bottom compartment? The bolts! I slunk my head in contrite embarrassment. Thank goodness James is a patient guy who LOVES ME TONS. 'Cause he just smiled, shook his head and said, "Glad you found'em!"

Wish us luck!

Texas Master Naturalist to-be

noreply@blogger.com (Sheryl Smith-Rodgers) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:09:00 +0000

For the past year or so, I'd thought how cool it'd be to take the Texas Master Naturalist training and get certified. Why not this year? But by the time I pulled up the website and found a chapter, I saw that I might be too late to apply. By chance, the Highland Lakes chapter had ONE spot left in the 2012 Training Program (limit 20 students). And I MADE IT!

Yesterday, I attended my first advanced training session and monthly meeting in Kingsland. Paul Dorman, hatchery manager at the Inks Dam National Fish Hatchery, gave the presentation. As part of certification, Master Naturalists must put in 40 hours of volunteer service, which many do at the hatchery. As part of our spring training, we'll visit the hatchery in March.

Speaking of which, training consists of at least 40 hours of classroom and field work along with eight hours of advance training, too. We'll meet once a week from March 1 through May 11.

Yesterday, I shared a car ride to Kingsland with master naturalists Ann Cook and Joanne Fischer, both from Blanco. Along the way, we talked about native plants and other nature-related topics. I felt like I was among my people! Bliss!

Dandelions galore

noreply@blogger.com (Sheryl Smith-Rodgers) — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:29:00 +0000

Taraxacum officinale (left) and Sonchus sp. (foreground)

Thanks very much to the recent rains, our Wildscape continues to green green green. In the back yard, we're producing a very nice crop of dandelions. I've spent several hours, pulling a bunch up by hand. It's very satisfying, mind-calming work. I enjoy it. I've also picked tender, young dandelions with the intention of cooking them. That hasn't happened. Yet. But I have added dandelion leaves to my supper salad the past two nights. They blend right in. No funny taste at all!

Our healthy bumper crop of dandelions led me to start a mini research project. So far, I've ascertained that we have the common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) growing with jubilation right outside our back door. Alas, the deep green leaved species is non-native and traces its roots to Europe. We may also have some species of sow thistle (Sonchus sp.). Our native Texas dandelion (Pyrrhopappus multicaulis) hasn't yet arrived. It blooms from February through June, according to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

The lowly dandelion gets a lot of press. Years ago, Peter Gail wrote The Dandelion Celebration: A Guide to Unexpected Cuisine. If you want a copy, you'll have to pay the big bucks for it. And who knew that dandelions make great wine? Ray Bradbury wrote that book: Dandelion Wine. You'll find more dandelion books via Amazon.

I guess our resident dandelions now have gotta go. The Texas Invasives database includes Taraxacum officinale on their list of no-nos. One thing's for sure: the bees and other insects love love love the bright yellow flowers!

And speaking of dandelion flowers, I was surprised to learn that....

Dandelions reproduce asexually by seed (agamospermy). They don't need pollinators!

UPDATE FEBRUARY 3, 2012

And one last look at our amazing dandelion crop...James is about to mow....

Wildflower Center free admission January

noreply@blogger.com (Sheryl Smith-Rodgers) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 23:58:00 +0000


Beautiful thoughts by Lady Bird Johnson...

Mexican feathergrass

Warmish temperatures and fairly clear skies created the perfect day for a field trip to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin. Plus, ADMISSION IS FREE UNTIL JANUARY 31! So off we went, James, me, my mother Marcelle Smith and Blanco neighbor Jeri B. I especially wanted to look at native grasses, which I want to plant more of in our Wildscape, and also water features.

Big muhly

Sotol

Pine muhly

Thorn-crested agave

Crossvine ... We have one growing on our chain-link fence. James is worried now.

Gulf muhly

A galvanized trough turned into a water feature!

Lace cactus

Another trough but smaller. We're thinking of adding of these to our Wildscape....

Big muhly

Switchgrass

Bushy bluestem

Indian grass

A pond "in the wild"

Wax myrtle

Elbow bush

Yaupon holly and bushy bluestem

Common bee-bush

Mexican feathergrass....so beautiful!

A Blanco crab apple tree!

Betony-leaf mistflower

Woolly stemodia, a groundcover

Damianita

Mom, me and Jeri

James!

We had a Great Day Out!

After I returned James' camera to him, he shot photos, too....

I liked this rather artistic shot by James Hearn.

Lost Ladybug Project

noreply@blogger.com (Sheryl Smith-Rodgers) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 01:33:00 +0000

Ashy gray lady beetle (Olla v-nigrum)

Even supper time can turn up surprises. This evening, over shrimp Alfredo and fresh roasted asparagus (prepared by chef James), a lady beetle appeared! James spotted it on the ceramic candle holder on the lazy Susan that sits on our dining table. Time for the camera!

I submitted these two images to the Lost Ladybug Project, a citizen scientist project underway at Cornell University. If you visit there, you'll find ladybug photos submitted by me and other volunteers across the country. I've got several pages of contributions: one, two, three.

UPDATE: See yesterday's ladybug contribution here!

Tracks and transplants

noreply@blogger.com (Sheryl Smith-Rodgers) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:10:00 +0000

This afternoon, I was on the phone, talking with expert tracker Jonah Evans when I happened to glance out my office window. "THERE GOES THREE DEER!" I exclaimed as they trotted across our Meadow and then ambled north to a neighbors' yard. "Hey, James, come see!"

I apologized to Jonah for yelling in his ear, and he laughed. "Oh, it's OK," he said, "but go out there and check for tracks! They left some, that's for sure." So after we hung up, I did go out later with my camera. The prints weren't that great, but I took one photograph. Then I walked over and took a picture of the four little bluebonnet plants that I transplanted last Monday from another neighbor's yard. They were growing nearly in the street, and Jeri said, yes, I could have them. Here's hoping I can keep them alive and maybe get a patch started in the meadow.

I also saw one of the antelope horn seeds that I anchored across the meadow Monday.

Bluebonnet babies

Antelope horn seed

A tree disease near Boerne

noreply@blogger.com (Sheryl Smith-Rodgers) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 22:02:00 +0000

This week, my mother had several Spanish oaks (Quercus texana) cut down because they were infected with hypoxylon canker (Hypoxylon sp.). She sent photos of the fungus.

According to the Texas Plant Disease Handbook, hypoxylon canker spreads through spores, which enter through injured areas on limbs or the trunk. "Trees which have been damaged by excessive fill soil are often attacked by this organism," states the handbook. "It is also suspected to be a fungus that can invade on oak wilt-infected trees. Control is achieved by maintaining the trees in a healthy condition. Avoid injury to the trunk and limbs and never apply fill soil around the trees. Chemical treatments would not be effective because the fungus is located within the tree."

According to Texas AgriLife Extension Service's East Texas Gardening, "hypoxylon canker has been noted in the death of many oaks in the East Texas area over the last several years. This disease is not rare, but due to the stressful droughts of the last several summers, a large number of trees are being affected."

The Texas Forest Service has more information on hypoxylon canker, too. So does AgriLife Extension.

Mom told me that surviving trees nearby were fertilized, and now she's giving the trees soaking drinks of water for several weeks. Hope they survive!