Baby blue eyes

Nemophila phacelioides (Texas baby blue eyes)

Ferocactus glaucescens

Echinocereus reichenbachii var albertii  (Black lace cactus)

Echinocereus reichenbachii var albertii  (Black lace cactus)

Amsonia longiflora

 Amsonia longiflora (Trumpet Slimpod) -  One of my favorite West Texas natives for its irresistible gardenia like fragrance. 

Stenocactus

Stenocactus multicostatus 'Zacatecasensis'

Escobaria runyonii

Echinocereus viridiflorus var. corelli

Stenocactus multicostatus 'Zacatecasensis'

Escobaria runyonii

My wife likes eating pomegranates therefore our yard always has a few volunteers, like this one, coming up in a flowerbed some place.  Extremely tough plants that can take heat, cold and drought.

Snake 2 Doves 0

Here is a happy snake that just ate the two baby doves we had been watching for several weeks in the top of a palm tree that is close to our back deck.

              I wonder how he found them and how he was able to climb the bottom of the palm that is round and smooth.

Momma dove watches all from just a few feet away from the nest.

Sad bird face:(

Ghost Plant and Penstemons

Pictures from this month three years ago, when spring came a couple weeks early.



Ghost Plant (Graptopetalum paraguayense) with flowers.

Hill Country Penstemon (Penstemon triflorus)

Hill Country Penstemon (Penstemon triflorus)

Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens)

Eagle Mountain Lake

One of my wife's sisters lives on a high hill over looking Eagle Mountain Lake North of Fort Worth at the edge of the rapidly expanding metroplex.  Across from her property are a few hills that appear to me to be relatively undisturbed and are full of all kinds of vanishing botanical treasures.

Silphium albiflorum (White Rosinweed) - These hand like leaves indicate the top of the plant that detaches and turns into a kind of tumbleweed during the winter.  Underneath the ground is a tough survivor that endures desert like conditions in the toughest limestone soils.  Scientist have shown that the roots of this perennial, in the sunflower family, has roots that go down 15 feet or more.  Unfortunately the plants are incredibly hard for people to grow, they grow incredibly slow and are the preferred food for rabbits and deer, several of the large plants I saw are possibly 50 years old or older.  For more on the Silphium see Last Silphium by Aldo Leopold

February Blooms

Echinocereus poselgeri, this native cactus can be found growing in the thorn scrub of South Texas, actually it is very difficult to find unless it is in bloom, otherwise it looks like a greenish or gray stick among countless other grey sticks.

Echinocereus poselgeri

Titanopsis Calcerea - Another Aloinopsis relative which likes cool moist winters and warm dry summers.