Favoritos de landobaggins

The last picture is an UV photography, shot by a full spectrum camera with an UV "bug vision" filters stack
Milkweed flowers are unique. The flowers have no typical "UV Nectar" guide but the petals are very UV reflective under the sun. The colorations of Green Antelopehorns flowers turned out so beautiful when I photographed them yesterday with a full spectrum camera.
I bet these flowers would look amazing with UVIVF!

The 4th picture is UV flora, aka Bee Vision
These milkweeds are growing on the side of road.

The land owner drove over to check us out and she stayed inside of her truck. I knew some land owners don't like people taking pictures around their property. I went over, smiled and said hi. I told her I am just taking pictures of these milkweed plants (which are on the public road). She ignored me just kept on filming me.

Oh well, I am not going to stop because I am on the public road.
Then my husband got upset and took his cellphone out started taking video of her..and he kept rushing me to hurry up. He didn't come out from our truck, he stayed inside and filming her. :-(
After I finished, I went over and introduced myself, also thanked her to allow me to take pictures of plants.

She told me her name is Alice? She claimed she has "babies" inside and worried we might cut the fence and went inside her property to scare her "babies". She is not mean. I think she might already called the sheriff but I knew county sheriff is not going to come over since we were on the public road.

If you want to see these milkweeds, be aware.

She said there are many Engelmann's milkweed plants on her property, she told me that she planted them herself.

The second picture is UV flora, aka Bee Vision

"This plant has traditional uses in Cherokee Native American herbal medicine; the roots are used to make a topically applied salve to help knit broken bones and as treatment for wounds, ulcers and boils; other parts of the plant are used as a tonic, to relieve indigestion, to induce sweating and to stimulate blood flow during menstruation. Not to be confused with other "snakeroot" plants such as Aristolochia serpentaria (contains toxic aristolochic acids; also known as Virginia snakeroot), Ageratina altissima (contains toxic tremetol, also known as white snakeroot), Actaea racemosa (also known as black snakeroot and black cohosh) or Sanicula canadensis (Canadian blacksnakeroot)."~Wikipedia

In an oak-juniper woodland with limestone cliffs and thin rocky soils. This area was quarried for limestone in the 1890s and is labeled "old quarry north" in a BFL habitat and land use map.

Associated species: Quercus fusiformis, Juniperus ashei, Fraxinus albicans, Nandina domestica

Squirrel (fox squirrel?) being squeezed (eaten later?) by snake. Duplicating observation per request of snake predation enthusiasts who messaged me. I was not able to determine the ultimate fate of the squirrel or the snake - just passing by.

A very proud moment for me -- this is the type location of Dalea reverchonii on Comanche Peak in Hood County.

Likely at this exact spot, Julien Reverchon, a French botanist, collected a Dalea in June of 1882. It is endemic to Walnut Clay Limestone in North Central Texas.

Read more about this cool plant here:
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/nrcs144p2_002289.pdf

Had a wonderful time with iNatters at Gus Engeling WMA - journal post here: http://www.inaturalist.org/journal/sambiology/10657-gus-engeling-wma-short-notice-saturday-july-8th-wanna-come

The second stop was by the northern ponds and pitcher plant bogs. It was so hot and muggy today, and we were all drenched in sweat... Nonetheless, we spotted some amazing organisms in the heat. :)