Photo Essay
Sandy soil plants west of Lamesa
Nathan Taylor lives about 20 miles west of Lamesa among vegetated sand dunes on the Dawson-Gaines County line. He is 15 years old, and has been photographing the plants and animals of his property for three years. He is already a superb naturalist and an avid horticulturalist.
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Scaled quail come right up to his house.
Scissortails often visit during the summer.
A loggerhead shrike stuck a lizard on a thorn to show off to his mate.
This is a bobwhite feather.
A Lark sparrow built a nest in a cotton field
And the eggs later hatched.
A golden eagle landed in a nearby field one winter.
Sandhill cranes are seen in the fields all winter long.
Mule deer love to eat the shinoak acorns in the vegetated dunes.
When mule deer run, they bounce, or bound, across the landscape.
Packrats built big piles of sticks for nests in the mesquite.
A jackrabbit tried to be invisible in plain view.
Lesser earless lizards are common in the sandy soil.
A male lesser earless lizard turns bright colors when it is time to mate.
Southern prairie lizards clamber over the mesquite and shinoak, and dart from bush to bush.
An immature Great Plains skink was found in the leaf litter of the shinoak.
Box turtles are common in the vegetated dunes.
Every box turtle has a different pattern on its plastron (bottom shell).
Coachwhip snakes are the fastest snake in the dunes.
Baby coachwhips hide instead of trying to quickly slither away.
Hognose snakes are docile creatures.
Longnose snakes hunt lizards.
Walking sticks are hard to find, but actually plentiful, especially in the fall.
Although there is no surface water on Nathan's property, dragonflies can still be found.
Young dragonflies roam about, looking for water and mates.
This may be the turret to a fungus growing ant species. The tiny turrets are hard to find.
Jumping spiders leave large hairy nests in shrubs over the winter. In the spring, hundreds of baby spiders emerge.
A number of species of grasshoppers are found on the property.
A number of unusual mushrooms grow among the shinoaks. This species is leathery to the touch.
Another species was very warty.
Is this a fungus? The Sibley staff doesn't know!
What is this gray crust on the red sand?
One of the species of puffballs is quite red.
After the Sibley Nature Center published this photograph of Partridge Pea, another naturalist reported seeing it just a little further west and north than Nathan's home. It normally grows east of the southern Llano Estacado.
Purple prairie clover loves sandy soil.
Gaillardia is a common spring flower.
This bean belongs to the following flower.
And the Sibley staff is unsure of the species. This is the second Phaseolus (bean) found in sandy soil by regional naturalists in 2008, and despite 40 years of records by naturalists in Midland, they had not been seen before!
Caesalpina jamesii is an uncommon perennial in the region.
Yellow old plainsman is often common in May.
Sleepy daisy is a common perennial in the region.
Lazy daisy blooms when it rains - sometimes in the spring, sometimes in the fall, and sometimes all summer.
Sand sunflower is common in late summer.
This sunflower had an unusual double head.
Abronia (sand verbena) is normally pink.
Nathan found one blooming white.
The bloom buds of abronia are intricate marvels.
Buckley penstemon is common in many sand dune areas, but not in Midland county (only further north, east, and west.)
Yellow evening primrose is a common spring annual.
One grove of shinoaks on Nathan's property has a number of plants over 12 feet tall.
The style of the Calylophus has a club head, while Oenethera evening primroses have a cross on the style.
Triodanis (Venus' Looking Glass) normally grows in playas. To find it in the sanddunes was quite remarkable.
Yucca angustifolia is the most common species in Nathan's dunes. Sand dune yucca, Y. campestris is not present.
The flax on Nathan's dunes is yellow, not orange, like the species more common to the south. Sibley staff has not identified it to species, yet.
The red center of this prickly pear may indicate it is a hybrid between the red Comanche pear, and one of the yellow blooming species.
Comanche prickly pears can have the most delicate color.
Nathan is a careful observer - the bloom of a plantain is smaller than a pinky fingernail.
White horsemint is the more common species of horsemint in sand dune country.
Evening primrose blossoms have to be admired.
As do the white evening primrose blossoms.
Widow's tears is normally blue...
But Nathan found one blooming white.
Spiderworts have a dark blue blossom.
Flowering straw is a perennial that can bloom April to October in the wetter years.
Gaura (or kisses) is a common flower in the spring, and sometimes will bloom in other times of the year.
This tall species of evening primrose is usually found to the east of the Llano Estacado.
Climbing milkweed twines among the shinoaks and mesquites.
Vervains are short lived perennials.
Golden dalea is uncommon on the Llano Estacado, and is much more common in the breaks of the Llano Estacado to the east.
European bindweed is a horrible pest in many farm fields on the Llano Estacado.
Horsecrippler cactus are uncommon in sand dune areas.
Climbing milkweeds are more obvious when the seedpods are visible.
This one still had seeds, and Nathan says it is a different species.
Corypantha cactus blooms after every good rain.
White amaranth is a common weed in the dunes.
As is the red amaranth.
Blue toadflax only blooms in the wetter springs, but Nathan found one in the dry spring of 2009.
Devil Claws are common in sandy soil.
Camphor daisy is another common flower in the fall in the sandy country.
Mirabilis linearis is rarely noticed, for it has skinny leaves, and unless a person is out for the few hours the blooms are open, it disappears into the background of the shinoaks.
Nathan has found an unknown shrub - at least until blooms and seeds are seen. It is three feet tall and three feet across.
Climbing snapdragon is common in sandy soil.
Scrambled eggs are common in March in sandy soil
Nathan found a mustard the Sibley staff did not know.
So far, the Sibley staff has not determined the species of this Artemisia with red seedstalks.
The leaves of the Artemisia are unusually slender.
The Sibley staff did not know this plant either, but wondered if it was a species of buckwheat.