Spring!!!!

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

There is still almost a full month of winter left according to the calendar, but the bloomin' flowers along the trail tell a much different story:

This looks much more like Spring than Winter.

The Huisache are blooming right on time and I don't think it has been cold enough, long enough to prevent the Four-nerve Daisies from blooming all winter. The Anacacho Orchid tree is blooming about a month early, the Common Sunflower didn't wait 'til summer and the Eastern Gamagrass is about two months early.

And above all the others, Texas Mountain Laurel shouts "SPRING" the clearest of them all.

These photographs were taken on my walk along the Roosevelt Park loop trail of the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River yesterday, Monday, February 22, 2016.

Green Lines, Translucent Patterns, Yellow Spheres

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Branching green lines (with thorns) of Retama...

Patterns of translucent leaves crisscrossed by dark branches and yellow spherical flowers of Huisache...

Both Retama and Huisache are small. multi-trunk trees growing abundantly throughout the hill and brush country of South Texas. The Huisache is one of the first trees to bloom each year, typically beginning in mid-February. From what I have seen the past couple weeks, it looks like the Huisache are set to bloom prolifically in the next week or so here in Bexar County.

These photographs were taken on my walk along the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River downstream from the VFW Blvd trailhead this past Monday, February 15, 2016.

Handle With Caution

The thorny twigs of Bluewood Condailia, Lotebush and Granjeno can be somewhat camouflaged by the leaves growing from them. This is not at all true of Huisache (Acacia farnesiana) thorns. These thorns may not always be easy to see through the foliage, but I'm not sure how they could be any more obvious:

Plants in the Genus Acacia are shrubs or small trees. Almost all of them have thorns, some more obvious than others. Huisace generally grows to be a small to medium sized tree. It is very common from the southern edge of the Texas Hill Country south through the South Texas Brush Country. Huisache blooms late in winter becoming covered with fragrant bright yellow "puffball" flowers.

There are a couple things to keep in mind particularly if Huisache are used as a landscape tree. Huisache thorns have been known to puncture both the soles of shoes and car and truck tires. Also, when trimmed or pruned, the new growth that follows will have larger and more plentiful thorns.

This set of photographs was taken along the Yanaguana Nature Trail at Mission San Juan in the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park on Monday, October, 28, 2013.

This is the third in a multi-post series. Part 1 is here and part 2 here.

Springing Up in the Basin, Part 1

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Hondondo Creek Trails (Judson Nature Trails), Olmos Basin in Alamo Heights

Today's photos:

About three years ago, the City of Alamo Heights began consideration of ways to improve and expand the nature trails along Hondondo and Olmos Creeks. These trails have been maintained by the San Antonio Audubon Society as the Jack Judson Nature Trails. The non-profit organization, The Friends of Hondondo Creek Trails was formed soon after Alamo Heights began the planning process. In conjunction with the San Antonio Audubon Society, they have begun initial work on improving the trail system.

• The first photo is a Huisache tree in full bloom near the entrance to the trail system.
• The second through fourth photos are close ups of the flowers on a Rough-leaf Dogwood tree.
• The fifth photo is a Honey Bee on a Baby Blue-eyes flower.
• The sixth and seventh photos are a Fox Squirrel that seemed to be as interested in what I was doing as I was interested in photographing it.
• The eighth photo is a Scarlet Sage.
• The ninth photo is of newly set Sugar Hackberry leaves brilliantly illuminated by the sun.
• The tenth photo is a Pearl Crescent butterfly. The two small yellow flowers  are Straggler Daisies. This tiny daisy is a very common native ground cover. They are frequently considered lawn weeds, but actually make an excellent drought and shade tolerant ground cover that rarely require supplemental watering.
• The eleventh through the fourteenth photos are close ups of Mexican Buckeye flowers and newly set leaves.
• The fifteenth and sixteenth photos are Baby Blue-eyes. These native flowers also do very well growing in the shade. They are typically found as ground cover in wooded areas.

This series of photos is continued in part 2.

I Would Tell You It's Hot, But It's South Texas (So, What's the Point?)

Monday, March 18, 2013

Salado Creek Greenway South, South Side Lions Park Trailhead
upstream to the second pedestrian bridge north of Roland Ave

Today's photos:

It may be two days before the beginning of Spring which means it's still officially Winter, but (as I have pointed out so often on this blog) this is South Texas. Summer never recedes very far and today it came roaring back with a record high temperature for the date of 95º (F).

So, the point is averages don't mean much here. We can easily get more than a month's average rainfall in less than 24 hours. If that is the only rain event for the entire month, we have still exceeded the "average" monthly rainfall. We aren't very likely to have a string of cold days in the middle of Summer, but a string of hot days in Winter is not at all unusual.

More specifically for this walk, the point is that the tree canopy made the experience much more enjoyable by lowering the temperature ten to fifteen degrees along the trail. I could digress with a discussion of the importance of tree canopy in the urban environment and how improved urban water drainage methods could increase soil moisture levels through the use of enhanced infiltration techniques, but I'll save all that for other occasions.

• The first photo is the trunk of a Honey Mesquite tree growing in the wooded upland area above the creek.
• The second and third photos are a Pearl Crescent. It wasn't sitting still in any one location for very long. The third photo is one of few were I have successfully photographed a butterfly in flight.
• The fourth through sixth photos are of a skipper butterfly feeding on Prairie Verbena. There are several skippers that look very much alike. The best I can tell, this is a Julia's Skipper.
• The seventh photo is a very tall Huisache tree in full bloom. There are so many Huisache blooming along this section of Salado Creek, the air is permeated with fragrance of the flowers.
• The eighth photo is Baby Blue Eyes. I think they are one of the most abundant wildflowers in bloom in Bexar County right now.
• The ninth photo is a view of the creek bank as seen looking downstream from the second pedestrian bridge north of Roland Ave. This is how a very healthy stream bank should look. The dense vegetation is growing on an area of deposition and very effectively preventing it from eroding.
• The tenth and eleventh photos are of Mexican Buckeye. This isn't a true buckeye, but its seeds resemble buckeye seeds. Mexican Buckeye is actually in the Soapberry Family.
• The twelfth photo is a view of the creek looking downstream under the Roland Ave bridge that is currently under construction. As with the ninth photo, this is a very healthy riparian ecosystem at this location.
• The thirteenth photo is an overview of another upland wooded area with a Huisache dominating the center of the photo.
• The fourteenth photo is a stand of mixed hardwood trees. This is the type of tree canopy that can easily lower the ambient temperature by ten, fifteen, sometimes even twenty degrees.
• The fifteenth through seventeenth photos are of a Texas Rose-bellied Lizard thoroughly enjoying the warmth (heat) of the late afternoon.