"As Soft As…"

As I pointed out in "The Water's Edge," some plants have to live where their roots are always moist or even wet. Other plants can only live where their roots stay fairly dry, only getting wet for a short period of time after it rains. These are the upland plants.

Along the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River, the upland plants will generally be found high up the slope of the channel well above the riverbank. One upland plant commonly found here is Velvet-leaf Mallow.

The common name for many plants, such as Frogfruit, makes one wonder about the origin of the name. There is no mystery at all about the origin of the name for this mallow. Its leaves are as soft as a velvet blanket. When asked what the Velvet-Leaf Mallow's leaf felt like, one young elementary school student replied, "That's as soft as my softest sweatshirt."

This set of photographs was taken on the hillside at Confluence Park along the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River on Monday, October 7, 2013.