Search results for

Salt Cedar is hated in West Texas. Tamarix, as it’s known botanically, is a native of dry areas of Eurasia and Africa How did it get to the Americas and why is it so despised?

Everyone is familiar with Turkey Vultures, those huge black birds that circle high in the sky, searching for road kill. The rare Zone-tailed Hawk often flies hidden among the buzzards, hiding in plain sight. They are also dark and can soar with wings raised dihedrally in a “v.” Unlike vultures, though, their heads are feathered. With such a limited range, birdwatchers come from all over the United States to attempt to add the zone-tailed hawk to their life list.

Without the Dexter National Fish Hatchery and Technology Center, several desert fish species might have disappeared from our region. What is this unique facility?

Learn about the Pipevine Plant and its importance in the West Texas ecosystem.

Heat and dryness are facts of existence in West Texas. Every living thing must either evade these conditions or adapt to them. Humans, through technology, attempt to create our own environment. We live in air-conditioned houses and drive an air-conditioned car to our air-conditioned offices. But what about other creatures? How do they cope with the West Texas heat?

In many of the supermarkets and drugstores of the southwest, many medicinal plants are sold in plastic bags with Spanish-name labels. Some of these plants are native, while others were brought to the New World by the settlers of the colonial period. In San Antonio, Laredo, and many other towns in Texas, a person can visit a botanica, a shop which specializes in herbal medicines as well as religious figurines, incense, “milagros,” and other necessities of the Hispanic “curanderismo” tradition.

The Kingbird is one of many species of Flycatcher, famous for catching their insect prey on the wing. Have you watched the kingbirds along the streets of your town? Do you find them annoying or superbly entertaining?

Do you know how to identify plants of the Solanaceae family with their five petals?

Tarantulas are scary looking. Many people kill them on sight, certain that the fuzzy spiders will jump onto them and bite, injecting a deadly poison. Nothing is further from the truth.

Earthstars are fungi, a close relation to puffballs. Most people have seen puffballs - irregularly shaped ball-like mushrooms that are just dry spore sacks that make a satisfying "pop" when stepped on.