Strange and Unusual Part 1

Central Texas has some pretty strange looking flowering plants that are growing and/or blooming this time of year.  But you may have to take a closer look to find them or search off the beaten path.  Many of these have green or inconspicuous flowers and some are rare plant species.

These first two are Ball Moss and Spanish Moss.  They are not true mosses, but flowering plants. They are members of the Bromeliad (Airplant) Family.  Their flowers are small and inconspicuous, but if you look carefully you can see some hanging down in the first photo.  Both of these plants are epiphytes, meaning they use the trees they grow on just for hanging onto, and in no way harm or parasitize the tree.  Ball Moss is common in our area and found on our live oak trees, While spanish moss is not so common and is found more often on trees growing in deep canyons.

More of these strange plants will be featured in my next post including two more rare plants in Central Texas.

Spanish Moss (not a moss either but
a flowering plant)

Ball Moss (not a real moss)

Green Dragon

Yes, that really is this unusual and rare plants common name. Green Dragon's botanical name is Arisaema dracontium and the dragon reference comes from their strange looking flowers that have a long green spike arising from a hooded structure that reminded someone of a dragon's tongue.  I've never personally seen the flowers, but you can look at a photo of them on the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center's Native Plant Data Base.   The middle leaf group in the above photo is actually just one leaf that's oddly branched and divided.  This plant is listed as rare in our area and threatened or endangered in some states.

Velvet-leaf Gaura or Lizard-tail - a very tall weedy plant

Indigo Bush - member of the pea family as is
Texas Mountain Laurel and Bluebonnets

Snapdragon Vine, with bud and forming seedpod

Snapdragon Vine with flowers

Wren Nestlings

Today I'm featuring a feathered native, the Carolina Wren.  This bird is a year round resident in the eastern two thirds of Texas and much of the Eastern US and Eastern Mexico.  On April 7th my husband, Michael,  heard something hit the garage door window and on inspection found this mother wren stunned on the ground outside the garage.  He scooped her up and put her on our back deck rail. With some drops of water she began to revive, but sat still enough for a few minutes to give me the opportunity to take these close-up shots.  Within the next couple of weeks, the wren built a nest in a nest box outside our garage, laid four eggs, incubated, and hatched out four tiny wren chicks, and then fed them till they fledged and left the nest. The whole process took place all in the month of April more or less.  Incubation time for these birds is 12 to 14 days and is only done by the female.  Now there are at least three new eggs in the nest ready for round two.

Mother Wren

Mother Wren

Wren nest with eggs -white with brown speckles

Newly hatched baby Wrens

Notice how many different materials are used to build this nest, from cedar bark to cedar and oak leaves, than layers of feathers from the wren and other birds and even bits of plastic or paper. 

"Feed me, feed me"

Older Wren chicks before fledging 

Wrens are known to build several nests at the same time to act as decoys for predators.  This mother built one of her nests in my bicycle helmet that was hanging on my bike in the garage.