Where Nature Heals and Gives Strength, A Sunday Special Edition

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Where Nature Heals and Gives Strength

"Everyone needs beauty as well as bread, places to play and pray, where nature heals and gives strength to body and soul alike."              -  John Muir

This set of photos was taken on my walk through the Medina River Natural Area on Wednesday, March 6, 2013:

• I am fairly confident the first two photos are Windmillgrass in the Genus Chloris. I probably should stop there, but I'm going to climb out on a panicle (to the best of my knowledge grasses don't have limbs) and say this appears to me to be Shortspike Windmillgrass (Chloris subdolichostachya Muell.).
• The third through fifth photos are a Dainty Sulphur butterfly. Typical of the Dainty Sulphur, this one wasn't spending much time on any one flower and in the fifth photo was flying on its way to find another flower. Update: March 25, 2013, 7:55 PM. It has been brought to my attention, the flower the Dainty Sulfur is perched on in this series of photos is a Huisache Daisy. Identifying the yellow composites can be an even bigger challenge than identifying grasses (or sparrows, or skipper butterflies). I admit I overlooked this flower in order to get the post published in a reasonable amount of time.
• The sixth photo is a Bordered Patch butterfly.
• The seventh and eighth photos are a Sleepy Orange butterfly.
• The ninth through eleventh photos are a female Northern Cardinal. In the eleventh photo it had just taken off when I released the shutter and was flying a short distance away (and out of sight).
• The twelfth through fourteenth photos are the female Cardinal's mate. The male Northern Cardinal's plumage is an even brighter red during mating season than the rest of the year. The tree in the background behind the male Cardinal is a Sugar Hackberry, sometimes referred to simply as a Sugarberry tree. The texture of the bark is one of the primary identifying characteristics for the Sugar Hackberry tree.
• The fifteenth photo is a Pearl Crescent butterfly taking in the warmth of the sun while perched on a rock on the river bank..
• The sixteenth and seventeenth photos are a Dewberry flower. This dewberry is known as the Zarzamora* in Spanish.
• The eighteenth photo is a close up of some branches on a Granjeno shrub that was just beginning to set its leaves. One of the distinguishing characteristics for this shrub is the way the branches grow in a zigzag pattern. Also, the very large thorns, typical of many plants that grow in South Texas, are clearly visible in this photo. The Granjeno is a close cousin of the Sugar Hackberry and is sometimes called the Spiny Hackberry.

* In Spanish, the word Zarzamora refers to all the species in the Genus Rubus. This includes both blackberries and dewberries.