Shrubs and Bushes Archives - El Mesteño Ranch and Arboretum

“Roemer’s Acacia” by C.M. Rich, Texas Master Naturalist

Camille — Sat, 18 May 2024 19:45:00 +0000

Roemer’s Acacia

Senegalia roemeriana

Exquisite blooms…

“This is a prickly, 3-7 ft., round-topped shrub or, more rarely, a small tree to 20 ft. with spreading branches. Branchlets with scattered straight or recurved prickles. Leaves divided into numerous leaflets 1/2 inch long or less. Fragrant, cream to greenish flowers 3/8 inch wide arising mostly from the axils of the leaves are followed by a narrow, leathery fruit. Fruit a brown to reddish, flat, curved pod up to 4 inches long and 1 1/8 inches broad. Young trunks are covered with smooth bark, becoming scaly with age. Twigs are armed with short, curved prickles; hence the common name, Catclaw.”
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Roemer’s acacia is a shrub that can grow from 15 to 20 feet in height and has a spread of 10 to 15 feet. It is a perennial, deciduous shrub that prefers sand, clay, gravelly, rocky, or limestone soil types. It requires full sun, and, once established, requires very little water to survive. It blooms in the Spring. Flower color varies from white to green. It provides both nectar and seeds for wildlife.
Native Plant Society of Texas

Leguminosae (Fabaceae)

“Roemer Acacia grows in dry limestone or gravelly soils. In good, deep soil it grows to 15′-20′, although on thin limestone hillsides in Edwards County it is a scraggly shrub of 3′ to 6′. It is drought resistant and fairly cold hardy, as are Gregg and Wright Acacia. Its globe-shaped flowers are a good source of honey.”
Texas Native Plant Database

“Fruit Characteristics: pods, flatter and not as twisted as Gregg Acacia’s.”
Texas Native Plant Database

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References:

“Blooms on the South Texas Sand Sheet,” by C.M. Rich, Texas Master Naturalist

Camille — Sat, 18 May 2024 15:49:44 +0000

Blooms on the South Texas Sand Sheet

Fishhook Cactus

Red Poppy – pink-flowering form

Blue Curls

Swan Flower

Roadside Guara

Cardinal Feather

Squarebud Daisy

Rio Grande Phlox

Red Poppy – Cow Pen Daisy – Three Lobed Florestina

Red Poppy

Spanish Dagger, Palma Pita

Southern Indian Blanket , Fire Wheel

Yellow Flowered Alicoche

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“Where the Water Trough Overflows,” by C. M. Rich

Camille — Sat, 20 May 2023 16:03:22 +0000

Many miles walked in that footwear dragging hoses around to water livestock and native plant material.

Where the water trough overflows, a dirt border is built to contain and hold precious drops of water as it spills out over the top and out onto the South Texas Sand Sheet.

Where the water trough overflows, a young Brasil tree’s roots are like anchors, providing excellent erosion control as they dig and cut deep down into the loose, red, sandy soil.

Where the water trough overflows, after a fashion, green, native plant material begins to spring up next to sturdier shrubs that have been by the water trough’s side from years before.

Where the water trough overflows, Cowpen daisies Tiny Tim, and Three Lobed Florestina grow, thrive, and feed a plethora of pollinators, including an American bumble bee.

Where the water trough overflows, Pipevine Swallow tails float on warm, breezy currents as they dart in and around mature Wild Olive trees sporting fresh, crisp, white blooms and bright green, soft leaves.

Microecosystems spring up and offer native fauna respite from the drought conditions.

Where the water trough overflows, Hummingbirds, Green Jays, Northern Cardinals, Long-billed Thrashers, Pyrrhuloxias, Groove-billed Anis, Northern Bobwhite, Great Kiskadees, and White-winged Doves take refuge in the arms of Lotebush and Colima.

Where the water trough overflows, native plant material provides shade and cover for insects, birds, lizards, and all manner of creeping, crawling, slithering, living things.

Where the water trough overflows, an unexpected, wonderful microecosystem will spring up and sustain life when significant amounts of native habitat have all but dried out to mere sticks and twigs due to lack of precipitation.

An American bumble bee nectaring on Cowpen daisy.

Where the water trough overflows, flora will grow and all manner of fauna will be attracted to it.

A new frog species was discovered in the wet earth where the water trough overflows.

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“How an American bumble bee changed the way I accomplish things,” by Camille M. Rich

Camille — Fri, 19 May 2023 22:11:36 +0000

On one particularly hot, humid Spring Day, back in 2022, before I began working on my chore list at the ranch and arboretum for that day, I took a few moments to glance around at the habitat to see if anything of note stood out that needed to be addressed first. Although I did not see anything that warranted it be urgently moved to the top of my chore list for that day, one thing was glaringly apparent. There were no blooms on any plant material to speak of. Drought conditions had negatively affected the entire Tamaulipan Thornscrub habitat, right down to the lack of wildflowers. As I skimmed and scanned, I was disheartened to note that there were very few native pollinators out and about either.

As a Citizen Scientist and Texas Master Naturalist, the lack of bountiful blooms, and just a handful of native pollinators observed on a quick walking tour that day, was both troubling and problematic. Truthfully, I was horrified and saddened. I felt an overwhelming need to try and arrive at some sort of solution to the current state of the dry, arid, bloomless habitat on the spot. However, temperatures rose quickly, and I needed to get to work. Therefore, I tucked the dilemma away for future contemplation and moved forward with my list of chores.

After almost a full day of work in the hot sun, I was exhausted. Consequently, I took a moment to stop and enjoy the beautiful clouds that hung effortlessly in the sky for a few minutes so I could catch my breath. That is about the time I noticed an extremely large black and yellow bee on a Cowpen daisy. A pollinator! I quickly grabbed my cellphone and began recording video of this large, fuzzy bee. Almost as soon as I began recording the bee, it flew off. I hoped that I had been able to get enough video of the bee to distinguish which native bee it might have been.

I stepped over into the shade of a Mesquite tree and reviewed the video. Much to my surprise, the bee I had recorded was an American bumble bee! I was ecstatic as this was my first American bumble bee sighting on the property. Additionally, given the fact that just hours before I had observed a mere handful of native pollinators flying, buzzing, and darting around, it lifted my spirits and gave me hope. I prolonged my rest break and spent a few more minutes trying to figure out why an American bumble bee had visited the property. Was there something I could learn from this large, fuzzy bee?

After a few minutes of staring at the little green patch of blooming native plant material where I had seen the bee, it occurred to me that the reason the bee was on the Cowpen daisy was because it was one of the few plants that was in bloom at the time. That made perfect sense. My mind quickly moved on to the question, “Why was the daisy blooming?” The daisy was blooming, because it had grown up beside the livestock water trough and had access to water that overflowed out of the trough and out onto the soil.

It was at that precise moment that I had my epiphany: “What if I corralled the water overflowing out of the livestock trough to help increase blooming, native plant material year-round?” That question was quickly followed by, “How could I corral the water?” The answer to that question was immediately obvious to me. After watching my grandparents working in their yard for years, I knew I could install a dirt border around the low spot that had naturally formed beside the livestock water trough. That was simple enough, and totally doable. All I needed was my shovel and time dedicated to both creating and maintaining the dirt border. I immediately got back to work and took my shovel and created a dirt border around the edge of a single livestock water trough.

Things have not been the same since I began corralling “overflow” water in 2022. I am happy to report that areas around numerous livestock water troughs are now sporting dirt borders of their own and boasting lush areas of native plant material loaded with blooms. All manner of pollinators, as well as other wildlife, have also come to rely on these small microecosystems, if you will, for their food, shelter, and nesting material. That single, solitary American bumble bee gets all the credit for flying into my life and getting my attention, causing me to ponder and extend my thinking to methods that I could find and utilize to increase thriving, blooming, native plant material for pollinators that involved minimal cost and minimal labor.

In closing, I must share the latest, extraordinary chapter in this story. On a hot, humid spring day this year, I observed and documented another single, solitary American bumble bee visiting a Cowpen daisy not ten (10) feet from the exact spot where I spotted an American bumble bee visiting a Cowpen daisy on that fateful hot, humid day back in the Spring of 2022. Pretty cool, right?

Microecosystem of various native plant material in the area surrounding this livestock water trough.

Where the water trough overflows…..

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Tulipán Del Monte ~ Heart Leaf Hibiscus

Camille — Sat, 19 Nov 2022 14:55:17 +0000

Tulipán Del Monte, also referred to as the Heart Leaf Hibiscus, is a strikingly beautiful plant native to the Rio Grande Valley. Noted as being found in Cameron, Hidalgo, Willacy, and Starr counties, it naturally grows among woodier shrubs and can be difficult to locate unless it is in bloom and its gorgeous, velvet-like petals are unfurled and on display for all to see.

After years of trying to grow this beauty from seed, I gave up. Much to my pleasant surprise, it came up years later in a pot filled with recycled potting soil, native seeds from some species that, now, escapes memory, and mulch from previous native seed-starting attempts. This flower’s beauty never fails to take my breath away as I marvel at its striking color and am mesmerized and dazzled by the visually fascinating intricacies of its overall structure. I hope that this image will bring a smile to your face and brighten your day!

If you would like to learn more about this beauty, you can find additional, detailed information in the following two (2) books that I absolutely cannot be without:

“Plants of Deep South Texas: A Field Guide to the Woody and Flowering Species,” by Alfred Richardson and Ken King. Texas A & M University Press. College Station, Texas. 2011.

“Wildflowers of Texas,” by Michael Eason. Timber Press, Inc. Portland, Oregon. 2018.

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The Plant LIfe Cycle of our Native Guajillo

Camille — Sun, 28 Jun 2020 00:14:01 +0000

Guajillo Seed Germination

Spring ushers in many gorgeous, fragrant flowers on plants native to the South Texas Sand Sheet. Once pollinated, the flowering plants, shrubs, and trees undergo a transformation right before our very eyes! Through the process of pollination, bees, butterflies, wasps, flies, and beetles, just to name a few, enable our native plants to produce marvelous fruit for wildlife! Another product of the pollination process are precious seed crops that are necessary for continuation of species.

Mature Guajillo Shrub

The guajillo (Acacia berlandieri), which is in the legume family, is one of our native shrubs in the South Texas Sand Sheet ecoregion. The guajillo can grow upwards of ten (10) feet. Each Spring, it puts on a fantastic flower show with its tiny, white flowers sprinkled throughout its leaflet-covered gray branches. As with most plants in the South Texas Sand Sheet, the guajillo is armed with small, slightly curved thorns, which are called prickles. Its fruit is a reddish-brown legume, or seed pod, that is up to six (6) inches long. In each seed pod, there are numerous seeds that have the potential to become an adult Guajillo shrub.

Soft, leaflets adorn gray branches….

As Spring marches forward, and after the seed pods have baked for just the right amount of time under the hot South Texas Sun, a prolific guajillo seed crop will be ready for harvest. Are you ready to harvest the seeds? Just kidding! You will not need to harvest these seeds, as they will harvest themselves. How is this possible? These seeds are disbursed by a ballistic (explosive) seed distribution method in which the heat from the sun dries the seed pods causing them to crack open with a violent force. The force of the explosion of the seed pod results in the seeds falling a bit farther away from the parent plant. Voila! Just add water, and the seeds on the ground are ready to grow!

Seed pods have been noted to vary in both size and shape.

During Springtime each year, I set about picking up seeds on a daily basis in order to save them for sharing with others. Each and every morning I will find brand new seeds that have been hurled out of their pods onto the ground. Should it happen to rain on the seeds before I get a chance to pick them up, I will have scores of newly sprouted guajillo seeds that are either still in their open seed pods or lying on top of the soil.

Guajillo seed pod

I have enjoyed a front row seat to the guajillo plant life cycle repeat, like clockwork, each Spring for the last couple of years. Consequently, I decided that there was no better time than the present to share this transformational process with others through photographs.

In my search for a simple outline of the life cycle of a plant as a starting point for this article, I encountered a plethora of sources and information. Some of these resources include life cycles that are quite detailed and elaborate. For the purposes of this article, I will simply state that the life cycle of a plant includes the following four (4) stages: Seed, sprout, seedling, and plant.

The following images of the guajillo plant life cycle were captured with my cell phone—a Galaxy Note10+. Other than placing them on a piece of cardboard covered with black felt to enhance their visual detail, the seeds, seed pods, and sprouts were not manipulated in any way. Additionally, the images were adjusted for sharpness, brightness, contrast, and saturation, using standard editing features that my cell phone came with.

Stage 1: Guajillo seed in the dried seed pod.

Stage 2: During germination, a sprout emerges from the guajillo seed.

Stage 3: This hardy guajillo sprout has matured into a seedling.

Stage 4: Young guajillo plant.

Additional information on the Guajillo:

In “Plants of Deep South Texas,” by Alfred Richardson and Ken King, page 239, we learn that “this is one of our earliest-blooming shurbs. It was named in honor of Jean Louis Berlandier, an early collector of plants from Mexico and Texas. Honey derived from guajillo is prized for its superior flavor. The leaves are toxic to livestock. They can cause what is called ‘guajillo wobbles’ and death. The plant is also recognized by the prickles, which are scattered around the stem rather than arranged in rows or pairs.”

In “A Photographic Guide to the Vegetation of the South Texas Sand Sheet,” by Dexter Peacock & Forrest S. Smith, page 191, we learn that “It can form in thickets on thin soils on higher-elevation sites of the Sand Sheet. The legumes produce dark brown seeds. Its leaves are browsed by white-tailed deer. It is a common component of tighter soils in South Texas.”

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Trecul’s Yucca – Palma Pita

Michael — Wed, 06 Feb 2019 05:30:31 +0000

(Yucca treculeana)

You can see a couple of additional images of the Yucca in the gallery.

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Black Brush – Chapparo Prieto

Michael — Fri, 01 Feb 2019 05:12:45 +0000

Black Brush or Chapparo Prieto (Acacia rigidula) in bloom in the spring.

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