Texas Flowers

All colors of the rainbow are found in Texas flowers at Big Bend NP, Lost Maples SA, Seminole Canyon SP, Balcones Canyonlands NWR, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

Texas Bluebonnet - Lupinus texensis (Pea Family - Fabaceae)

Honey Mesquite - Prosopis glandulosa (Mimosa Family - Mimosaceae)

Guayacan or Soapbush or Texas lignumvitae - Guajacum angustifolium

(Creosote-Bush Family - Zygophyllaceae)

Rough Nama, Sand Bells - Nama hispidum (Waterleaf Family - Hydrophyllaceae)

Tree Tobacco - Nicotiana glauca (Potato Family - Solanaceae)

Free wallpaper (desktop background) for personal use
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False Day Flower - Tinantia anomala (Spiderwort Family - Commelinaceae)

Guajillo or Thornless Catclaw - Acacia berlandieri (Pea Family - Fabaceae)

Texas Persimmon - Diospyros texana (Ebony Family -Ebenaceae)

Texas Buckeye - Aesculus glabra (Horse-Chestnut Family - Hippocastanaceae)

Mexican Buckeye - Ungnadia speciosa (Soapberry Family -Sapindaceae)

Scarlet Leather Flower - Clematis texensis (Buttercup Family -Ranunculaceae)

Scarlet Leather Flower

Tropical Sage - Salvia coccinea (Mint Family -Lamiaceae)

Green False Nightshade - Chamaesaracha coronopus (Potato Family -Solanaceae)

Antelope Horns - Asclepias asperula (Milkweed Family -Asclepiadaceae)

Prairienymph - Herbertia lahue (Iris Family -Iridaceae)

Prairie Beard-tongue - Penstemon cobaea (Figwort Family -Scrophulariaceae)

Evening-Star Rain Lily - Cooperia drummondii (Lily Family -Liliaceae)

Evening-Star Rain Lily

Candellia or Wax Plant- Euphorbia antisyphilitica (Spurge Family -Euphorbiaceae)

Resurrection Plant or Flower of Stone - Selaginella lepidophylla
(Spike-Moss Family -Selaginellaceae)

This is a desert plant that grows rapidly after rains, but curls up into a dormant ball
when it lacks moisture.

The references and gear I used for this blog are:
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: Canon EF100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS USM
Camera: Canon EOS 10D
Lens: Canon EF28-105mm F/3.5-4.5 II USM
Steiner 10x42 Predator Binoculars
The SIBLEY Guide to Birds
Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America
Kaufman Focus Guides - Butterflies
Butterflies through Binoculars The East
Butterflies ot the Great Lakes
Caterpillars of Eastern North America
Caterpilliars in the Field and Garden
Peterson Field Guides: Southwestern and Texas Wildflowers
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Native Plants of South Texas

All images © MSCI

Texas Wildflowers and Bugs

It is amazing how often I take a photo of a flower and later find that there are insects enjoying it, too. In some cases, they are camouflaged very well. Can you find them?

Yellow Flax and small fly

White Prickleypoppy and green grasshopper

Texas Spiderwort and cricket-like bug

Scarlet Beeblossom and ant

Neuces Coreopsis and small beetle

Coastal Plain Tickseed and tiny flies

Antelope Horns and two bugs

Prairienymph and bee

All of these photos were taken in Texas. The larger image is free wallpaper (desktop background) for personal use. Click on blog picture, then on the next picture (larger image), right-click and set as background.

The references and gear I used for this blog are:
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: Canon EF100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS USM
Camera: Canon EOS 10D
Lens: Canon EF28-105mm F/3.5-4.5 II USM
Steiner 10x42 Predator Binoculars
Peterson Field Guides: Southwestern and Texas Wildflowers
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Native Plants of South Texas

All images © MSCI

Texas Animals, Lizards, Bug

Some criters found in Texas: Big Bend NP, Lost Maples SA, Balcones Canyonlands NWR, Seminole Canyon SP.

Coyote

Jack Rabbit running in the desert

Jack Rabbit sitting in camp

Javalina

Greater Earless Lizard

Zebra-tailed Lizard

Green Anole

Darkling Beetle

The references and gear I used for this blog are:
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: Canon EF100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS USM
Camera: Canon EOS 10D
Lens: Canon EF28-105mm F/3.5-4.5 II USM
Steiner 10x42 Predator Binoculars
Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America

All images © MSCI

Purple Asters and Visitors

I have some purple New England asters growing in front of our deck. Sometimes I sit with the camera in hand and watch the various visitors to the flowers.

Cabbage Butterfly - female with 2 black spots on its wings

Bumble Bee

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Bumble Bee with pollen sack on its leg

Flower Fly - looks like a wasp but its not

Honey Bee

Honey Bee with a pollen sack on its leg

Clouded Sulphur - male

Clouded Sulphur - female

Virginia Ctenucha - this is a moth

Sweat Bee

Silver-spotted Skipper

The references and gear I used for this blog are:
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: Canon EF100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS USM
Camera: Canon EOS 10D
Lens: Canon EF28-105mm F/3.5-4.5 II USM
Steiner 10x42 Predator Binoculars
Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America
Kaufman Focus Guides - Butterflies
Butterflies through Binoculars The East
Butterflies of the Great Lakes
Caterpillars of Eastern North America

All images © MSCI

From Green to Colors

Wow! I can't believe it is already October and its more than two months since I last published anything in my "green" series. Funny, I am not thinking about green, now, as the summer days are gone! Rather, I am watching the fall colors and doing fall activities: eating orange peaches and yellow pears, blue plums; watching my green tomatoes ripen to orange and then red; picking red raspberries and eating the first red apples of the season. Some maples are showing orange and red; the arrowhead and pickerel weeds in the lake are turning orange and brown; in the fields, soy beans and corn are turning yellow and brown; yellow goldenrod is blooming everywhere; purple New England asters are growing along the roadsides and the skies are bright blue on a cool fall day.

Even on my trip this spring, green was not the only color I noticed....

After visiting Big Bend NP, we drove east to Lake Amistad NRA. Here it rained for 2 days. The result was that the ocotillo actually sprouted leaves in just a few days. Even when I am not in Texas, I am fascinated by this plant. I hope you will put the flower as wall paper on your computer for awhile.

Ocotillo - Fouquieria splendens (Ocotillo Family - Fouquieriaceae)




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If you are looking for color, you can usually find it everywhere. I always enjoy lichen on rocks.

Dead Tree

Oak Tree blossoms

Canadian Bigtooth Maple

The references and gear I used for this blog are:
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: Canon EF100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS USM
Camera: Canon EOS 10D
Lens: Canon EF28-105mm F/3.5-4.5 II USM
Steiner 10x42 Predator Binoculars
Peterson Field Guides: Southwestern and Texas Wildflowers
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Native Plants of South Texas

All images © MSCI

For Ever Green

When we climbed trails up in the Chisos Basin of the mountains of Big Bend NP, there we found plenty of evergreens.

View from Lost Mine Trail

I am not very good at evergreen identification, so I don't know the exact species of the next pine tree but I think it is a pinyon pine.

Pinyon Pine

I did learn that the only place north of the border where the Mexican Drooping Juniper, Juniperus flaccida, grows, is in Big Bend NP.

Mexican Drooping Juniper

We also saw the Alligator Juniper, Juniperus deppeana, which is easily identified by the bark on its trunk.

Alligator Juniper Bark

The The Golden-cheeked Warbler depends on mature Ashe Juniper habitat, Juniperus ashei, found in the Texas Hill country on the Edwards Plateau. This warbler only uses the shedded bark of this tree as nesting material. Only trees 40 to 50 years old, shred their bark.

Ashe Juniper has blue fruit

Mature Ashe Juniper Bark

Even among evergreen trees and plants, you can find color as the red seed pods on the Evergreen Sumac, Rhus virens, and the blooming evergreen Mountain Laurel, Sophora secundiflora. I found Mountain Laurel in Big Bend NP but the photo is taken in Lost Maples SNA.

Evergreen Sumac

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Mountain Laurel

Free wallpaper (desktop background) for personal use
Click on above picture, then on next picture right-click and set as background

The references and gear I used for this blog are:
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: Canon EF100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS USM
Camera: Canon EOS 10D
Lens: Canon EF28-105mm F/3.5-4.5 II USM
Steiner 10x42 Predator Binoculars

All images © MSCI

Cactus Flowers

Cactus greens, yellows, purples, oranges, reds ...

Near the end of our stay in Big Bend NP, the cacti were starting to bloom. Here are some of my photos.

Blind Prickly Pear buds

Blind Prickly Pear

Blind Prickly Pear flower turn orange with age

Purple-tinged Prickly Pear buds

Purple-tinged Prickly Pear

Purple-tinged Prickly Pear, spines are 4 inches long

Purple-tinged Prickly Pear

Purple-tinged Prickly Pear

Rainbow species

Hedgehog species

Christmas Cholla with red fruit

Cane Cholla with yellow fruit

Engelmann's Prickly Pear

Engelmann's Prickly Pear

Free wallpaper (desktop background) for personal use
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The references and gear I used for this blog are:
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: Canon EF100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS USM
Camera: Canon EOS 10D
Lens: Canon EF28-105mm F/3.5-4.5 II USM
Steiner 10x42 Predator Binoculars
Peterson Field Guides: Southwestern and Texas Wildflowers
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Native Plants of South Texas

Cactus Green

Cactus greens, purples, yellows...

Of course there are lots of cacti growing in the Chihuanhuan Desert of Big Bend NP. I was surprised at the colors of the plant and at the number of different species, more than in any other park. On top of that, the various species of prickly pear cacti hybridize with each other, so you sometimes can't tell at which species you are looking. So, in general, I have identified the following photos with my best guesses.

Cactus grow every where, where it can get a foothold. It needs some soil and some moisture, and it doesn't have to be very much.

Chisos Mountains from Dugout Wells
with Engelmann's Prickly Pear in front

Blind Prickly Pear

Blind Prickly Pear

Blind Prickly Pear

Pitaya or Hedgehog cactus

Pitaya or Hedgehog cactus

Spiny-fruited Prickly Pear 75 feet up

Spiny-fruited Prickly Pear found only in Big Bend NP

Spiny-fruited Prickly Pear in the setting sun

Purple-tinged Prickly Pear

Purple-tinged Prickly Pear, spines are up to 4 inches long.
I measured it!

Engelmann's Prickly Pear

Engelmann's Prickly Pear

Pineapple species

Prickly Pear with yellow spines in Chisos Basin

None of these photos show the cactus in bloom. When we arrived in Big Bend NP, it was too early but near the end of our 2 week stay, some cacti were blooming. See next blog.

The references and gear I used for this blog are:
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: Canon EF100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS USM
Camera: Canon EOS 10D
Lens: Canon EF28-105mm F/3.5-4.5 II USM
Steiner 10x42 Predator Binoculars
Peterson Field Guides: Southwestern and Texas Wildflowers
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
Native Plants of South Texas

The First Green 2

Last blog, I also mentioned two other evergreen plants: sotol and century plants. I found these green plants be fascinating.

Sotol from Sotal Vista

Sotol leaves

The dried flower stalks were used as building materials and,
today, as walking sticks.

Close-up of dried sotol flower

Century Plant is the largest Agave species in Big Bend NP.
It blooms once in 20-50 years with bright yellow flowers in and then dies.

The leaves are not really green but rather a blue-gray color.
The hearts of the plant were baked, dried and stored as winter food
by the Native Americans.

Dried stalks can be over 30 feet tall

Close-up of dried century flower

Dried dead plant

Stay tuned for more evergreen plants.

The references and gear I used for this blog are:
Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Lens: Canon EF100-400mm F4.5-5.6L IS USM
Camera: Canon EOS 10D
Lens: Canon EF28-105mm F/3.5-4.5 II USM
Steiner 10x42 Predator Binoculars