T he P rick ly P ea r - Texas Master Naturalist

October-November 2010
From the President
Isn’t the cool fall weather a blessing after the summer’s 27 straight days of
100+ heat! Now’s the time we all feel like getting outside and getting closer to
nature, whether that’s taking walks, taking pictures, planting for next spring,
watching the migrating birds, or hunting doves. We had 5.5” of rain at our
place in Bronte Friday-Saturday, September 24-25, and it’s most welcome.
The fall training class is progressing well. We have 12 new interns plus Pam
Casey from the 2009 class, who has returned to complete her training. The
training sessions have been the best we’ve had yet! If you get a chance, please
join us at the training sessions; great way to renew your knowledge and to get
to know our new interns.
The Prickly Pear
Our
...to provide education, ou
the beneficial management
areas within o
Purpose…
treach, and service dedicated to
of natural resources and natural
ur community ...
Fall Training Class
Big Country Master Naturalist Website
We are moving our Big Country website to the state Master Naturalist server
called WordPress. The information from our current website has been copied
over and can be accessed at http://txmn.org/bc/. Shannon Roysden and I plan
on getting trained in WordPress so we can keep the site up to date. Please take
a look at the site and let us know what you think we should put on the site. All
comments and contributions are welcome!
Horned Lizard Surveys
Three horned lizard surveys have been held this year; the results are good and
the pictures are fantastic! Please read the article in this issue and enjoy the pictures. The chapter is working with Texas Parks and Wildlife to join the Texas
Horned Lizard Watch with Phil Watkins leading. Phil has started finding us
new sites to survey next summer including the Rolling Plains Quail Research
Ranch and another ranch where over 100 horned lizards were caught in a single
day.
Invaders of Texas Workshop
I had to contact Travis Gallo with the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center to
delay our workshop. At the board meeting last week, the board agreed that we
should delay holding the Invaders of Texas Workshop until around April 2011.
Since we have cancelled the monthly meetings during the fall training sessions,
there just isn’t enough time to prepare for this workshop. By the time the
classes end on November 15th, we’re well and truly into the silly season and the
year’s essentially over.
Hords Creek Lake Park
Cherrie-Lee Phillip, one of our new interns, is the park ranger at Hords Creek
Lake. Cherrie-Lee had planned a morning of tree and native plants planting at
the park last Saturday for National Public Lands Day. Fortunately it rained;
unfortunately it rained out the planned festivities and work. We’ll plan another
planting day and let you know when.
Submitted by Judy Hetherington, President
Written and submitted by Susan Young (See photos, next page)
Page 2
T H E PR I C K L Y P E A R
Page 3
T H E PR I C K L Y P E A R
(Photos by John English, Susan Young,
and Phil and Connie Watkins)
Page 4
T H E PR I C K L Y P E A R
(Submitted by Judy Hetherington)
A Herbarium-like Experience
A spur-of-the-moment decision to go to the Grace Museum here in Abilene led to a wonderful new “herbarium”-like experience. This
was a perfect follow-up to the lecture by Dr. Rick Hammer at Harden Simmons University, given for our new intern class.
Beverly Penn is a sculptor who works with bronze as her medium. As you walk into her exhibit on the first floor of the Grace Museum
at 102 Cypress Street, you might think you are simply walking into a more modern, non smelling, herbarium. Her pieces are so exquisite; you are unable at first to tell that they are not the real thing…. even when you are eye to eye with them. I highly recommend that
everyone make the time to enjoy the wonderful gift of nature that she has so perfectly recreated. You must see it to believe it. Also on
display are beautiful monotype prints by Beth Lea Clardy and brilliant flower portraits from the collection of Alice Wright. Here’s hoping you will take the time to enjoy………………..
(Submitted by Carol Danko)
Page 5
T H E PR I C K L Y P E A R
Page 6
T H E PR I C K L Y P E A R
Rodney’s Corner
Word of the Month
Veliger — The young or juvenile form of the freshwater mussel.
Mussel of the Month
Asian Clam (Corbicula flumines)
An invasive species from Asia. The Asian Clam has been introduced and has spread over most of the U.S.
the shell is small — up to 50 mm in length. The larvae is free swimming — unlike our native mussels
which require a fish host. It thrives in rivers and streams with a slow to moderate current. This small Asian
clam can live for weeks in damp soil or mud. If you are near any body of water in Texas and you see a
small shell, it is probably the Asian Clam.
Fish of the Month
White Crappie (Pomoxis annularis)
My daddy's favorite fish. I must confess to a bias for this fish — I grew up fishing for this fish. A very
popular game fish. The world record crappie is 5 lbs 3 oz caught at Enid Lake in Mississippi (a lake that
my father, brother, and I fished for years). The Texas record is 4 lbs 9 oz. The white crappie can be distinguished from the black crappie by the fact that the white crappie has 5-6 anal spines and the black crappie
has 7-8 anal spines. The white crappie was formally indigenous to central North America east of the Rocky
Mountains but now inhabits all of the U.S. except the Pacific Northwest and the north central Rocky Mountains. It tends to inhabit sluggish lakes and streams with lots of cover.
(Submitted by Rodney Sturdivant)
Page 7
T H E PR I C K L Y P E A R
TREE FUNGUS ISSUES
Have you ever noticed clamshell-like growths at the base of trees? How about toadstools or false mushrooms growing close to
trees or even on branches and trunks? What about a black, brown, or green layer of growth on the side of a tree that looks like mold? If
you have ever observed these things, the chances are that what you saw was a fungus.
Fungi are one of the largest and most common problems that plague trees. very basically, fungi are part of a group of plants that
don't have chlorophyll. Since they don't have chlorophyll, they lack the ability to make their own food in the manner that green leafy
plants do. Green plants in general and trees specifically, are autotrophs, meaning that they make their own food (By the way, the fertilizers that we apply to yards are not "plant food", they are the basic elements that a plant uses to make its own food). Fungi belong to a
group of plants called heterotrophs, meaning that they aren't capable of manufacturing their own food out of basic elements and energy
(sunlight usually). This means that they have to digest other biological organisms which have already created food that is in a form that
these fungi can digest.
Without getting too far off the subject, photosynthesis is the lowest part of the food chain on planet earth and all life as we
know it depends on green plants converting sunlight and available elements into usable food. As a side note, humans are also heterotrophs. We depend on photosynthetic plants either for our own diet, or the diet of the various animals that we depend on for food.
One of the reasons that fungi can be such a problem for trees is that they actually feed on parts of the plant. There are thousands of different species and types of fungi, but the main interaction with plants is for the fungi to try and digest or make use of some
part of the body of the plant that it is feeding on.
There are some other ways that fungi can cause problems for trees. One of the better known fungi that affects oak trees is the
one that causes oak wilt. The best way to describe how oak wilt kills the trees is to say that the tree death is a result of the reaction of the
tree to the presence of the fungus. You can almost say that the tree does itself in trying to kill off the fungus.
While oak wilt and other fungi can kill trees off in a manner that is similar to poisoning, the majority of the day to day fungal
problems that are encountered in trees and other plants are caused by strains of fungi that simply want to digest the plant.
This digestion of plants by fungi usually takes place on the cellular level and starts off quite small. Most of these organisms enter
the host plant through wounds. These wounds can be very tiny and really just need to be enough of a break in the bark or other protective layer for the fungus to get that first foothold. If this happens in a healthy tree, often the trees defenses will be enough to stop the
infection before it gets very far into the tree. The main defense for this type of infection is called compartmentalization. This simply
means that the tree will seal off this area of decay with strong barriers of wood and try to contain and encapsulate the infection so that it
can't spread any further. This compartmentalized decay will not heal or disappear. It will remain with that tree as long as the tree is alive,
but be contained behind those wood walls so that it doesn't spread into the larger portion of the tree. If that same tree is under some
kind of stress, or is a species of tree that is not a very good compartmentalizer (think willow, hackberry, elm, etc.) the new infection may
spread and depending on what type of fungus it is, could even contribute to the eventual death of the plant.
Many of the fungi that infect plants are spread by spores and these spores are often present in the soil, air, and water. Since
these spores are almost always present, improper wounds or constant re-wounding of trees is an invitation for infection. In landscapes, it
is not at all uncommon for these types of infections to enter trees where they have received repeated damage from lawn mowers and
weed eaters. While young trees can be killed by this type of damage, more mature trees will survive the constant wounding but be particularly susceptible to soil born fungi.
There are very few ways to "cure" a tree of a fungal infection. There are commercial fungicides available, but they are limited in
effectiveness and the range of fungi that they treat. Usually the best we can do with this problem is prevent the infection from spreading
further into the tree. If a fungal infection is caught in time, this containment should be enough to allow the tree to live and grow further.
The contradictory thing about all of this is that it is essential for these different fungi to digest and break down trees and other
woody plants to maintain the cycle of plants being returned to the soil as nutrients for future plants. Fungi are an absolutely essential part
of this process. The problem for us is when the fungi reach out to include our landscaping plants in this necessary process.
The next KWKC Green Team workshop titled Spring Color and Spring Planting will be held at 2 P.M. March 27 th at Willow Creek
Gardens, 1820 South Treadaway, in Abilene.
If you have any landscaping, landscape maintenance, or tree questions you would like answered in this column, submit them
care of [email protected] or [email protected].
The KWKC Green Team is made up of Bruce Kreitler (Broken Willow Tree Service 325 675 6794 or [email protected])
Adam Andrews (Willow Creek Design and Landscape 325 673 2329) and Stephen Myers (Steele Myers Landscaping 325 673 7478). Catch
them on KWKC 1340 Saturdays at noon
(Submitted by Bruce Kreitler)
(Originally published in the March 9th edition of The Western Observer and reprinted with their permission.)
Page 8
T H E PR I C K L Y P E A R
HORNED LIZARD CONSERVATION SOCIETY SURVEY
COLORADO CITY, TX — SEPTEMBER 4, 2010
As new members of The Homed Lizard Conservation Society, Phil and Connie Watkins were invited by Leeann Liman to attend the Homed Lizard Survey and business meeting in Colorado City. Leeann
works for Texas Parks & Wildlife and is also a member of the Homed Lizard Conservation Society.
We arrived at the Colorado City State Park for our morning Homed Lizard Hunt on Saturday, September 4, at 9:15 a.m. Because of a cold front that had moved through the area the day before, the temperatures dropped into the upper 50's. For three hours, the homed lizards hid from all of us who were searching
the entire morning for them.
We had a delicious lunch and sat in on the business meeting for the Homed Lizard Conservation Society. After a short rest, we went back out for another search.
We drove to the Maddin Prairie Preserve, which is just outside Colorado City. After searching for a
couple hours, Connie "saved the day" when she found the "one and only" baby horned lizard in some tall
grass by a red ant bed at 6:00 p.m. It was too young for us to determine its sex; it weighed 3 grams and was
6 cm long.
The temperature had climbed to 83°.
We considered the day to be a good hunt, and enjoyed making new friends. We drove back to Abilene at 6:45 p.m.
Until another day . . .
Phil and Connie Watkins
.
(Please see the photos, next page)
Page 9
T H E PR I C K L Y P E A R
Photos from the Colorado City Survey
Page 10
T H E PR I C K L Y P E A R
OUR PURPOSE…
...TO PROVIDE EDUCATION,
OUTREACH, AND SERVICE DEDICATED
TO THE BENEFICIAL MANAGEMENT OF
NATURAL RESOURCES AND NATURAL
AREAS WITHIN OUR COMMUNITY...
The Prickly Pear is produced every two
months by
Big Country Chapter —
Texas Master Naturalist
Taylor County Extension Office
1982 Lytle Way
Abilene, TX 79602
To make comments or to suggest content for
future issues, please contact Mary Burrows by
email at [email protected]