A Friday at Crownridge Canyon Natural Area

Friday, April 19, 2013

Crownridge Canyon Natural Area, Red Oak Loop Trail

Today's photos:

One of the primary reasons for beginning the While on a Walk blog following my retirement was to have a way to keep myself physically active. I have no intention of abandoning the blog, but increasingly, my walks are becoming a second time around a trail I have walked previously the same day either as a class activity or as a docent leading a tour.

Today I walked the Red Oak Loop Trail at Crownridge Canyon Natural Area in the afternoon after spending the morning along the trail learning about the various grasses growing in this natural area.

• The first photo is a close up of a Pink Mimosa.
• The second photo is a Pincushion Daisy flower. These flowers are close cousins of the Firewheel. The Pincushion Daisy typically has few, or totally lacks, ray flowers around the outer margin, so it looks as if something pulled or ate all the outer "petals" off of a Firewheel.
• The third photo is a Sleepy Orange butterfly.
• The fourth photo is the flower head on a Texas Yellow Buckeye.
• The fifth photo is Sensitive Briar flowers. Note there is a Spotted Cucumber Beetle on the stalk just below the flower on the left.
• The sixth photo is a cluster of Blackfoot Daisies.
• The seventh photo is a flower cluster on a Wafer Ash. Note the ovaries of these three flowers are just beginning to mature and are beginning to take on the characteristic "wafer" appearance.
• The eighth and ninth photos are a Spiderwort in the genus Tradescantia. There are several species of Tradescantia that grow in this area. I'm not certain which one this is, but I think it is the Giant Spiderwort.
• The tenth and eleventh photos are flower buds on Prickly Pear cactus (genus Opuntia).
• The twelfth photo is an overview looking down the canyon. The Live Oak tree in the center of the photo is typical of the beautiful trees in the Crownridge Canyon NA.
• The thirteenth through the seventeenth photos are Rosettegrass (Dicanthelium acuminatum). There are several varieties of Rosettegrass that grow in Bexar County including Dicanthelium acuminatum var. lindheimeri, but I'd be getting in way over my head if I tried to identify the variety shown in these photos.
• The eighteenth photo is a Juniper Hairstreak butterfly on Catclaw Acacia.
• The nineteenth photo is a close up of the claw shaped prickles from which the Catclaw Acacia gets its name.

A Change of Pace in the Upper Leon Creek Watershed

Monday, February 4, 2013

Crownridge Canyon Natural Area, Red Oak Loop Trail, once around the loop

Today's photos:

Following a very intense week along the San Antonio River, it was time for a bit of a change of pace. Crownridge Canyon Natural Area is located in the upper Leon Creek watershed in northwest San Antonio. It was the first natural area developed by the San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department as part of the Edwards Aquifer Protection Initiative.

This Natural Area is a box canyon on the periphery of the Edwards Escarpment. It has a very different ecosystem from the riparian ecosystem which is being restored along the San Antonio River. This post focuses on the lay of the land and some of the vegetation found in the canyon. The next post will feature "A Few Critters in Crownridge Canyon."

• The first photo is an oak motte in a savannah restoration area in the Natural Area. The trees in the background are growing on the wall along the west side of the canyon.
• The second photo is a Sotol with Ashe Juniper (Mountain Cedar) in the background.
• The third photo is the view looking upstream from the Red Oak Trail Overlook bridge.
• The fourth photo is a close up of the young bark that is characteristic of the Escarpment Black Cherry. The bark loses the silver stripes and changes texture as the tree matures.
• The fifth photo is the top of an Ashe Juniper.
• The sixth photo is Wafer Ash seeds. Like the mountain cedar, the wafer ash is another example of how common names, versus scientific names, can be misleading. The mountain cedar isn't a cedar and the wafer ash isn't an ash. The wafer ash is actually in the citrus family. It is also known as a hoptree.
• The seventh through tenth photos are Evergreen Sumac. I was impressed by the abundance of evergreen sumac still with their red berries as I walked the trail.  The evergreen sumac is an excellent shrub for native landscaping. The flowers attract butterflies and the berries are food for a wide range of wildlife.