More Escobaria missouriensis!

Two years ago I was thrilled to find Escobaria missouriensis in Yellowhouse Canyon and to learn to identify it, and am just as excited to have found more in a location I never scouted before. I have started an "Escobaria missouriensis in Lubbock County" project to gather observations on one page: https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/missouri-foxtail-cactus-escobaria-missouriensis-in-lubbock-county-texas

The pioneering iNat observation of this species in Lubbock was made by @ellen5 in April, 2015: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/2267183, where the conversation with nathantaylor over identification is preserved. My observations began 3 years later, at a different location. I had encountered one in the early 2000s on the highest point South of Dunbar Lake but did not identify or photograph it.

42 separate cacti were photographed today and I only explored part of the area, which is the most accessible of all the locations where I have encountered this species. Likely there are at least 20 more individuals nearby.

As usual they seem to occur along vertical streaks from a flattish caliche ridge down the slope. It is not clear that the seeds of an older plant proceed downhill by gravity because sometimes smaller individuals lie uphill from a larger presumably older one.

In another month or less E. missouriensis should be in bloom.

This makes six small areas where I have found E. missouriensis on the heights along Yellowhouse Canyon. Where else might they occur? Unexplored places are in the ridges south of Broadway on private or posted property, the northeastern part of Lubbock Lake Landmark, the private lots overlooking Buddy Holly Rec Area on the
east, the central heights South of Dunbar Lake, the east edges of Meadowbrook golf course South of Purina Mills, and the canyon east of Lubbock.

Posted on 16 de março de 2020, 10:38 PM by thebark