Natural History Wanderings

Gary Regner Photography has an April 5, 2014 wildflower report exploring East of Temple

I decided to explore the area east of Temple that received 10-20+ inches of rain last October; eastern Bell and Falls counties. I’ve never been through this area in the spring but thought I’d give it a try since they were in the rain “bullseye” last fall. I found this area to be largely agricultural crop land, so unfortunately not a great deal of wildflowers. The area is, however, a lush, verdant green. You can really tell they received abundant rainfall. The following is a synopsis of the route I took with notes on what I observed:

Hwy 79 East from Round Rock to Taylor – a few fields of bluebonnets, but mostly crop land

Hwy 95 North to FM 2268 East – predominantly agricultural, not many wildflowers

FM 437 North – again mostly crop land but I did find a nice field of Texas Star

Tx 53 East – some paintbrush and bluebonnets but mostly roadside

Hwy 77 S to FM 413 East – not much until you hit FM 2027

FM 2027 N from FM 413 to Cedar Springs – many huge fields of yellow groundsel, this area is “Groundsel Heaven”. Also in bloom, but in far fewer numbers, were toadflax, paintbrush, multicolored phlox, and sandwort. This was the best area of the day.

FM 413 E to Kosse – some Sandyland bluebonnets and paintbrush mainly along the roads, also some fields of groundsel

Made my way back to Temple via Tx 7, Tx 320 and Tx 53 – not a lot to see, some bluebonnets and paintbrush roadside

Visit my Facebook page for some pictures from this trip.

For more wildflower reports go to: Texas Wildflower and Bluebonnet Sightings Report : Texas Wildflower Hot Spots and Pictures by Gary Regner Photography.

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