Meet Senna

Sept. 8, 2023

This is little Senna. She is a Lindheimer's senna (Senna lindheimeriana). I germinated her from seed a couple of months ago. She was the only one to sprout from among three different species of legumes that I stuck in pots. She and I are very close. Whenever I go to my mother's house, Senna goes with me. In the car, I set her snugly between my legs. I watch over her very closely. Just ask James or my mother.

Sept. 26, 2023

 

Senna is descended from a Lindheimer's senna that grew on a ranch near the Devil's Backbone in Hays County. I also have another Lindheimer's senna that lives in a pot on our front porch. I gathered the senna seeds when my daughter was renting the upstairs apartment of a barndominium on the ranch back in 2018. 

 

For the last couple of years, my front-porch senna has been producing its own seed. And it will again this year. I hope to plant this older senna in our gardens next spring. But I'm a little hesitant because we bought and planted a Lindheimer's senna in April 2013, and it later died. I should feel more positive because a herd of deer live in our neighborhood, and they don't bother my senna. As you can see from the photos. Aren't the blooms just beautiful? And they smell good, too!

 

 

A sad mystery

Look what I happened to find on our back patio a few days ago....a deceased Texas blind snake (Leptotyphlops dulcis). The mystery to me is that it apparently tied itself in knots around a piece of grass. Then died? I have no clue. But I found a little box for its body and placed it my cigar box of nature treasures. Poor thing.

 

Below is a blind snake (found on The Reptile Database) that's coiled similarly to mine.....