West Texas Botanizing
Are you ready for some more West Texas botanizing?
I’ve finally finished uploading all the “critter” images from my West Texas trip of June 1-15 and have now begun to organize and upload my thousands of plant images. The first batch of about 15 or 20 species is from a quick stop at a Rest Area along US 190 near the Pecos River east of Iraan, TX (Crockett Co.). Very quickly, the uploads will turn to my images from TNC’s Davis Mountains Preserve where I spent three full days and parts of two others birding, botanizing, and generally iNatting in the higher mountains at 6000 to 8300+ ft of elevation (June 1-5). We then relocated to a private ranch in the north part of the Davis Mountains at somewhat lower elevation where the bioblitzing continued (including another several hundred plant images, June 5-8). On June 8, after departing the Davis Mountains, I made a full circuit around Balmorhea Lake, taking the opportunity to photograph some of the plants of the wetlands and saline flats surrounding that waterbody. A final chapter in this Trans-Pecos trip will be a set of uploads from the Fort Stockton area (Pecos Co., June 9-16) while I suffered through a week-long “hotel arrest” waiting for truck repairs so that I could finally head home.
I’m hoping some of my botanically-inclined iNat friends and followers can help confirm a lot of these plant images. Some will be easier than others. The Davis Mountains has a very interesting botanical array with many endemics and lots of species found only in the “sky islands” of the Trans-Pecos within Texas.
I'll supplement this Journal entry with some of the more interesting images as they get uploaded.
Have fun with these!
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gcwarblerתיאור
I have barely begun to organize and identify thousands of plant images from my early June jaunt to West Texas. I thought I'd upload this one as a starting point as a teaser.
Fendler's Ceanothus is apparently known in Texas only from a handful of plants in the higher elevations of the Trans-Pecos. This shrub was photographed on a hillside in Tobe Canyon at about 7000 ft, on TNC's Davis Mountains Preserve. It is definitely a pollinator magnet with many bees, flies, beetles, and a few butterflies on the shrub.
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/3445031
p.s. I was never able to get a clear picture of that interesting little black and red beetle in the background!
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gcwarblerתיאור
I can't recall seeing leafcutter bees go after flower petals, but that's what appears to have happened here to this White-eyed Phlox in the Davis Mts.; elev. 5100 ft.
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In Texas, pygmy bluets are known only from the Davis Mountains.
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Fairly common in open woods and moist canyons in the mountains. This species sometimes (?) goes by the name G. atropurpureum.
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gcwarblerתיאור
Uncommon in the moist canyon bottom of Madera Canyon; one of four species of paintbrush found in the Davis Mountains. See also,
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/3571841
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Although this is shown in Correl & Johnston and a plant list by B. Carr (2005) as ssp. asperulum, I'm going with the current mapping on USDA PLANTS which shows ssp. flexicum as the taxon occurring in West Texas mountains.
http://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=GAMEF
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One of three species of snowberry occurring in the Davis Mountains (Carr 2005). This one can be keyed out by (a) the relatively glabrous (unhairy) leaves, and (b) the stamens [visible in the first flower close-up] which reach half way out on the lobes of the corolla.
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A very interesting skinny pea vine on the trail in the middle part of Madera Canyon. Elev. abt 6500 ft.
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This is certainly one of the more interesting finds on this hike. This clump was growing out of a nearly vertical basalt wall near the base of Baldy Peak on Mt. Livermore. Within Texas, this is only known from the Davis Mountains.
For further details on this species, see: J. M. Poole et al. 2007. Rare Plants of Texas, p. 182-183. Texas A&M Press.
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I believe this is the correct variety of "Claretcup" which occurs in the Davis Mountains. (I need a newer Texas cactus reference.)
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This is the variety with highly glandular-hairy calyces (see flower close-up) which keys out in Correll & Johnston to "Verbena wrightii" (now a synonym of G. b. ciliata).
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Common along the jeep trail at high elevations on Mt. Livermore.
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We saw a few clusters of this species on rocky ravines at mid-elevations (about 6200 ft in this instance). The plants were just beginning to send up new flower stalks. I photographed the dry stalks from the previous year.
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This variety is recognized by the stamens which are not pubescent, the three-lobed leaves, and the hairless tails on the seeds.
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This is the variety "rupestris" (in Correll & Johnston, 1970) indicated by the white flowers, but that variety is not recognized in newer taxonomic treatments (e.g., ITIS).
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Characterized by the branched stems and glaucous, blue-green foliage.
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I saw a few patches of this in and around rocky areas but not necessarily shaded or moist sites.
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I just saw one or two plants of this species; it may be more numerous but if not in bloom, in is is quite inconspicuous.
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The oblique, oblong, often pointed thali are characteristic of this species of duckweed. Note also how several thali (6 to 8) are linked together, rather than just 2 or 3.
http://waynesword.palomar.edu/imgleva.htm
http://luirig.altervista.org/schedenam/fnam.php?taxon=Lemna+valdiviana
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This was a nice find in an open gravelly grassland slope at about 5200 ft.
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A patch of this distinctive ironweed was growing around a hillside spring at about 5000 ft. elevation. While all the leaves were very narrow, note the variation in narrowness in two of the clusters (last two images).
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Wright's dutchman's pipe, Wright's pipevine; Aristolochiaceae. Just a single cluster of this inconspicuous and interesting little flower was found around the rocky margin of a permanent reach of a stream; elev. about 4600 ft.
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I almost overlooked this tiny pink flower in the wetlands along the stream bank. The plants are about 1 to 1-1/2 feet tall and the flowers are barely 4 mm long, on top of a fruit capsule that is 25 to 40 mm.
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נר-הלילה הורוד (Oenothera rosea)מתצפת.ת
gcwarblerתיאור
This example has much nicer flowers than the one I uploaded from the previous day. Unfortunately, the leaves on this plant had some type of fungus or other disease.
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Characterized by the relatively flat and sparsely haired leaves.
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Of two yellow prickly-poppies in Texas, only A. aenea is documented in the Trans-Pecos. The stamens of this species are reportedly supposed to be red or purplish, but here they are quite yellow. The stamen count on this flower of about 120 is close to the range for A. aenea and far too many for A. mexicana of South Texas.
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Beautiful!!! Now, I just need to get a West TX Flora to key any of these out... ;)
@nathantaylor7583 comes to mind as a West TX plant guru.
Wow!!! Absolutely another universe to me...
Yay! I have C&J, Warnock and Powell sitting next to the computer. :-) Will try to start working on these this weekend.
Powell is currently polishing up his Flora of the Trans-Pecos (flowering plants) to be published through JBRIT. It is extremely useful, complete, and I can't wait until it comes out. I use the unfinished version on the majority of my specimens whenever I'm in Alpine.
@nathantaylor7583 - Wow, great to hear about Powell's upcoming Trans-Pecos Flora! I'll be looking forward to that.
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