Window on a Texas Wildscape

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Six-word memoir

Wishes. Everyone. Loved. Nature. Like me.

Counting those birds!

Lesser goldfinches at our thistle feeder

Day two of the Great Backyard Bird Count...I'm getting addicted!

Record ID: S9876760
Email: Blanco County, TX
Observation Date : FEB 18, 2012
Start Time: 1:00 PM

Number of Species: 10
All Reported: yes
Checklist:
    White-winged Dove - 2
    Carolina Chickadee - 2
    Black-crested Titmouse - 1
    American Robin - 3
    Northern Mockingbird - 1
    Chipping Sparrow - 21
    Northern Cardinal - 2
    House Finch - 2
    Lesser Goldfinch - 8
    American Goldfinch - 11

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Don't forget about the GBBC!

Tomorrow's the first day of the four-day count! Here's a video to get you started:

Spiderworts

Spiderwort (Tradescantia sp.)

Isn't the spiderwort above just beautiful? We bought it nearly two years ago at the Natural Gardener in Austin in celebration of our fourth anniversary. It was labeled spiderwort 'Purple'. The first year in the back yard of our Wildscape, it just piddled and barely bloomed. I really thought the drought would finished it off. Nope! This spring, it's just grown and grown and GROWN. Then I happened to notice a spiderwort child coming up in a pathway a good 3 or 4 feet away from the parent plant. So I dug it up and planted it a foot and a half away from mom.

Spiderwort child

Another one!

Yesterday, when I was outside in the front yard, pruning salvias, I just happened to notice what looked to be a spiderwort child hiding behind the Texas betony and salvia. How'd a seed get to the front yard, eh? Awhile ago, I dug it up (they've got tough taproot) and transplanted it to another bed in our back yard.

I looked around some for information on spiderworts, which are considered to be herbs. Ronald H. Livingston wrote a lengthy and interesting piece, "Wildflowers: Spiderworts." Delena Tull and George Oxford Miller in Wildflowers, Trees and Shrubs of Texas state that the leaves and stems (but not the roots) are edible, either fresh or cooked. In Wildflowers of Texas, Geyata Ajilvsgi writes that the genus name Tradescantia honors "John Tradescant, who served as gardener to Charles I of England. Tradescant started plants from seed sent to him from America, and, today spiderwort is still commonly cultivated in English gardens."

Spiderworts are perennials and members of the dayflower family (Commelinaceae). So they're related to dayflowers. "If they are picked, the petals quickly become pulpy or liquid," state Campbell and Lynn Loughmiller in Texas Wildflowers: A Field Guide. "Hence, they are sometimes known as Job's tears or widow's tears."

New location

I'll be curious to watch and see how fast these plants reproduce and spread. I may be offering free spiderworts plants here in a few years. Stay tuned!

UPDATE FEBRUARY 22, 2012

More photos of my spiderwort

Mother with children

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Mystery of well-armed seed SOLVED


Have you even seen one of THESE? James is holding its curved tip. When I was outside, working today, I felt something sticking my arm through my long-sleeved top. Yikes! This is what I found! UPDATE FEBRUARY 24, 2012 Master Naturalist Edie Z. identified this seed for me! "I knew I had seen this seed, couldn't remember why it stuck in my mind," she emailed me today. "So after doing some research on the internet and then checking my Texas Wildflower book, I am pretty sure the seed with the little corkscrew on the end comes from the plant called stork's bill (Erodium texanum). The geranium family, of which this is one, has several members that have this type of seed. The end coils when the air is dry and then uncoils when the humidity rises. Neat way to disperse. Problems occur when this seed gets in the fur or wool of an animal and then works its way under the skin." UPDATE TO THE UPDATE MARCH 2, 2012 This is Erodium cicutarium, not taxanum. See blog post March 2, 2012.

Let the blooming begin!

The elbow bush (Forestiera pubescens) is blooming...

We have one elbow bush in our Wildscape, and it was already growing madly before I arrived on the scene. Elbow bush is a deciduous shrub that blooms January through March. Thanks to a recent post by Plano Prairie Garden, I learned that this species is either male or female. This one appears to be a boy because the flowers have stamens, not stigmas. Cool!