Photo Essay
Habitats: Shortgrass Plains and Chihuahuan Scrub: Shallow Gravel Soils
In April of 2009 the Llano Estacado chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists visited Stan Smith’s ranch southeast of Odessa. Mr. Smith took the class to two locations at the very southern end of the Llano Estacado. One location had juniper and agarita, which normally belongs in the canyons and breaks habitat east of the Llano Estacado, and further south in the Stockton Plateau. A number of plants were found that normally are only found in the Stockton Plateau. The other location had an abnormally large Javelina Bush, and was where the creosote bush habitat may have migrated up onto the southern Llano Estacado, possibly since the days of early settlement and ranching. Carol Ann Bauer, Cathy Hoak, Mark Pelham, R.L. Orth, Ann Matthews, Randy Hapgood, Nancy Kirk, Charlotte Burke, and Burr Williams contributed photos.
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Four nerved daisy prefers rocky soil.
Allthorn is part of the creosote bush habitat, and the juniper habitat found on the Stockton Plateau.
Blackfoot daisy can be found in sandy soil, as well as in rocky soil.
Calylophus is an evening primrose, and the buds can be reddish. Several species are found in West Texas.
Cane cholla is another Chihuahuan Desert plant that has emigrated north over time.
Copper mallow can be found in many habitats. The leaf is distinctive.
Creosote bush is the “indicator plant” of the Chihuahuan desert.
Ephedra antisyphillitica is found in most habitats in west Texas. It is also known as popotillo, or Mormon Tea.
The mesquites had just leafed out before the trip.
Squirreltail grass is normally found in gravelly soil, or in tight clay soil.
Oriole nests from the previous year were easy to spot in the just leafing out mesquites.
Roadrunners are extremely common in the habitat.
Torrey yucca is also common in the habitat, and can begin blooming as early as February. 10 foot tall plants may be as much as 500 years old.
Black beetles are common, even on cool days.
Fluff grass will grow in the rockiest and driest soils, where no other grass will grow.
Horsecrippler is common to most habitats in the region.
Pectis is restricted to rocky soils. It smells like lemon to some folks, but to others it smells like dog urine.
Torrey yuccas often grow in groups.
Perennial blue gilia is sometimes found in other habitats, and blooms from March to November, if it has rain.
In close up blue gilia is intricate.
This not quite the regular form of horsecrippler Echinocactus texensis, but Sibley staff could not identify it as anything else.
A cactus wren nest stood out in the late evening sun.
The entrance to cactus wren nests is always on the side.
A small young rattlesnake allowed photographers to approach within a few feet.
Mr. Smith runs about 7-10 head of cattle per section (640 acres).
A giant javelina bush had a creosote bush in bloom next to it.
Creosote blossoms are followed by hairy white seed capsules. It blooms everytime it rains, and is the smell of rain. Folks also call it greasewood, and in the Pecos Valley, it has the Spanish folk name of Guame.
Engelmann daisy is highy palatable to cattle, so it is often unusual to find it on a ranch.
Erigeron is a common spring annual.
Feather dalea is also only found on gravelly and rocky soil.
Fendler bladderpod also grows in the reddish soils that cover the southern Llano Estacado.
Filaree blooms as early as February. It was brought to the Southwestern U.S. by the sheep that early Spanish settlers in the 1500s brought to the region.
Gourd, horehound, and just sprouting ragweed lined one of the oil field roads on the ranch.
Groundsel is poisonous to cows. A small pectis grows under the groundsel.
This strawberry cactus was pinker in its blossom than the populations further south.
The only whiptail lizards seen skedaddled rapidly away, and were hard to photograph.
Javelina bush when in fruit is striking!
A kingbird perched in a Torrey yucca. It had just arrived to spend the summer nesting in the area.
A lady bug crawled all over a creosote bush, looking in vain for an aphid.
Creosote bush “marched up” the very southern edge of the Llano Estacado.
Nama and erigeron made a pleasing combination.
The paintbrush of the area was an unusual pink. Castilleja purpurea comes in many colors.
Peppergrass in bloom and trompillo with dry stalks and yellow berries showed it was early spring.
Red seeded plantain was common on the rocky slopes.
Robberflies were out hunting even in the early spring.
We believe this is Shaggy Stenandrium (Stenandrium barbatum), a long ways out of its normal range.
Talinum, or Flameflower, a perennial, blooms after a rain.
What snapped this Torrey Yucca trunk in half? Was it wind? A cow? Such a thing just does not happen!
Paronychia (whitlowwort) is a common plant in the canyon and breaks habitat, but rare in association with creosote bush.
Coyote droppings were full of juniper seeds.
Among the junipers, several branches had been used as ‘rubs” by deer as their horns lost their velvet during the previous fall.
Deer scat was plentiful under the junipers and among the erigeron daisies.
Part of the group spent quite a bit of time examining the rocky slope for “belly flowers” like the Stenandrium, Talinum, and Paronychia.
A sturdy Horehound grew next to a scrawny Plains Verbena. Verbena goodingii is a common wildflower from February to April, especially in disturbed soils.
Javelinas had visited the prickly pears on the ranch. Javelinas spread through this ranch to the north, reaching Midland County by the 1980s.
In the foreground is a row of seedling tarbushes about two years old. An ant trail leads away from the foreground, and a whiptail lizard is hiding on the ant trail.
This might be a lesser nighthawk.
Some of the paintbrushes were of a darker color – is this known as magenta?
Several small holes were found in the bedrock ledges. What caused them?
Texas purple thistle displayed a wonderful contrast to dried mesquite wood.
This is the upper edge of the draw leading off of the Llano Estacado.
Prickly pear forests cover a number of areas on the southwestern corner of the Llano Estacado, dating back to the cattle drives of the 1930s, when prickly pear was carried on trucks and tossed to the cows each night (after the spines were burned.)
Copper mallow was in full bloom where it was warmed by rocks.
The new growth on horsecrippler is amazing!
Lehmann’s lovegrass, an exotic species brought for revegetation has spread over much of West Texas, much to the dismay of scaled quail hunters. Scaled quail prefer open ground, and when the grass covers the ground, the quail move on.
Penstemon fendlerii caught another of the photograohers’ eyes.
Gaura coccinea isa common annual in most habitats of the region, and blooms from April to May, and sometimes later, with rains.
An algerita and some horehound grew against one of the large stock tanks full of water on the ranch.
Bannertail kangaroo rats were able to excavate a nesthole even in a rocky pile of rocks.
Black baldie cattle are the preferred breed for Mr. Smith.
Several of the pink strawberry cactus were almost in peak bloom.
In close up the strawberry cactus is incredibly intricate and beautiful.
Cane cholla, another Chihuahuan Desert plant that has emigrated north and east, has bright buds in the spring.
Their fruit is hard, yellow, and not very tasty.
Mimosa catclaw is often found on rocky soils, but it can be found in other habitats.
Cow bones were a common sight here and there on the ranch. It is tough country for a cow!
Even among the rocks cryptogamic crusts can be found, adding nutrients to the soil.
Juniper, prickly pear, mesquite and agarita filled the draw at the edge of the Llano Estacado.
Stan Smith and Susan Taylor chat at the trucks in the draw with hackberry and mesquite. The Stockton Plateau is in the far distance beyond.
Dwarf dalea is hard to find. The plant is rarely more than a few inches across.
Is this orange lichen adorning the fossils, or are the fossils orange?
Fossils were common in the rocks of the slope of the draw.
Selloa glutinosum is common east of the Llano Estacado in Mitchell County, and common throughout the western Edwards Plateau, and on the Stockton Plateau, but Mr. Smith’s ranch had the first population discovered on the Llano Estacado, to the knowledge of the Sibley staff.
The junipers had been present a long time, for a gnarled old specimen like this one might have been there hundreds of years. The draw is probably on the Comanche War Trail, and it is possible that some of the plants found in the draw may have been imported (by accident or on purpose) by the Comanches.
The deviant form of horsecrippler had bright new spines.
King Mountain, south of McCamey is in the distance. Creosote bushes dot the last ridges of the Llano Estacado.
Lichen of several species were found in the draw.
The rat dropping and juniper berries indicated that this rock was a favored lookout spot for the packrat that lived under the rock.
Under the cane cholla, a javelina had made a little resting spot by mashing down dried grasses.
The staff of the Sibley Nature Center believes this is Polygala rimulicola, which would be a 150 mile range extension to the southeast of the Guadalupe Mountains, where it is common.
Some of the prickly pears had very bright red spines.
Some burnt rock was found on the gravelly slope, indicating Indians had camped there hundreds of years ago.
A spiny yellow aster was in full bloom because it had caught extra water that ran off the rock above it.
Tiquilia is found in most habitats of West Texas, except in the sanddunes.
Hackberries grew 20 feet tall in the draw.
This bright pink-lined moth was found on a juniper.
The buffalo grass showed off the male blooms.
Another black beetle scurried across the ground.
A creosote bush seedling appeared to be dying. Jackrabbit scat is under it.
A scaled quail poked around in the yard at the ranch house.
Littleleaf sumac bushes were also found in the draw. They are common on King Mountain to the south, and a few have been found in Mustang Draw at the eastern edge of the Llano Estacado, but it prefers the canyon and breaks habitat.
Engelmann daisy was again found, in full bloom, in an area that could catch some runoff water.
Two leafed senna is poisonous to livestock, but has bright flowers from April to June, or after rains later in the summer.
Prairie zinnia is common in most habitats (except sanddunes) in West Texas. It is a great ornamental plant for the yard, too, for it is a lowgrowing groundcover.
A prickly pear pad that appeared completely dead had a new bloom on it.
A jackrabbit rested in a patch of mesquites.
In one of the mesquites was a mesquite cicada.