A cool milkweed

This tiny flower caught my eye the other day in the Meadow. I'd never seen one before! So I posted an image on Facebook and got a lot of responses. Louie Bond, my editor at Texas Parks and Wildlife magazine, just awhile ago posted the correct name: purple milkweed vine (Matelea biflora). Jason Singhurst, a plant ecologist/botanist with TPWD's Wildlife Diversity Program, figured it out. 

Isn't it just COOL? Now I just gotta figure out the other vine I photographed, too. Looks like a mini morning glory....

P.S. Jason graciously look at the photos above and said the plant may be some species of Convolvulus (bindweed). Thanks, Jason!

What's blooming

We are hurting so much for rain. The extremely dry conditions have crippled both numbers of our volunteer wildflowers in the Meadow and their heights.

 

Calylophus
(Calylophus berlandieri)

We plantedthis two years ago.

Oxeye daisy (lousy image)

My twistleaf yucca in the Meadow is gonna bloom for the first time EVER!!
 UPDATE APRIL 20, 2011–WAH!!!! A neighborhood deer ATE MY BLOOM OFF!!!!

Prairie verbena (Glandularia bipinnatifida var. bipinnatifida) in the Meadow. Along with....

Thelesperma Thelesperma filifolium

Texas yellowstar Lindheimera texana

Antelope horns (Spider milkweed)
Asclepias asperula

Cool beetle!

Same antelope horn bloom.

I pointed out this cool grass to James, then noticed the eggs...

Look who was roosting this afternoon!

New additions

 Finally, photos of our new additions from Boerne's plant sale earlier this month. Now I've gotta make gardens labels for everybody!

 Have Spade Will Travel

Blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium sp.)
(But our native two flourish in the Meadow.)

Coralbean (Erythrina herbacea)

Salvia 'Otahal'

Gray shrub sage (Salvia chamaedryoides)

 Galeana red sage (Salvia darcyi)

Flor Hermosa Nursery

Blue curls (Phacelia congesta)

Native Plant Society of Texas, Boerne chapter

 Cowpen daisy (Verbesina encelioides)

 photo coming

Maximilan sunflower (Helianthus maximiliani)

Fragrant mistflower (Chromolaena odorata)

Flame acanthus (Anisacanthus quadrifidus var. wrightii)

Nature's Herb Farm

Texas betony (Stachys coccinea)  (3)

Our mama screech owl's film debut

April 2011 in our Wildscape

My birthday addition

Black dalea Dalea frutescens

My birthday was last Tuesday (Fifty-Again), and I'm just now posting my birthday addition. We bought it from Blanco Gardens. I'd been wanting one. Here's hoping it sticks around!