Plant List

We thought this might be a good place to take some time to review part of Harlin's plant list in progress. There should be one hundred forty-five items in this version that has been edited in only a small way by someone else. (Aside note: as of 12:05 this afternoon, Creek waters still flowed. Barely.)

Species		English name	Family
Cheilanthes	tomentosa	Wooly lip fern	Polypodiaceae
Pellaea	ovata	Zigzag cliffbrake	Polypodiaceae
Juniperus	ashei	Ashe Juniper	Cupressaceae
Ruelia			Acanthaceae
Siphonoglossa	pilosella	Tube Tongue	Acanthaceae
Yucca	rupicola	Twisted Leaf Yucca	Agavaceaea
Yucca	treculeana	Spanish Dagger	Agavaceaea
Cooperia		Rain-Lily	Amaryllidaceae
Rhus	aromatica	Fragrant Sumac	Anacardiaceae
Rhus	lanceolata	Lance-leaved Sumac	Anacardiaceae
Rhus	toxicodendron	Poison Ivy	Anacardiaceae
Chaerophyllum	tainturieri	Chervil	Apiaceae
Hydrocotyle	umbellata	Water Pennywort	Apiaceae
Torilis	arvensis	Hedge Parsley	Apiaceae
Matelea	reticulata	Pearl Milkweed	Asclepiadaceae
Amblyolepis		Huisache Daisy	Asteraceae
Calyptocarpus	vialis	Lawn flower	Asteraceae
Chaptala		Silver Puff	Asteraceae
Cirsium	texanum	Texas Thistle	Asteraceae
Corepsis			Asteraceae
Engelmannia	pinnatifida	Engelman Daisy	Asteraceae
Erigeron	modestus	Plains Fleabane	Asteraceae
Gaillardia	pulchella	Firewheel, Indian Blanket	Asteraceae
Hymenoxys	scaposa	Bitterweed	Asteraceae
Hymenopappus	scabiosaeous	Old Plainsman	Asteraceae
Lygodesmia	texana	Skeleton plant	Asteraceae
Palafoxia			Asteraceae
Pinaropappus	roseus	White Rock Lettuce	Asteraceae
Ratibida		Mexican Hat	Asteraceae
Rudbeckia	hirta	Blackeyed Susan	Asteraceae
Sonchus	asper	Sow Thistle	Asteraceae
Viguera	dentata	Golden-Eye	Asteraceae
Wedelia	texana	Hairy Zexmenia	Asteraceae
Xanthisma	texanum	Sleepy Daisy	Asteraceae
Xanthium	strumarium	Cocklebur	Asteraceae
Berberis	trifoliata	Agarita	Berberidacaea
Buglossoides	arvensis		Boraginaceae
Onosmodium	bejariense	Flase Gromwell	Boraginaceae
Opuntia		Pickly Pear	Cactaceae
Opuntia		Pencil Cactus	Cactaceae
Triodanis		Venus' Looking Glass	Campanulaceae
Tradescantia	gigantea	Giant Spiderwort	Commelinaceae
Convolvulus	equitans	Bindweed	Convolvulaceae
Cuscuta		Dodder	Convolvulaceae
Evolvulus	sericieus	Silver Dwarf Morning-Glory	Convolvulaceae
Ipomoea	cordatotriloba	Torrey's Tievine	Convolvulaceae
Capsella	bursa-pastoris	Sheperd's Purse	Cruciferae
Cucurbita	foetidissima	Stinking Gourd	Cucurbitaceae
Fuirena	simplex	Western Umbrella Sedge	Cyperaceae
Schoenoplectus	pungens	common threesquare	Cyperaceae
Diospyros	texana	Texas Persimmon	Ebenaceae
Chamaesyce	maculata	spotted sandmat	Euphorbiaceae
Chamaesyce	nutans	Eyebane	Euphorbiaceae
Cnidoscolus	texanus	Texas Bullnettle	Euphorbiaceae
Croton		Bush Croton	Euphorbiaceae
Tragia		Noseburn	Euphorbiaceae
Indigofera	lindheimeriana	Lindheimer's indigo	Fabiaceae
Melilotus	indicus	Sour Clover	Fabiaceae
Lupinus		Bluebonnet	Fabaceae
Prosopis	glandulosa	Mesquite	Fabaceae
Sesbania	drummondii	Rattlebush	Fabaceae
Sophora	affinis	Eve's Necklace	Fabiaceae
Sophora	secundiflora	Texas Mountain Laurel	Fabiaceae
Vicia	ludoviciana	Deer Pea Vetch	Fabaceae
Quercus		Live Oak	Fagaceae
Nama	jamaicense		Hydrophllaceae
Phaecelia	congesta	Blue Curls	Hydrophllaceae
Sisyrinchium	biforme (?)	Blue-Eyed Grass	Iridaceae
Juglans	microcarpa	River Walnut	Juglandaceae
Hedeoma	acinoides		Lamiaceae
Salvia	farinacea	Mealy sage	Lamiaceae
Teucrium	canadense	American Germander	Lamiaceae
Lamium	amplexicaule	Henbit	Lamiaceae
Smilax	bona-nox	Greenbriar	Liliaceae
Alium	canadense	Onion+many others	Liliaceae
Alium	dummondii	Onion+many others	Liliaceae
Nolina	lindheimeriana	Devil's Shoestring	Liliaceae
Nothoscordium	bivalve	Crow Poison	Liliaceae
Mentzelia	albescens	Wavyleaf blazingstar	Loasaceae
Mentzelia	oligosperma	Chickenthief	Loasaceae
Abutilon	fruticosum	Indian Mallow	Malvaceae
Callirhoe	involucrata	Low Winecup	Malvaceae
Pavonia	lasiopetala	Rock Rose, Rose Pavonia	Malvaceae
Sida	filicualis		Malvaceae
Wissadula	holosericea	Velvetleaf Mallow	Malvaceae
Melia	azedarach	Chinaberry Tree	Meliaceae
Cocculus	carolinus	Carolina Moonseed	Menispermiaceae
Forestiera	pubescens	Elbow Bush	Oleaceae
Oenothera	laciniata	Cutleaf Evening Primrose	Onagraceae
Oxalis	Stricta	Yellow Wood Sorrel	Oxalidaceae
Rivina	humilis	Pigeon Berry	Phytoloccaceae
Plantago		Plantain	Plantaginaceae
Plantanus	occidentalis	American Sycamore	Plantanaceae
Aristida	purpurea (?)	Purple Three-Awn	Poaceae
Bouteloua	curtipendula	Sideoats Grama	Poaceae
Bothriochloa	ischaemem	King Ranch Bluestem	Poaceae
Bothriochloa	laguroides	Silver Bluestem	Poaceae
Bromus	japonicus	Japanese Brome	Poaceae
Bromus	uniloides	Rescue Grass	Poaceae
Chloris	cucullate	Hooded Windmill Grass	Poaceae
Chloris	verticillata	Windmill Grass	Poaceae
Dicanthelium	oligosanthes	Rosette Grass	Poaceae
Digitaria	cognata	Fall Witchgrass	Poaceae
Elymus	canadensis	Canada Wildrye	Poaceae
Elymus	virginicus	Virginia Wildrye	Poaceae
Hordeum	leporinum	Hare Barley	Poaceae
Limnodea	arkansana	Ozark Grass	Poaceae
Lolium	perenne	Ryegrass	Poaceae
Lolium	temulentum	Darnel	Poaceae
Nassella	leucotricha	Texas Wintergrass	Poaceae
Panicum	coloratum	Klien Grass	Poaceae
Paspalum	pubiflorum	Hairyseed Paspalum	Poaceae
Paspalum	urvillei	Vasey's Grass	Poaceae
Phalaris	caroiniana	CanaryGrass	Poaceae
Polypogon	monspeliensis	Rabbitfoot grass	Poaceae
Polypogon	viridis	Bent Grass	Poaceae
Setaria	parviflora	March Bristlegrass	Poaceae
Sorghum	halepense	Johnson Grass	Poaceae
Tripsacum	dactyloides	Eastern Grama Grass	Poaceae
Tridens	texanus	Texas Tridens	Poaceae
Gilia	incisa		Polemoniaceae
Phlox		Phlox	Polemoniaceae
Samolus	valerandi	Thin-leaf Brookweed	Primulaceae
Delphinium	carolinianum	Carolina Larkspur	Ranunculaceae
Ranunculus	sardous	Hairy Buttercup	Ranunculaceae
Colubrina	texensis	Hog Plum	Rhamnaceae
Condalia	hookeri	Brasil	Rhamnaceae
Rubus		Dewberry	Rosaceae
Sideroxylon	lanuginosum ssp. Rigidum	Coma, Gum Bumelia	Sapotaceae
Ungnadia	speciosa	Mexican Buckeye	Sapindaceae
Bacopa	monnieri	Water-Hyssop, Brahmi	Scrophulaceae
Mimulus	glabrata	Monkey Flower	Scrophulaceae
Veronica	anagallis-aquatica	Water Speedwell	Scrophulaceae
Solanum	triquetrum	Texas Nightshade	Solanaceae
Solanum			Solanaceae
Celtis	laevigata	Hackberry	Ulmaceae
Ulmus		Elm	Ulmaceae
Valerianella	stenocarpa	Corn salad	Valerianaceae
Lantana	horida	Lantana	Verbenaceae
Phyla	nodiflora	Frog Fruit	Verbenaceae
Verbena	brasiliensis	Vervain	Verbenaceae
Verbena	halei	Vervain	Verbenaceae
Verbena		Vervain	Verbenaceae
Cissus	incisa	Cow Itch	Vitaceae
Vitis	mustangensis	Mustang Grape	Vitaceae

A Nice Find

We appear to be living within what Texas climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon calls the state's third-worst drought since 1895. Somebody the other day in the feed store told me we were in "the middle of the worst Texas drought ever." One wonders about the use of the word "middle" when the remainder of the script has yet to be written. Whatever we call it, The Creek is about gone, the submersible pump lying in warm pond-mud is half an inch away from being exposed, and seven blackberry plants are dead with others on the way. We continue to water those that remain along with the fruit trees. Something will have to break soon.

Last night I had a dream: I was walking up the two-track road leading into the property to the Hog Shop we are remodeling now. I saw a small mountain lion walking in front of the building and wondered how small it looked. So I slowly approached it. But as I was almost upon the animal, I saw the real cougar: the small cat's mother was sleeping in the shadows next to my camera. So I continued to sneak up on it, reasoning that if a blog on a creek exists, and if a camera is to be had, then a photo of a mother mountain lion needs capturing. But as I reached out for the camera, the lion turned its head and . . . . I sat up in bed.

A few days ago, Harlin sent the following letters:

The point of a puzzle is the challenge. Thus, one does not go asking others for help since that pretty well obviates the reason for doing the puzzle in the first place. However, if it seems that the puzzle is partly solved and some new plant has been discovered for the first time in, oh, let’s say Burnet County, then one seeks expert help to verify the wonderful discovery. So, when I looked at the flowers in the first photo below, I saw two carpels joined by their stigmas and I supposed that the family would be Apocynaceae. However, there was nothing in that family that looked or sounded like the plant in the second and third photos below, so I sent pictures to one of the people at the UT Herbarium whose photos I often look at to help get on the right path. He wrote back that I had the wrong family. The plant was Mitreola petiolata in the Loganiaceae family.

Well, surely the key makers in the books had steered me the wrong way.

From this beginning I was led to the following new knowledge (supposing I have it right now). As you know, the “pistil” is the organ where the seeds are formed (ovary, style, stigma). A carpel is a kind of fundamental unit of the pistil. As I understand the story, long ago seeds were formed on the edge of a leaf and over millions of years these leaves evolved into carpels. A pistil may have one or several of them. A way to figure out how many is to count the stigma lobes, the styles, and the locules (the chambers where the seeds are), and the highest number is the number of carpels.

There is one more fact to get to the punch line. Dry fruit that splits open my have one carpel or more than one carpel. If there is just one (and the dry fruit splits down one side only), then it is a “follicle”. If there are more than one carpel in the dry fruit, then it is a “capsule”. Texas varieties of Apocynaceae have separate “follicles” united by their stigmas and Loganiaceae have separate “capsules” united by their stigmas.

Gaaa! Of course! What a fool I’ve been all this time. Follicles and capsules,…, I should have known.

Lax hornpod is then one of the professionally identified plants in the list of Hamilton Creek plants. After a few photos, the story continues with a second professionally identified plant. HH

Lax Hornpod (Mitreola petiolata)

Genus: Mitreola (my-tree-OH-la) comes from "mitra," meaning cap, headdress, or turban. Another name for this plant is Mitrewort.
Species: petiolata (pet-ee-oh-LAH-tuh)

And if we consult plant lists from China, we might find this same species: 度量草 du liang cao.

Here's a short little description of our plant in the event you might think one grows back of your kitchen door:

Annuals 10--50 cm tall, glabrous except for sparsely appressed pubescence or puberulence on young leaves, inside of corolla lobes at base, and fruit. Stems erect, simple or branched at base; branches 4-angled to narrowly 4-winged; internodes 1.5--6 cm. Interpetiolar stipules ± triangular, 1--2 mm. Petiole 3--10 mm; leaf blade ovate to narrowly ovate, 4--7 X 1.5--3 cm, membranous to papery, base cuneate, apex acuminate to obtuse, lateral veins 5--7 pairs and inconspicuous. Inflorescences terminal or axillary, 6--10 cm, many-flowered; peduncle to 7 cm; bracts and bracteoles narrowly elliptic, 1--2 mm. Pedicel very short. Calyx lobes ovate to triangular, ca. 1 X 0.5 mm. Corolla white, ca. 3 mm, tube ± as long as lobes; lobes narrowly ovate, apex obtuse. Stamens inserted at or near base of corolla tube; anthers broadly ovate, apex at ± middle of corolla tube. Ovary ovoid to subglobose, smooth. Style shorter than ovary, free to base; stigma capitate. Capsules ca. 3 mm in diam., pincerlike due to incurved apical horns. Seeds ellipsoid, ca. 0.5 mm, concave on one side, smooth. Fl. May-Oct.

Sunny areas on limestone, open woodlands, forest edges, edge of trails, grassy plains, valleys.

http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=210001297

Harlin continued:

After pointing out my error with the hornpod, the expert asked if there is any Chaptalia growing out there? It turned out that Chaptalia is on the Hamilton Creek plant list, and so I looked and found the dried remains, and then sent him a scan. It happens that the expert, Bob Harms, has just finished a study of this genus and could tell me that the name of the one at The Creek is Chaptalia texana. It also happens that there is not a record of this plant in Burnet County in the UT Herbarium. I offered ours, figuring they would do a better job of keeping it safe than I. He said it would help them, and so I figure it will end up as an official record of Texas plants.

You might want to tread carefully on the west side of the Hackberry tree that shades your car in the afternoon. The one by the drive close to the former garage. That’s where I found it.

We can mark this identification down as one that is as good as it gets. The person who just wrote the journal article on the thing being the one who verifies its name.

So, in a roundabout way I did find a plant that was new to Burnet County. HH

Silverpuff (Chaptalia texana)

[Harlin sent the following letter a few days later.]

It’s a bummer to ask and not receive. For every new kind of natural thing, I’m always asking what is it? I seem to get enough answers to keep going, but I have to admit many aren’t very satisfying.

For my nature questions, good answers come in the form of consistency. First, the search through the keys and the eventual words and pictures aren’t supposed to show any discrepancies. At that point, I feel that I may have the answer. However, that is not very satisfying, and it is much better if there is some feature that both matches and seems out of the ordinary. Weirdness increases the odds of being in the right place.

That brings me to Fuirena simplex. When I look at the photograph of the inflorescence (2264-sedge.jpg) or the scan (Sedge-300-231.jpg), I see a garden variety sedge and nothing that jumps out at me as being distinctive. But if I look at the top left drawing from the Flora of NA “Fuirena-simplex.jpg” and the photograph “2339-Fuirena-simplex-perianth-scale.jpg”, I see something that seems downright strange. There is this translucent thing on a stalk with a crystalline rasp at the end. Since there are drawings of a number of Fuirena species in the book, along with detailed drawings of hundreds of other sedges, I end up thinking I must have gotten pretty close on this one as far as the name goes.

Another positive aspect of weirdness is that weirdness is the way of memorable experience. Even if I did err as I went through the guidebook, I ended up seeing sights never before seen. As they say , it’s the journey and not the destination. HH

Western umbrella-sedge (Fuirena simplex)

Fuirena simplex

And here's part of how the Flora of North America goes about describing Fuirena simplex:

Herbs perennial, 2–10 m; rhizomes scaly, without cormlike buds, stout and short to long and slender. Culms tufted or in line on rhizome. Leaves: principal blades 5–20 cm, margins hispid-ciliate. Spikelets ovoid, lance-ovoid, or lance-cylindric, 8–15(–20) mm; fertile scales 2.5–3.5 mm. Flowers: anthers 3, 0.9–1.2 mm. 2n = 30.

Fruiting summer–fall. Sands, clays, peats, gravels, often over limestones, in interdunal swales, seeps, low open woods, savannas and prairies, often along stream terraces; 0–500 m; Ark., Kans., N.Mex., Okla., Tex; Mexico; West Indies (Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico); Central America; n South America.
http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=242357841

Now for some lines by the poet Nikolaus Lenau, from his work entitled "Sedge Songs."

I

In the west the sun departing
Leaves the weary day asleep,
And the willows trail their streamers
In these waters still and deep.

Flow, my bitter tears, flow ever;
All I love I leave behind;
Sadly whisper here the willows,
And the reed shakes in the wind.

Into my deep lonely sufferings
Tenderly you shine afar,
As athwart these reeds and rushes
Trembles soft yon evening star.

II

Oft at eve I love to saunter
Where the sedge sighs drearily,
By entangled hidden footpaths,
Love! and then I think of thee.

When the woods gloom dark and darker,
Sedges in the night-wind moan,
Then a faint mysterious wailing
Bids me weep, still weep alone.

And methinks I hear it wafted,
Thy sweet voice, remote yet clear,
Till thy song, descending slowly,
Sinks into the silent mere.

III

Angry sunset sky,
Thunder-clouds o'erhead,
Every breeze doth fly,
Sultry air and dead.

From the lurid storm
Pallid lightnings break,
Their swift transient form
Flashes through the lake.

And I seem to see
Thyself, wondrous nigh--
Streaming wild and free
Thy long tresses fly.

And some lines below from "Sedge," by the German poeet Marcel Beyer:

Schilf steht auch über Land, steht
in der Schwebe, still. Schilf steht,
ich höre nichts, im Licht, du siehst
noch Schachtelhalm und Flechtwerk
linker Hand, und Tracht. Die Fragen
klingen nach im Schilf, die Wolken
oben, das Gesicht, das Atmen wird
noch in die Rede eingewoben. Doch
wie es um das Schilf steht, wie um
das Gewebe, ungewiß. Der Staub,
der Qualm, das Schilf neigt sich,
du sprichst, reicht weit bis in den
brennenden April, ich sehe nichts.

Sedge stands over the land, stands
suspended, quite still. Sedge stands,
I hear nothing, in the light, you still
see pewter-grass and wattle
to your left, and weight. Questions
echo in the sedge, the clouds above,
the face, even the breathing is
implicated in the talk. But the state
of the sedge, as of the implication,
remains uncertain. The dust,
the smell, the sedge, bows down,
you speak, it stretches far into
burning April, I see nothing.

"He Hears The Cry of the Sedge," by W.B. Yeats:

I Wander by the edge
Of this desolate lake
Where wind cries in the sedge
Until the axle break
That keeps the stars in their round
And hands hurl in the deep
The banners of East and West
And the girdle of light is unbound,
Your breast will not lie by the breast
Of your beloved in sleep.

Droughts We Live Within

So we do.
The Creek has flowed for longer than I would have thought.
The stones know nothing about droughts, though.
They've risen from out of their subterranean birthing ground tens and hundreds of tens of thousands of years in the passing. Sandstones, mudstones, shale, and limestone. Press of the weight of ocean and land, shaping and solidifying the remains of other stones themselves worn down and passing from up stream of ancient rivers. Or ocean lives passing and slowly falling to pile one on another until their bones dissolve and fuse into the stuff of our broken hillside. One way or the other, they've come to rest here, and now they fill my dreams of a new creation piling one on the other until a stone wall rises from Creek waters or arches over the stream, but then winds itself like an undulating serpent dipping down beneath the surface and then rising ten feet away to continue its curving path uphill, arching and dipping along the way.
That's the art project I imagine, anyway.
Today we played with some of the rocks in the Stonefield, still tossing the ideas of a massive project.

Someday, this pathetic little experiment of an Arch will rise in greater magnitude and uniformity of stone to become part of that rock-serpent that will make its way from Creek, around trees, behind an orchard, up to the house, through the house, and back out the other side to climb up Whitman's Rough where it disappears among cool boulders, fern, cacti, and mountain lion scat.

This morning, Richard and Harlin met me under the Oak for coffee, croissants, and talk of plants and philosophy. Part of the discussion turned to the difference between Nature perceived as a long list of "characters" or nature as a narrative in which the characters display all the richness of relationships in a story. These details about leaf vein, glume, awn, and carpel contribute to the same story in which we encounter those sedimentary stones or those desiccated pieces of hillside scat.

So here are some chapters from the story. (When time avails, we hope to include many more of the letters from Harlin.)

The plant in the two photos below looks and describes like Abutilon incanum in my field guide. I don’t think the sample I have works in the Correll key; I get to something growing in the Rio Grande valley (but there is an A. incanum listed). The Shinners’ key leads to a plant that is not in the Correll book at all – A. fruticosum. I found a reference to an article written in 1983 by someone named Joan Fryxell, and hiked over to the [University of Texas] Life Science library today. What she reports is that the plant that grows in the hill country is the same as a plant that grows in tropical and northern Africa, Arabia, southern Persia, Pakistan and northwestern India. That plant was described in 1832 and its name (A. fruticosum) has precedence. Notice in the drawing that there are more than 5 carpels in the fruit which is apparently a big deal.

So, yet another example of how nature is something that is fully appreciated only in the mind. I have seen Indian Mallow for decades including in my back yard and yet now I will see more than before. I will see a distribution map in my mind and that map will show this plant growing in all those places on that unlikely list (Texas, Africa, Persia). Mysterious geography is a source of wonder at all the accidents and luck that leads up to the present.

Speaking of which, the cousin to this plant is A. incanum which apparently doesn’t actually grow in Texas at all. It grows in “dry hills and arroyos from Arizona and Baja California to Sinaloa, and (pink phase only) in Hawaii”. The author of the article notes that the seeds float and the currents are the likely source of this particular Indian Mallow finding its way to Hawaii. HH

Indian Mallow (Abutilon fruticosum)

I think that the people who make a living looking at dry flattened plants have a way to moisten them before working on them. No doubt that cuts down on the number of tiny hard seeds that are ejected into earth orbit when a hard metal object is pressed against them. It might also allow delicate parts to be bent. In the case of this plant, the dried version just about tuned to dust when I tried to see what it was made of. Thus some of the key following was me trying to remember what it looked like before disintegrating. Still, there were a number of extant bits of evidence which led me to the name Evolvulus sericeus.

As you can see from the photograph below, I just wasn’t having much luck. Even the photograph was trying to self-destruct. But you just might be able to make out that one of the styles makes a “Y” shape. There are two of these “Y’s” and therefore there are 4 endpoints.

This is another one which we can look for next spring and double check the evidence. HH

Silver Dwarf Morning-Glory (Evolvulus sericeus)

There were two large clumps of grass growing close to your bird blind [Harlin's term for the privy we once constructed on the quick and have used since with frequency] on July 2^nd which had inflorescences. I feel that large objects do require a bit more attention than small objects since one is more likely to trip over the large ones and since it is more likely that they will be the center of a conversation. So, I tried to find out a little something about both of them. As I was taking a closer look at this one I got that déjà vu feeling, and it seems this grass is in the category of “same but different” with respect to an earlier grass I found at the creek. Below are comparison photos: Elymus canadensis and Elymus-virginicus. Both have large 3-dimensional glumes and the pairs of spikelets alternate in zigzag fashion up the axis of the inflorescence. However the glumes of the Virginia wildrye curve out more and there are more ribs on them.

In the fourth picture below are two spikelets from the inside and if you were to pull the spikelets apart you would see 3 or 4 florets in zigzag fashion along the rachis of the spikelet. So, in the spikelet there is the usual zigzag axis with a floret at each angle, and in the inflorescence there is a zigzag axis with two spikelets at each angle. Of course, in the spikelet the zigzag is flattened out pretty much.

The second picture below shows the flower head on July 2^nd, but the examples on the internet show inflorescences which look longer and most seem to emerge more from the top sheath. Here is an example: http://www.kswildflower.org/largePhotos.php?imageID=345&aCategory=g&lastModified=2007-08-25. The grass I found at the creek seems a bit scrawny, but what with the drought that would be expected.

Canada Wildrye (Elymus canadensis)

Virginia Wildrye (Elymus virginicus)

This is the other large grass close to the bird blind. The first picture below shows the edge of the bird blind in the background and gives a somewhat recognizable view of this grass. Here is web photo showing about the same view of a Panicum coloratum --http://plants.usda.gov/java/largeImage?imageID=paco2_001_ahp.jpg. A view like this doesn’t help much in the way of identification, though.

However, up close we see that which is well-represented at the creek: the familiar look of the grass tribe Paniceae (third photo below). The floret on the right shows the upper floret’s hard lemma curved around the flat lid-like palea. On the left is the whole spikelet with the (lower) staminate floret on the left and the (upper) floret with the seed on the right between the short 1^st glume and the longer 2^nd glume. This link has a photograph of some upper florets: http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/seedid/single.asp?strId=285.

The second photo shows spikelets on their pedicels.

In my “virtual” nature watching, I guess you could say the pattern is (1) find It, (2) name it, and then (3) find a story about it. In this case I found a journal article about grasses in the Serengeti Plains of Africa from where this grass was imported. The story is that a grass being munched on causes it to incorporate more rock-hard silica in its leaves which discourages herbivores from eating it, which in turn does the natural selection number on animal stomachs, etc. Here is an excerpt that invokes the image of your grass in Marble Falls out there with the lions and giraffes in Africa.

From “SILICA AS A DEFENSE AGAINST HERBIVORY AND A GROWTH PROMOTOR IN AFRICAN GRASSES” by McNaughton, et. al.

“A laboratory experiment was done to determine patterns of silica accumulation under defined conditions. It was 2⁴ factorial of the following design: (1) Origin: plants were from the heavily grazed short grasslands of the southeastern Serengeti Plains and a comparatively lightly grazed medium-height grasslands near Seronera, in the center of the Serengeti region. (2) Species: Eustachys paspaloides (Vahl) Lanza Mattei from both locations, Andropogon greenwayi Napper from the short grasslands, and Panicum coloratum L. from the mid-grass site.”

So, next time you’re taking your time in the bird blind you can look out on a scene from the Serengeti Plains of Africa. HH

Kleingrass (Panicum coloratum)