Nalle Bunny Run with Bill Carr 2020-10-31

Last weekend on Hill Country Conservancy's Nalle Bunny Run wildlife preserve I noticed that a certain plant on the sandy prairie area was blooming, covered in tiny white flowers. Over the years of leading group walks here, this plant would catch people's eyes since it's growing in a tight bunch with nothing else similar around. They'd ask me what it was, and I didn't know. Since plants are often much easier to identify when they're blooming, I took some photos. Here's one:

Back at home I posted it to iNaturalist and to the Texas Flora Facebook group. Pretty quickly Floyd Waller identified it as Yankeeweed (Eupatorium compositifolium). And pretty soon after that, Bill Dodd (@billdodd) realized it might be a new plant record for Travis County. He contacted Bill Carr, longtime Texas botanist who as been tracking plant species in Travis County since the 1980s. Bill Carr confirmed that yep, it was new for his county list! Here's part of the context he emailed us:

To cut to the chase, sandy-loving species are uncommon in our area simply because they don't grow on the limestones and clays that cover 95 percent of our landscape. Eupatorium compositifolium is one such species. It's common as dirt on the Eocene Sands in Bastrop County (and elsewhere in the southeastern US), but hasn't been reported here because of the paucity of sand. It will be really interesting to document its occurrence at Bunny Run and to find out what other sand-loving species might grow with it. Well, interesting to me, at least!

Well it was interesting to me, Bill Dodd, and Hill Country Conservancy too! So we made plans to visit the Bunny Run the following Saturday. We enjoyed a beautiful cool morning, starting at about 40 degrees at 9:00 AM and ending up in the mid-60s when we were done at noon. Bill Carr was impressed with the botanical diversity of the Bunny Run, and I can't wait to see his list and comments for the morning. I tried recording a few of the plants he pointed out, and they are attached to this journal entry below.

And of course we enjoyed seeing the Yankeeweed, which was still in bloom. Here are a few video highlights from the morning:

I kept an eBird list as well:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S75697262

And below are more attached observations, mostly plants that Bill Carr pointed out.

Posted on 01 de novembro de 2020, 06:48 PM by mikaelb