This and that

We planted two calylophus (Calylophus berlandieri) in April 2009. They've bloomed every year since just beautifully. But now they're dying back, which saddens me. I thought I'd take a picture because I can't remember if the plants did this last year. I'm hoping! Because I'd hate to see them go.

What I once considered a pesky weed is NOT. The common sunflower (Helianthus annuus) has very pretty flowers and is a host plant for the silvery checkerspot (Chlosyne nycteis). See my July 7, 2010, post.

However, common sunflowers are GIANTS in the garden!

James found a little frog yesterday. We can't decide if it's a Rio Grande leopard (Rana berlandieri) or a southern leopard (Rana sphenocephala). 

A new betony

For a few weeks, we'd been noticing this little "weed" growing happily in patches across the back yard. But I mostly ignored it until curiosity got the best of me. I took some photos and got some closer looks...hmmm, the flowers looked familiar...like henbit. More so, Texas betony! So I pulled out a field guide...nada. On to the Wildflower Center's database...bingo! I think we've got mousesear, also commonly called shade betony (Stachys crenata).

Tough greenthread

In April, an infestation of beetles (Phaedon desotonis) marched across the Meadow and wiped out our greenthread plants. Miraculously, they survived, regrew and have been blooming in profusion this past week or so. As I was shooting some blooms, I noticed how different each and every flower is. Take a look and see.....

"Look down, lady!"

Frogfruit

Yesterday morning, I had some free time before our monthly Texas Master Naturalist meeting in Kingsland. So I grabbed my camera and headed outside to shoot wildflowers. Frogfruit, lantana in the front yard. American beautyberry in the back.

Lantana

I was leaning over the beautyberry, trying to focus on a bee, when I heard a chickadee fussing behind me. I turned around and found the little bird, perched mid way down our chain-link fence. A titmouse showed up, too. They both seemed bothered about something. I glanced around but didn't see anything. So I went back to shooting the beautyberry.

However, the chickadee still fussed at me. A house finch landed on an oak branch over me. Maybe a baby bird's on the ground? I glanced around some more. Nothing.

Finally, I walked a ways down a flower bed that parallels the fence, still looking around. Nothing. As I stood there, perplexed, a juvenile robin landed atop the fence with its back to me. For several seconds, it looked straight down. And I mean STRAIGHT DOWN at the ground! 


FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, LOOK DOWN, LADY! LOOK DOWN!

"OK, OK!" I laughed. "I'll look some more!"

I walked over to our gate and leaned against the fence, looking hard all over the ground on both sides of the our fence. 

OH! NOW I GET IT!

American beautyberry

There on the ground, very still and well camouflaged, lay an eastern hognose snake! I snapped a quick photo and then hollered for James.

You can see why I kept missing this snake on the ground...

Don't get freaked out, but we were excited to find this guy! He (or she?) may be one and the same that a friend in our neighborhood gave us several years ago. This is the first time we've seen a hognose since releasing that one in September 2009.

He's flattening out....

 Eastern hognose snakes (Heterodon platirhinos) act deadly but are nonvenomous. Their defensive behavior includes: puffing up and hissing like an adder, lunging like an adder, convulsing and playing dead, and even pooping. 

I'm a deadly cobra...get away from me. Ha, we knew better!

After a brief visit, our hognose friend slithered into a nearby brush pile. I'm sure the birds aren't happy with me, but diversity's a good thing to have in a Texas Wildscape.

 

 

Blooms blooms blooms

'Autumn Colors' Rudbeckia hirta

Trumpet vine flowering like crazy.

James is trimming it back because it's getting BIG.

 

Crepe myrtle so lovely. Previous owners planted it.

Santolina, four-nerve daisy, mealy sage.

Hard to tell in this photo how much the salvias are blooming...

Lots of queens and monarchs arriving to nectar on the blue mistflower.

Texas betony, mealy sage and gray shrub sage.

Fall aster is already blooming!

And our rock rocks are beautiful, too.

Snakes, wildflowers and insects

Texas blind snake (Leptotyphlops dulcis)

Last Saturday, James put in a new flower bed in the back yard while I potted up volunteers to give away. When he was moving rocks, he came upon several Texas blind snakes, hiding within a rock's holes. I snapped some photos, then we released them beneath the turk's cap, where they quickly slithered into the mulch and leaf debris. Don't worry–they're completely harmless!  

(Thanks to reader Blake Hendon for correcting the ID of this snake!!!)

Bee (Anthophora sp.) resting on an 'Indigo Spires' leaf.

Queens and monarchs are enjoying the blue mistflowers.

Wildflowers in our meadow:

Silver-leaf nightshade with a colorful beetle

Silver dwarf morning-glory (Evolvulus sericeus)

Texas bindweed

Fineleaf four-nerved daisy (Tetraneuris linearifolia var. linearifolia)

Mother's Day bouquet

Just had to share....James picked this pretty arrangement of flowers from our Wildscape in honor of Mother's Day last Sunday. My mother, Marcelle, and my daughter, Lindsey, shared the day with us. (He also cooked a roast for us!)

The Texas dandelion

I've been wanting to shoot some photos of the Texas dandelions that are blooming in abundance right now.