Welcome to my nature blog! I love sharing my photos of North Texas! I will keep looking out and hope you do too.
Comments welcome. Thank you, Mary
Our high today was midnight at 32.5 degrees. We never got above 29 during daylight hours. Really glad we went to the grasslands yesterday. With the mist this morning, we had a bit of ice on our gate. Hopefully that is all we get. Continuing on with yesterday’s grasslands photos. C Cool almost silvery moss….
The last part of Tuesday’s grassland hike… Several of these plants were by the creek’s edge. I think it is probably Cursed Crowfoot or Celery-leaved Buttercup (Ranunculus sceleratus) by the shape of its leaves. Wow, the shelf fungus on this downed tree was amazingly crowded. Wasp nest slime mold (Metatrichia vesparia) is tiny, but worth the…
Before I start in with the grasslands, I saw these “zipper” clouds today around noon (that is a name I just made up). The sky was clear by 3 pm. Continuing on with Tuesday’s grasslands outing… Does this remind you of the Plague doctor? We were in the safety zone, right. A heart shape or…
Arkansas Yucca seedpod (Yucca arkansana). Vine twists up the Hackberry tree. Crustose fungus doing its job! Close up. Bedstraw (Galium aparine) has started to pop out. It is an annual. I have read that it was used in bedding. The plant will cling to you with its hairs. I have found several species of caterpillars…
I watched a zoom presentation by Suzanne and I was reminded our LBJ grasslands are more of savanna than a prairie. The difference I found on the internet was “between the two is based on the percent of land covered by trees. Prairies have virtually no tree cover (less than 10 percent), and savannas have…
Continuing on with yesterday’s trip to the grasslands down in the creek. This Eastern Red Cedar’s trunk was really red where it was peeling. A nice Purple Cliff-brake fern. This horsetail reminded me of the Empire State building. Not as old horsetail top. This horsetail was pretty fresh. There was places that had quite a…
With the rest of week with rain in the forecast, I just had to get out. And today was just beautiful out. So off to the grasslands we went! The leaves of Pin Clover (Erodium cicutarium) were this colorful red. And it was blooming. It is a non-native plant. According to Wikipedia “it is native…
Here are the rest of the photos from yesterday’s grasslands adventure. Not sure why this orange tack was there but sure was bright. Maybe a surveyor or a researcher or maybe someone just had time on their hands?? The tentacles look like a snake skeleton. Blackland Thistle (Cirsium engelmannii). Burl on Bur Oak. Crust fungus….