It's snow-time. Or at least snow-on-the-prairie time here at Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge. The first snow is starting to show. In good years, huge patches of snow-on-the-prairie appear and look like drifts of snow. This year, some of the plants are blooming when they only have one small stalk, so I don't expect more than a few little snow showers.
Other flowers are contributing to the snowy effect.
Even our great egrets and cattle egrets are adding to the snowy effect when tLughey congregate into huge roosts each evening.
Other wildflowers are also blooming, even in one of the worst droughts in history.
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| A small drift of snow-on-the-prairie (Euphorbia bicolor) |
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| Snow-on-the-prairie |
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| A plot of gauara (Guara lindheimeri) |
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| False dandelion seed head - these often grow in large groups and the seed head is equal in beauty to the flower |
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| Great egret, cattle egret, and neotropical cormorant rookery in the Skillern Unit |
Other wildflowers are also blooming, even in one of the worst droughts in history.
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| Basket flower (Oenothera speciosa) - see the basket around the bud? |
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| Water primrose (Lugwigia peploides) |
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| Eryngo is making huge purple drifts |
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| Bluebells ( Eustoma exaltatum) are blooming in many places |
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| Yellow Puff (Neptunia lutea) makes a great little ground cover |
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| Green Milkweed (Asclepias viridis) is our most common native milkweed |
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| Pickeralweed (Pontederia cordata) - I rescued this ahead of the roadside mowers for the Visitor Center Pond |
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Showy evening primrose (Oenothera speciosa) - they've been blooming since February and make a lovely weaver in the native garden. These southern plants bloom in the daytime. |
