The grasslands called to me again on July 20th! I was hoping for the best weatherwise (meaning not too hot). My grasslands buddies hoped so too. And as always, many interesting sights were seen!
Up at sunrise, the spider web was easy to spot!
The Snoutbean (Rhynchosia latifolia) was in full bloom. You will find them in sandy loam.
The rain the day before made the Teloschistes lichen pop with color!
Winged Sumac’s (Rhus copallinum) berries are a wonderful shade of pink now.
These look good enough to eat, but don’t. These are oak galls!
You might mistaken the galls on this young oak for a berry tree? Nah. The dew and rain water certainly left us as wet as the plants we were walking through. This was not a bad thing. Certainly it was keeping us cooled.
A strange set of leaves on this Acacia plant. Not sure what was going on with it.
We came across this yucca right before we turned to head for the understory. It was definitely not an Arkansas yucca which has strings on its leaves. I have a candidate in mind because of the soil type we were in which was sandy loam. I think it might be Yucca necopina. This means a trip back to this location next year.
We enter the understory! What is ahead? It looks like orange spray paint, oh no! Wait, it turned out to be the early morning light casting this intense orange in a few spots. Pretty cool!
Certainly we needed a local guide or so thought Davis the dog! That is what I decided to call him as the owner’s name was Davis as shown on his collar. We had heard him barking across the way when we had arrived to the grasslands.
Davis was friendly and curious! He stayed with us a while before we got too boring for him or maybe food called?
Stay tuned for more on the July 20th outing!
Keep looking!
6 Comments
Pretty galls. Mine are different. Kinda speckled. Nice you had company for awhile. Looks like it was a perfect day.
Pretty galls. Mine are different. Kinda speckled. Nice you had company for awhile. Looks like it was a perfect day.
You probably have a different insect that made yours. The galls come in such a variety and are so pretty!
What a pleasant ramble! I’ll bet you did find some Yucca necopina. The Grasslands are a treasure!
You got that right….a treasure!
Snoutbean is fun looking! How excellent to have Davis guide you around. He looks very knowledgeable.
Davis was very knowledge! He showed us a path up out of the ravine! I would recommend him.