Nectaries

Nectaries

Nectaries are small glands that secrete nectar in plants. However to complicate things there is an additional place where these glands are located. When the glands are located outside the flower they are referred to extra-floral nectaries. Some scientists think the extra-floral nectaries provide an enticement to insects to help protect against other insects. The…

Old Friends

Old Friends

Well, it was dang hot so of course we planned our afternoon mostly in the car. And we were going to visit old friends of Shirley’s. Certainly it is always great to visit Shirley’s old plant friends. And I like to think of them as my old friends now as well. 🙂 Every 17 Years,…

Survey at the grasslands

Survey at the grasslands

So I actually had a purpose that morning. I was conducting a small survey in area where I had not searched before for the Narrow-leaf Morning-glory (Ipomoea shumardiana). However no new patches was found. It was 11 o’clock and we had made the circle for the survey. So now we were done at the grasslands….

Hover only

Hover only

In case you missed it, today (Wednesday, June 21, 2023) was the summer solstice at 9:57 am CDT (in Fort Worth, Texas). And perhaps we need to invest in a row boat…we got .04″ of rain. If you can still call that rain. LOL Now on with the walk from Monday morning! As you probably…

Kinda Getting Hot

Kinda Getting Hot

So do you agree that the hot weather is here? Yesterday the heat index at our house was 120 degrees. Yikes! Furthermore Jeanne agreed with me that it would best to get our exploring by foot early. So we opted for both walking and a driving tour. So there were many special critters and plants…

Bees and Hold Your Breath

Bees and Hold Your Breath

Going out to explore nature leads to all kinds of new observations. And of course I learn new things about our fellow creatures! However my plan for the day was to observe a colony of Chimney Bees (Emphorini) that I had located last year. I took my time getting close to the colony. I was…

Caution advised

Caution advised

Good advice is to always try to be aware of your surroundings. Most critters will avoid you if they can of course. Indeed lucky for me I have mostly been lucky except for a bee or wasp sting a few times. So I was able to capture a movie of it with its loud buzz….

Fibonacci spirals

Fibonacci spirals

This morning I read this article, 400-Million-Year-Old Fossil Upends Our Understanding of Fibonacci Spirals in Nature. With the article fresh on my mind, of course I had to go look outside. The Clear Lake Chapter Native Plant Society of Texas recently had a presentation (June 12th) on “The Fibonacci Sequence in Nature and Native Plants”….

What’s new today…

What’s new today…

A few of my favorite things at home today. Definitely always fun to watch the locomotion of a caterpillar’s walk! Here the Hackberry Emperor most likely was hunting for a place to pupate. It was on an Post Oak. Hope y’all saw some good nature today as well! 🙂 Bright white lights are a buzzkill…

Changing “clothes”

Changing “clothes”

Another attempt to find out the magic of the larva attaching itself before transforming into a chrysalis. The caterpillar did a lot of crawling around. Changing “clothes”! Evolution Keeps Making Crabs, And Nobody Knows Why Keep looking! The more you know, the more you see and the more you see, the more you know.