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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.

After the rains, "rain bugs” or “Santa Claus bugs” appear, tiny velvety red plush cutie-pies. Even though they are called “bugs”, they are not insects at all, but arachnids, related to spiders.

A Chihuahuan desert arthropod that looks ferociously dangerous is the big, black, whip scorpion, or vinegaroon. Normally they’re found in rocky country, only after significant rain events.

Pronghorn have perfect camouflage, unmatched speed, and can spot a predator miles away. But that hasn't protected them from a mysterious population decline in Trans-Pecos Texas. What's happening to them?

Do you know how many species of poisonous snakes live in the Chihuahuan Desert and on the Llano Estacado?

Gardening for wildlife is fun! Wildlife gardens are beautiful, full of life, always changing, and always engaging. What’s the newest bird, butterfly, dragonfly or flower to be recorded in the garden?