Evening in our Wildscape

Kids Day Out!

Thank you, Sue, for taking photos of me and the spider exhibit I put together for Kids Day Out in Burnet. At this year's annual event, our Highland Lakes chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists gave away 200 Mexican buckeye saplings!

A new-to-me bloom and an odd seedpod

Dwarf Barbados cherry (Malpighia glabra)

Alamo vine (Merremia dissecta)

We purchased both of these natives at last April's native plant sale at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin. Their fall sale is coming up October 4-6!  

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 23, 2013 

I salvaged what was left of seeds in the Alamo vine pod. They're HUGE.

Spider lady #3

This spider lady (Argiope aurantia) lives on the other side of our Wildscape between a barbed wire fence and an esperanza. She is gonna give birth SOON! Yesterday, she ducked under some leaves to escape the heat. They evidentally make their egg sacs during the night. I thought she might embark on her project last night, but I checked on her after dark, and she was in the middle of her web.  Not yet!

Snapdragon vine goo

On my way to check our garden spider this evening, I happened to notice a strange phenomenon on our climbing snapdragon vine (Maurandella antirrhiniflora)–a sort of black goo on some of the flower heads. I touched one, and the stuff was thick. Weird. I didn't notice that junk last summer on the vine. I'll have to ask around and see if I can find out what's going on.

 

The goo isn't on all the flower heads. Some are blooming normally and producing seeds (photo below). 

Betony-leaf mistflower blooming

Queen on our betonyleaf mistflower (Conoclinium betonicifolium)

Our very own cenzio

A month or so ago, I spotted a bedraggled dwarf cenizo at a Home Depot. "Can I have it?" I asked James. I'd been wanting a cenizo, and a dwarf variety would be great. So yes, the little guy came home with us. Happily, it even bloomed after our half inch of rain last week.