Favoritos de reidhardin

Recently encountered remnant individual on the Bolson Tortoise Appleton translocation program. Found in the road at 4:05 pm on Audubon's Appleton-Whittell Research Ranch (PRIVATE) property with permission. The following week we encountered Borderlands Program Coordinator/researcher Myles Traphagen attempting to relocate it. Contact him for details about updated research initiatives!

In an oak-juniper woodland with limestone cliffs and thin rocky soils. This area was quarried for limestone in the 1890s and is labeled "old quarry north" in a BFL habitat and land use map.

Associated species: Quercus fusiformis, Juniperus ashei, Fraxinus albicans, Nandina domestica

This historical set of images needs a bit of context; the 3rd and 4th images show pages of my field journal which describe this "observation." A longer version of the story will be uploaded to a journal post.
Short version: This is the first ever photograph of Texabama Croton (Croton alabamensis var. texensis) on the day I showed the population to graduate student Steve Ginzbarg (U. Texas Botany Dept.; L in photo). I had discovered the shrubs during field work on May 31, 1989. I invited Steve Ginzbarg and John Gee (R in photo) to examine the plants on my next visit to the tract. Steve went on to name the plants as a new variety of Alabama Croton (Sida 15(1):41-52, 1992):
https://www.jstor.org/stable/41967533
At the time, this was a private ranch. The croton became one of the focal plant Species of Concern for the Balcones Canyonlands Conservation Plan. The tract was later acquired for the Refuge of the same name, primarily for its population of Black-capped Vireos and Golden-cheeked Warblers, but also because this spot (where this photo was taken) is the "Type Locality" for Texabama Croton.

My friend found these massive blooming bladderwort plants at a retention pond in Austin.

She sent me a picture asked me if these are bladderwort.
We couldn't get a closeup picture because all the cattail.

I obscured the location to protect them from poaching.

Helped out with a vegetation survey in Breckenridge, so on this evening, I put up a few blacklights outside of Possum Kingdom State Park. It was a bit windy, so lots of these photos are blurry. Apologies. Nonetheless, quite a few things showed up!