Category: Nature
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Texas Desert Fern Photos
I recently reviewed Roy Morey’s book, Little Big Bend. Mr. Morey has sent me some of his beautiful Texas fern photographs and given me permission to use them to create a new online guide to Trans-Pecos Xerophytic Ferns. This page is very similar to my online guide to Arizona Xerophytic Ferns. Although incomplete, this expansion will…
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Winter Solstice: Ferns and Mistletoe
We had frost last night but this afternoon was warm and sunny, so we hiked in a rocky, sand-filled wash in the Empire Mountains. One shady north-facing outcrop, sheltered by now-leafless young soapberries and canyon hackberry trees, was covered in lichens and the gray-green fuzzy fronds of Cheilanthes eatonii, one of the more common desert ferns. …
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Nature Book Review #3: Little Big Bend
Third in an occasional series of natural history book reviews. Books reviewed here can be purchased through Amazon.com by following the links from my Southern Arizona Desert Botany homepage. A few weeks ago, a Texas naturalist named Roy Morey sent me a fern photo for ID confirmation. Out of the blue, I received this gift – a picture of rare…
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Datura Diversity
Three species of Datura enliven summer roadsides in the Southwest. All are low, shrubby annuals that grow only on recently disturbed ground. They have tubular white and purple flowers, prickly seedpods, and leaves that are more or less triangular in shape. Where I live, the three species are separated by preferred elevation, though there is some overlap. D.…
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Mountain Lion Tracks
Today we hiked in a sandy wash, shaded with canyon hackberries and desert shrubs among desert grassland hills not far from our house. Someone else walked here just before we did, probably at sunrise: These are mountain lion tracks – there were two cats, one slightly smaller than the other, and we followed the footprints for…
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Night Blooming Cereus Fruit
Today, while hiking a dirt road on the bajada among prickly pear, yucca, and shrubby mesquite and acacias, we spotted a red glow under a mesquite tree. It’s the fruit of a night-blooming cereus, the twiggy cactus that is practically invisible for most of the year except on the night it blooms. Here’s the fruit…
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