On Monday, May 13th, Karen and I made a quick trip to Inks Lake State Park to hike and look for wildflowers. Park employees said the lake was 3 feet higher than normal (https://www.lcra.org/water/dams-and-lakes/Pages/default.aspx) and some trails were closed, others inundated. Well, that doesn’t stop serious Wildflowerers…ers…
“Looking for wildflowers” quickly turned into “we’re going to set a new park record!” (for us). But alas, we stalled at 50 species identified, six short of our record set in 2013.
The area of the park that burned in the 2018 fire is fantastic with wildflowers right now. A trip in the next week or so would be well rewarded. See the attached photo for a glimpse. The most prominent flower is the Golden Wave or Coreopsis. Many other species are well represented too.
Hardest Flower to Find: Pearl Milkweed Vine – often overlooked by the casual passerby. (www.greatstems.com/2013/05/a-pearl-of-a-vine.html)
Most Numerous Flower: Golden Wave (Coreopsis) – I can’t recall a year that was this spectacular.
Birds: 15 species – Black-throated Sparrows were prominent and singing
Still riding the wave of exuberance, we left the house early the next morning to make the three-hour drive to Hill Country State Natural Area to …wait for it…SET A NEW PARK RECORD! That however would require more than 85 species. We arrived and 15 feet inside the park entrance we pulled the car over to the side of the gravel road and began identifying wildflowers. We had 44 species before we completed the mile drive to the headquarters.
We received our day pass and headed to a well-known flower spot, made a slow drive down the park road to the north, then on to our secret location that very likely no one else knows about. The only location where we have seen the Mexican Mallow (Hermannia texana) (http://w3.biosci.utexas.edu/prc/DF/pages/HETE9.html). We found this flower by accident one year and now have regularly returned to the same location within the park to see it each spring in May.
Nearing the end of the day we had identified 75 species, a goodly amount but disappointingly short of a new record. But we knew of another area on the south side of the park to check. And we heard reports of a special find along this route if you looked carefully and were lucky. Quickly, we picked up a prickly pear and white prickly poppy – 77 species. Some time passed before we spotted the 6-foot tall False Dragonhead in the creek, but progress was slow and the route was coming to an end.
But we are no casual passersby when it comes to seeing wildflowers. Then there it was, in the shadows under the overhanging branches of a live oak tree, the Scarlet Leatherflower. That got us to 79 species, respectable but no record. Unfortunately, we had seen 4-5 species we were unable to identify with the field guides at hand. How did we make such a rookie mistake to bring only two field guides instead of the seven or so we have at home? We could possibly have 83-84 species instead.
Stormy looking clouds began to build, thunder rumbled about, and a sprinkle or two fell on our heads. Yes! We would hike the Heritage Trail to look for some upland species we just might have missed so far.
Two-leaved Senna was easily found shortly after we started the hike. Then a new flower for both of us, the Cardinal Feather. A special treat occurred when we found another location for the Mexican Mallow along the trail. By trail’s end we found three more species for a total of 84 species, one shy of tying the record. So disappointing, but those unidentified species still loomed tauntingly in photos, waiting, waiting…
We raced home to our field guides, spooked the cats as we burst into the house, and quickly identified two species we missed in the field for a NEW RECORD! (FOR US) – woo hoo! (the Nerdometer was pegged)
Best Flower: Mexican Mallow, of course
Best New Flower: Scarlet Leatherflower
Best Bird Sighting: Male Vermillion Flycatcher performing its fluttering display flight.
Birds: 25 species
*Common names of wildflowers mostly follow Wildflowers of the Texas Hill Country by Marshall Enquist
The wildflowers on Highway 29 between Lake Buchanan and Llano, Texas and on Highway 16 from Llano to Fredericksburg, Texas are spectacular – the best we can remember.
Go to the Hill Country!