A spring in central Texas, the likes of which we haven’t seen here in at least two years. Some plants – like one of my favorite herbs, plantain (Plantago major), disappeared completely, it seemed, but popped up bright and furrily green this year as if it had never been gone.
Often, trees and shrubs will bloom sparsely or not at all during the bad years, conserving their energy for roots and leaves.
Photo: Huisache.
Acacia minuata (A. farnesiana). Fabaceae.
Small, spiny tree with bright yellow-gold spring blossoms … “Bees make tasty honey from its flowers, and birds eat its seeds … In parts of Mexico, crushed leaves are made into wound dressings, and the flowers are used in an ointment … headaches.”
“Trees, Shrubs, and Vines of the Texas Hill Country,” Jan Wrede, 2nd Edition, p. 111.
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