Habitats of the Llano Estacado
Photoessay – July scenes from a pocket forest in Midland Draw
These photographs were taken along Midland Draw, at a location where a band of vegetated sanddunes edge its south side. Carol Anne Bauer, Cathy Hoak, R.L. Orth, Burr Williams, Nathan Naylor, and Malcolm McElvaney took the photographs in mid-July, 2009, while the landscape still had residual moisture from heavy June rains. A small stockpond is also found at the location.
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Part of the 2009 class came running when another member found interesting fungi, bugs, and more.
Cissus incisus, or false grape, is common in all pocket forests. It produces many clusters of grape-sized blackish blue fruits the birds and animals definitely enjoy.
This den is not shaped like a badger’s. There is a small chance it is an armadillo den, but it might also be a fox den (especially a kit or swift fox).
The tail of a dove can be seen sticking out of its sloppily built nest.
Do you see the spider? Is it a funnel web spider before it builds the funnel?
A pocket gopher mound sported several ant lion pits.
Ant lion pits were also in loose soil among the leaf litter of the trees.
Tasajillo can grow rapidly, and the new glochids (tiny spines) remain tightly clustered together.
Indian blanket prefers sandy soil.
Red mesquite beans were at peak “redness” in July (a little late for the southern Llano Estacado).
Texas bindweed usually has a red center...
...like this. Notice the leaf pattern, too.
Goatheads prefer disturbed soil.
Balsam apple fruit are smaller than a ping-pong ball, and will turn red in the fall.
A woodpecker had drilled a hole in one of the soapberries.
Sand sage grew in the sanddunes south of the draw bottom, right up under the edge of the soapberry trees.
Chocolate daisy is found in most habitats in the region.
Spectacle pod has to grow in sandy soil.
Cocklebur grew down in the clays of the bottom of the draw.
Widow’s tears can be found almost anywhere.
Lamb’s quarters is a tasty potherb before it reaches the blooming stage.
Giant ragweed is only found in draws that receive an extra amount of water, such as Midland Draw, which drains much of the city of Midland.
This is the latest stage that lamb’s quarters can be eaten.
Vine mesquite grass prefers the clay soils of draw bottoms, and clay playas.
Cocklebur leaves are toxic to cattle, and the seedpods can ruin a sheep’s fleece.
Gumweed grows both in the bottom of draws and playas, as well as in deep sandy soils.
Old man’s beard vines grow rapidly, with long tendrils that reach out to continue the climb upwards.
The local hackberry is Celtis reticulata – the leaves have reticulate veining, and to learn what the word reticulate means, look at the leaf!
Tumbleweeds are stopped by the trees lining a draw. How might this change the microhabitat at the edge of the draw?
Curly dock is an European plant that is common in draws and playas. Its red seeds are tasty to game birds and some small mammals.
A bobwhite perched up high to watch the class, and to keep his covey of young aware of where we were.
A cardinal perched on a dead soapberry at the edge of the draw where the sanddunes cascade into the draw.
A dragonfly perched on a dead twig, with the almost full moon visible beyond.
Another dragonfly perched on a smaller species of ragweed. Field ragweed is prolific in draws and in barditches along roads.
Some soapberry groves stand isolated, away from the larger “pocket” forests.
Kingbirds nest in the soapberries, and their chatter is a constant as long as they are present in the late spring and summer.
Mesquite beans frame an entrance into a patch of hackberry trees.
A soapberry cicada clung to a soapberry.
It is different than this species, we think, that is usually found in mesquite bushes.
Different ages of soapberry trees are easy to pick out because of the differences in height.
The inside of the grove has many fallen trunks. Local naturalists have been visiting this pocket forests since the late 1940s and have watched at least two generations of trees grow old.
In sandy soil, this red harvester ant is somewhat common – so it has received the common name (by Sibley staff) of the sand harvester.
Sandsage grows right up under the soapberries at the edge of the draw.
Are the dead trunks in the sandsage area the tops of old trees now drowned by sand, or adventitious rhizomatous sprouts that ran out of water?
The shade of the soapberries has a pleasant glow, for a little bit of reflected sun reaches the forms of the trunks.
Trees line the edge of the draw, right where the slope leads up out of the draw.
White thorned acacia prefers sandy soil, and can be found on the sloping sides of the draw, too.
The blooms of the acacia are spherical.
A small beetle climbed on a duckweed leaf in the bottom of the draw. The duckweed grew where water had stood a long period of time.
A tiny fly rested on a Mexican hat daisy.
What causes this gall on the leaves of nightshades. It has been noticed by observers elsewhere on the Llano Estacado.
A hairy fungus grew on soapberry bark.
An ichneumon wasp searched for a caterpillar to parasitize.
A red longhorned beetle nectared, but where do the females lay their eggs?
A tiny moth rested on a balsam apple vine. Why is there webbing near it?
Is this dried sap, or dried up slime mold on the ground under the soapberries.
Is this a vireo nest?
A small whitish shelf fungus also grew on the soapberries.
A small beetle hid under a leaf in the mud at the bottom of the draw.
This beetle was captured on a cocklebur.
Yet another beetle was found on a “mare’s tail,” a tall annual weed found in many habitats.
The soapberry cicada has a green necklace.
You can see a soapberry compound leaf behind the cicada.
A dove egg was found on the ground that still had the baby within it. It is amazing how folded up the baby bird was while inside the egg.
Sneezeweed and cockleburs form patches in the bottom of the draw.
A “milkweed” bug had hid in the sneezeweed.
Robberflies patroled the weeds in the bottom of the draw.
Mexican hat and sneezeweed bloomed in the bottom of the draw.
A tiger beetle was found in the mud in the bottom of the draw.
Vultures rested on the top of the soapberries.
The stockpond was at the top of the draw, close to the tree line.
A green dragonfly clung to a cattail seedstalk.
A tarantula wasp got a drink while perched on chara algae protruding above the water.
The chara algae checkerboarded much of the stock pond, an indication that plenty of nitrogen was available.
A ground bee also came to the water.
Cocklebur also lined the stock pond.
A turkey vulture feather floated in the water, held fast by tendrils of chara.
Sedges were in bloom at the edge of the stock “tank,’ too.
A number of honeybees came for a drink, and on a trip the previous year, a Master Naturalist found a large swarm in one of the soapberry trees, waiting for a scout to come back with the news of a new hive location. More than likely, these honeybees are Africanized, and as such, are the most dangerous animal in the draw.