A Good Start

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Another First Wednesday had rolled around. There were eight of us. Most had reported sprinkles and a temperature drop on the way to the location. However, the storm had passed. Furthermore no one got any substantial rain. 🙁

Quickly we started to find stuff of interest!
Under a rock a tiny pupa!
The Engelmann’s Bladderpod (Physaria engelmannii) flowers were not yet fully opened.
A fly (Diptera) rested on the Indian-turnip (Pediomelum cuspidatum).

Several tiny grasshopper nymphs navigated up a Live Oak covered in lichens.
The view on Ball Knob is certainly worth the walk up!
Blue Flax (Linum pratense)!
The seeds of the Cymopterus (Vesper macrorhizus) are winged!
Dodder (Cuscata) was twinging itself on to the Storks-bill or Heronbill (Erodium texanum). They will suck the nutrients from their host plant. Some are host specific and others are generalists. A report published in Science in 2006 demonstrated that dodder use airborne volatile organic compound cues to locate their host plants.

We were off to a good start on the outing!

And hopefully we also getting a good start on the rain in the next few days. Today’s total at our house was 0.15″. Fingers crossed!

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3 Comments

  3. Great fun! I’m sad I couldn’t come this time. Ball Knob is one of my favorite destinations out there.

    Reply

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