Texas Flora

Howdy all!

I will be speaking at the Riverside Nature Center in Kerrville Saturday March 28th covering the TREES Initiative, a project working to restore native trees along the Guadalupe River.

📍 Riverside Nature Center, Kerrville, TX
📅 Saturday, March 28 | 10 AM – 12 PM

I'll highlight all aspects of this initiative - from conception to planting - as well as our philosophy behind this restoration effort, which is based in conservation, restoration, and horticulture best practices.

Several SABG staff members will be there to answer questions and speak about the multiple layers of this project. This will also be an opportunity to ask about volunteer opportunities - from seed collection, seed cleaning, & planting. Additionally, we will be available to answer questions about land access for planting sites and future seed collections.

Interested in getting involved? Leave a ✋ in the comments and we'll send you info about volunteer opportunities with the TREES Initiative

Thanks and I hope to see many familiar faces on the 28th!

ME

Zea mays ssp parvaglumis, Balsas Teosinte, the wild ancestor to modern corn.

We're growing these at the garden in order to have plants, and hopefully a bit of seed, for an upcoming presentation where I'll cover the botany and history of four new world plants that grace our table during Thanksgiving.

First image shows male flowers with brownish anthers. Second image highlights the silk, which are the female flowers.

Zea is closely related to our native Tripsacum dactyloides.

In addition to the three days of presentations, this year's conference in also hosted a robust poster session.

Attendees from Japan, Portugal, Mexico, China, El Salvador, and the United States were able to showcase their research between sessions.

gave a wonderful presentation on her botanical art and how art can connect people with nature. She had several exquisite pieces of her Mexican oak species on display during the conference and donated several works in the silent auction.

I've always been a fan of botanical art, whether line drawings or watercolors, the ability to accurately and artistically put to paper our flora is so impressive. These pieces document plants in ways that photography will never capture - fruit, flowers, new leaves, older leaves, and even the fauna that use these plants - all can be incorporated in a single composition.

We also visited traditional weavers while in Teotitlán del Valle... Most is self explanatory, but a few plants highlights used in the dying process

Image 3 - marigolds
4 & 5- cochineal, with acid (red) and baking soda purple)
5 - lichen
6 - indigo (imdigofera)