Natural History Wanderings

Gary Regner Photography reports

March 20, 2015 – Today is the vernal equinox, the first day of spring on which daylight and night are of equal length. In Texas spring brings pleasant temperatures and world famous displays of wildflowers. This year should be exceptional with ample rainfall for much of the state since fall. Already wildflowers are blooming in abundance, with displays of Big Bend bluebonnets in far west Texas, to multicolored annuals in south central Texas. Trees too are puting on a show with redbuds and purple mountain laurels in full bloom. Stay tuned for continued wildflower sighting reports throughout the spring.

>March 19, 2015 – South Central Texas Scouting Trip I drove 352 miles on Wednesday scouting locations in south central Texas east and south of San Antonio. Long story short, this looks to be an excellent wildflower season. Best areas right now are in the Floresville area and the Devine, Natalia, Lytle area.

> Hwy 183/Tx 130 from Austin south to Lockhart – lots of bluebonnets in early bloom along the highway, but way more invasive mustard, choking out the bluebonnets completely in some areas

> Hwy 183 from Lockhart to Luling – flowers in very early bloom, not worth seeing yet

> Tx 80 from Luling to Alt 90 W to Seguin – flowers early in bloom, hard to tell how good this area will be, not worth seeing yet

> FM 467 from Seguin to New Berlin – some lots already are covered with phlox and paintbrush, but still early

> New Berlin – the Lutheran Church on Church Rd and the big field at Church Rd and Single Oak Rd have very few wildflowers at this time, likely just too early

> FM 467 east to FM 539 south to US 87 – some large fields of paintbrush, and fields of mixed groundsel, paintbrush, phlox and Sandyland bluebonnets

> US 87 south to Tx 97 west to Floresville- some very nice fields already of mixed wildflowers (phlox, bluebonnets, groundsel), should be spectacular in another week or two

> Tx 97 from La Vernia to Pleasanton – not much to see at this time

> Tx 173 north from Pleasanton to Devine – some very promising fields along this route, but early, including groundsel, phlox, bluebonnets, paintbrush, prickly poppies

> IH 35 from Devine to Lytle – it was getting dark, but I spotted many fields already covered with wildflowers, including groundsel, phlox, bluebonnets, paintbrush, prickly poppies, bladderpod, and primrose. This area should really be worth seeing in a week or two. The downside was the amount of development in the last several years has destroyed many good wildflower fields.