Last night and this morning we had a 3-4 inch snowfall. Snow in my part of Texas is a hit or miss kind of thing. When it happens, I like to photograph interesting subjects coated with snow. Here you can see the Sycamore tree at the end of the driveway accented with snow.

Here is the previous Sycamore’s partner who lives across the driveway. Notice that this one has shed its leaves. (premature baldness??) Sycamores shed their rough outer bark and have green inner bark that is capable of photosynthesis. This property, plus snow, makes for an interesting view of a tree we pass by everyday without much notice. This one is dressed up in its winter finery.

Here are snow covered yucca, lantana, and tree cholla in the front yard. They show how each of these plants collect snow. This snow was the powdery kind, like fine white dust. We were expecting an ice storm to come with this storm but it got cold enough to snow and make everything pretty!

Here in the foreground are Shepherd’s Purse wildflowers that have been growing since mid-September. These plants flower and produce seeds twice per year. We get a crop in the spring and the fall-early winter. Since these little mustard family members are annuals, what flowers and sets seed late in the year are likely sprouts from the spring crop of seeds. Tough, cold adapted little fellas you can eat. Wash them well though, we have neighborhood dogs and cats visiting regularly.

This last one is a closeup of some Shepherd’s Purse coated in snow. It is today’s homage to art in nature. Beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. We live in a universe-sized piece of performance art. We impoverish ourselves by neglecting to notice. Enjoy the wonder, it is one of our saving graces.

The post December Snow on the High Plains appeared first on GJM Nature Media.

Since I have a large Tree Cholla stand in my front yard, I visit it during May each year when it flowers. The images here were taken in 2016 and 2017. When I am photographing these beautiful purple flowers, I often see insects and other creatures that come to feed on the nectar and pollen that they produce.

In the first image, a honey bee is approaching a blossom that is fully opened for the day’s visitors.

In the next image, you can see the bee’s behind while it prospects for nectar and pollen deep inside the flower. Did you happen to notice the lurking crab spider in each of these photographs?

In this image, two emerald metallic green Halictid bees are visiting.

In this image, you can see the abdomen of a green bee who is doing the same as the honey bee you saw earlier. Also visible in this picture is a digger bee above and to the right of the green bee. The digger bee is in the same family as the honeybee but has a different lifestyle.

In the above image, a tiny red ant is on the petal of the cholla flower.

In this last image, a copper colored blow fly has stopped by for something to eat. Since he has no mouth parts for chewing, he has to slurp nutrients from the surface he is on. Flies will deposit digestive juices on these surfaces to liquify the food so they can slurp it up their straw like mouthparts. Sort of an icky way to make a living.

The post Tree Cholla Flowers Feed Many Kinds Of Insects appeared first on GJM Nature Media.

We have a section in the front yard that has a cedar elm tree surrounded by Tree Cholla cactus, Cylindropuntia imbricata. As you can see the body of the plant is made of cylindrical branches that have no regular arrangement. The cholla here has spread fill the space we grant it in the yard. The elm tree was not planted and came up amidst the cholla from seed eaten and scattered by one of our local birds. All the water last winter, and the wet spring brought this plant into flower in May of 2016.

I exercise care around the cholla because they have spines that like to embed themselves in flesh and hang on. When they do, a piece of the cholla can break off and be carried some distance from the parent plant and if it lands in fertile circumstances, more cholla! This talent of the cholla has to be considered when reducing or removing parts of the plant. Failure to keep pieces from finding new homes means More Cholla!

Our cholla patch occasionally produces the beautiful purple flowers typical of this species. It also is a barbed refuge for our local cottontail. We do not water or feed the cholla and it does what west Texas cacti do, it gets by on what’s available.

I am not sure how the cholla got its name; but on one, long ago field trip, the sound I and others made while having close encounters with the spines of this plant sounded like CHOYAH!!  And these were followed by grunts and ouches as these things were pried from our flesh. This where young folk learn respect for nature, especially cholla.

The post Tree Cholla, Beautifully Flowered, Low Maintenance, Sticker-Patch appeared first on GJM Nature Media.