Essays

Wild On The Prairie: Plants

Plants in the Winter
March 18, 2001

On February 17th, 2001, the Native Plant Horticulture Class from Midland College met at the Gone Native Arboretum. Their assignment -- find ten things of interest as they walked along 2200 feet of trail that divides the mesquite brushland from the reclaimed prairie. The sky was clear; a 15 mile an hour wind came out of the northeast and the temperature a crisp 24 degrees Fahrenheit.

My goal as the facilitator of the class is to teach discriminatory perception, passionate interaction with the natural world, and awareness of ecological processes, using the students growing knowledge of plants as the vehicle. When people first visit the Arboretum, we always ask people to tell us what they saw. Usually it is an acknowledgement of the big picture -- "wow, what an oasis," and if pressed for the strongest image still present in their minds, "what in the world is that bone pile about?" (Ornamentation at the Arboretum ranges from objects the size of fingernails to structures taller than the human form. Each has a story that gives an interpretative depth to the garden.)

The "meadow trail," mentioned above, is on the outside of an area cleared of mesquite. This cleared area surrounds the planted vegetation at the heart of the property. This meadow, or reclaimed prairie, is approximately five acres in extent, and goes through two changes of soil types. A ridge of very sandy loam is contrasted with a very tight clay loam, separated by areas of integration. Tobosa grass fills the clay soils, while the sandy soil vegetation changes with the amount of rainfall. In the rainiest years it has been a knee to thigh tall prairie of sand dropseed, and in more droughty years the grasses have been a mix of witchgrass, bristlegrass, windmill grass, and a panicum. After seven years of drought most of the grass is dead, but the winter moisture has nourished a green carpet of wildflowers that grows two inches taller every day.

On each list of ten observations the students mentioned the bitter cold morning. Only one, however, mentioned the thin high clouds streaming from southwest to northeast. Five of the eight students noticed the four-winged saltbush with its faded gold seedpods and white fuzzy galls. One student knew the name of the saltbush before the walk, but after learning of the seed's use as baking powder and investigating the interior of the gall, more now know it.

Four of the students noticed the patterns of frost crystals on the winter rosettes of the wildflowers. When all were gathered in the warm Arboretum office a lively discussion developed. "Did you notice the spike-like form of the crystals?" "How does frost form?" "I hear the moisture is what is evaporating from the ground, and as it rises it meets the cold air, and sinks back down..." "How come the rosettes are not wilted by the frost like the pansies?" "Is frost dependent of the rate of temperature change?" "Does it only happen when the air temperature is right around freezing?" Midland fireman David Cowan was the student most fascinated by the frost, but everybody participated in the conversation vigorously.

One of the plants that three of the students noticed also stimulated the students' imagination. "How can the wolfberry have bright green leaves all winter -- it is a deciduous plant -- correct?" "What do you mean -- that it is only moisture deciduous, not temperature deciduous -- that sounds real strange!" "Is it rhizomatous? I noticed there was usually several babies near the big ones." "It is called wolfberry because of its ability to make dense thickets that could hide an animal den." "I have seen the little red berries, and I have noticed they disappear the day they turn red." "In dry times it just looks like a tumbleweed." "Have you ever seen it sold as an ornamental plant?" "I have seen different species of the same genus sold in Arizona and at Las Vegas. Las Vegas is a boom town where there has been lots of experimentation with many forms of native plants."

"The mesquite covered pasture appeared more uniform to the eye. Where the mesquite has been cleared an observer can notice the subtle textures of the different grasses and perennials. The grass was thicker without mesquite, too." Cheryl Hardie of the Odessa Parks Department noted. Home greenhouse owner Sandy Wood mentioned seeing lichen on the mesquite bark. "There was less frost under the mesquite. On some bare soil I saw a grouping of dead mesquite branches on the ground that made a very plain fish symbol." Ex-Navy seaman Arthur Rios often notices patterns, changes, interruptions in patterns, and wildlife before the rest of the class. He also noticed White-Crowned Sparrows hopping under the live mesquite, carefully keeping the upright trunks between Arthur and themselves.

Cheryl asked if anyone had noticed the dark-eyed junco in the open grass and when she described it Sibley Nature Center naturalist Brandon Young responded that he had seen three near the windmill. Greenhouse technician Jackie said she had not seen a bird, or even heard a bird. Arboretum caretaker and writer Andy Hartley admitted to ending his walk before its completion (due to frozen ears.) He cut through the pine grove where the birds are fed. "I think almost every bird in the neighborhood was there. In the grove their singing was loud, but out on the meadow trail a person can not hear them."

Terlingua's jack-of-all-trades Charlie Barnes commented on the feeling of being in the middle of nowhere. "I like that feeling, I grew up with it, and I didn't think I would find it here." Charlie also notices detail. "Did you notice the three types of spines on the prickly pear? Most had yellow spines, but the mid-sized ones had black-tipped white ones, and there is one out there that has red spines. Are they all the same species?" He did not wait for an answer. "What was the grass to the northeast that looked like hair on the ground? Every inch of the soil was covered. It looks like long buffalo hair or something. It is so curly. And there was a big hole along the trail --"

Brandon interrupted him. "I saw two holes, and they looked fresh." I told him the holes had been there for two weeks. "I guess the moisture in the soil "subbing" up makes it look fresh." That stimulated a short conversation about the capillary action of water in the soil.

"When was the trail scraped out?" The class had noticed the inexorable advance of vegetation. "Anywhere there was loose sand there was lots of the winter rosettes," Sandy noticed. "Did you put old tree prunings on that old trail to help catch grass seed blowing in the wind or being washed along by a good rain?" Charlie had noticed another old trail, now almost invisible, except for the tree clippings. "It must work real good."

Brandon held out a handful of wild onion stems. "These were thickest in the trail -- or so it seems -- but maybe they are just more noticeable." He held up a tiny Bakelite Brownie Camera part. "This must date from the forties or fifties. Who owned the land before the developer your family bought it from? I have noticed the mostly buried old beer bottles down along the road, but this was way into the heart of the pasture." Brandon collects old human artifacts. He usually has pockets full of little bits of history.

A thirty minute walk provided the class with two hours of conversation. At the end, I asked what it had to do with gardening.