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Like most parts of Texas that are even a little dry, Winston Ranch has plenty of Mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa --Fabaceae/Mimosaceae).  This incredibly tough tree is a mixed blessing.  Yes, it's weedy and invasive in overgrazed pastures, but the pulp around the seeds is edible by cattle and people, mesquite chips are great for barbecuing, and big trees can yield some beautiful wood  for furniture and lathework.  In fact, the big, lustrous dining table in the ranch house is made from mesquite!  (Images by James Manhart.)

Much less common is Clapweed (Ephedra antisiphylitica--Ephedraceae.)  Even though this shrub looks like it has juicy red "berries" among its twiggy stems, it's actually a gymnosperm.  The reproductive structures are actually modified cones and the red parts are fleshy bracts.  Some species of Ephedra exhibit double fertilization, a characteristic once thought to be restricted to angiosperms. The common and scientific names suggest one of the uses this species  has in folk medicine.

Another rare treat and a first-time encounter for the East Texas members of the expedition was this Brush Myrtlecroton (Bernardia myricifolia--Euphorbiaceae.) This shrub doesn't look much like a Euphorb, except for the flowers and capsular fruit--which all promptly fell off when we took a sample.  Note the nicely undulate (wavy) leaf margins.

This Low Wild Mercury (sounds like a car, doesn't it?) or Argythamnia humilis var. humilis, in contrast, is easily recognizable as a member of the Euphorbiaceae.  It has separate male and female flowers and the typical Euphorb gynoecium (as in the images below.)  It's hairy, and you might mistake it for Noseburn (Tragia), but the hairs of this plant are harmless.

Leather-weed Croton (Croton pottsii var. pottsii--Euphorbiaceae) is another typical Euphorb.  The female flowers (middle) have long styles and the male flowers (right) have long filaments.  The foliage looks gray-green because it is densely stellate-pubescent  That is, it is beset with hairs that look like little stars under magnification.

We found this Brushland Lantana (Lantana achyranthifolia--Verbenaceae) growing on a fenceline.  Lantanas usually have many small flowers packed into a short spike (It can be tricky to get them all in focus at once.)  Often the flowers open one color and age to another.  There are both native and weedy introduced species in Texas--purple, yellow, pink, red, whitish, fragrant, foetid, smooth, scratchy, etc.  Many are good in home landscapes because they attract butterflies and they can take as much heat as a summer can dish out.

We would like to get a look at the pollinator for Angel Trumpets (Acleisanthes longiflora--Nyctaginaceae.)  The corolla tube in this species can be as much as 15 cm (about 6 inches) long, and somewhere there is a moth with a tongue to match. One would probably have to go out in the middle of the night to photograph the flowers at their freshest.  The plants are gray-green and low-growing .  We found one of them right in the middle of the dirt ranch road.

Something else that was in the middle of the road was this Flax (Linum berlandieri var. berlandieri--Linaceae.)  The flowers are perfectly 5-merous, which means that all the parts are in multiples of 5--5 sepals, 5 petals, 5 stamens, 5 carpels, and 5 styles which are basally united.  Flax is pretty to look at, but it is not a wildflower for picking unless the goal is botanical confetti--all the petals just drop right off.

This Dwarf Senna (Senna pumilio--Fabaceae/Caesalpiniaceae) was a little sturdier.  This is the smallest Senna in Texas--the whole plant shown was less than 10 cm (about 4 inches) tall.  Its leaves are narrow and somewhat grasslike, and the stamens have banana-shaped anthers that are much longer than the filaments.

Littlehead Gumweed (Grindelia microcephala--Asteraceae) doesn't look special at first glance (just another DYC--Darned Yellow Composite), but the beauty is in the details.  The phyllaries are curl-tipped and reflexed, and the leaves look as if they were cut with miniature pinking shears.  The foliage is gummy-resinous and specimens stick to the newspaper when you press them.

Some of the prettiest flowers were growing in the lawn surrounding the main ranch house and bunkhouses.  This is Siphonoglossa pilosella (Tube-tongue--Acanthaceae), a plant common in much of the southwest 1/4 of Texas.  Look for it in sparse lawns with dry, sandy soil.  This plant is a small one, and we wish we had a shot of Robert scrunched down taking this photograph face-on.

We knew we couldn't hope to see everything on our trip, but we didn't expect to miss something amazing right under our noses.  Right after we left, this Swanflower (Aristolochia erecta--Aristolochiaceae or Dutchman's Pipe Family) was discovered in the lawn right outside our bunkhouses.  The leaves are narrow and grasslike, and we could be forgiven for overlooking them, but how did we miss this tubular, white and purple flower that looks like a gape-mouthed snake?  We have seen this plant before, on rocky outcrops in Grimes County. Species of Aristolochia are the sole food of larvae of the Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly.  The ornate red and black caterpillars can eat the plants down to nubbins, and sometimes the easiest way to find a plant is to watch the showy black and blue butterflies and hope to catch them ovipositing.  (Images by Hillary Loring.)