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Alkali Lake Region
Photo-essay by Charlotte Burke
September 9, 2009
The Texas Master Naturalist class of 2009 had departed Sibley Nature Center at 9 a.m., arriving packs
in hand at private ranch land south of Midland, Texas. This was one region of the “Llano Estacado”,
a rare gem of earth in West Texas which we would visit during the year, led by Burr Williams.
A staggering array of padlocks loomed over the ranch
gate. Cattle guards always remind me of my sister’s New
York “city slicker” college roommate. We tried to describe
for her how these special grates functioned to control the
passage of livestock, to no avail. She came to NM for a
visit eventually, and we drove around until we located
one she could view for herself.
We strolled the area waiting for the owner to arrive.
Dodder (also known as Devil’s Guts or the amusingly
contrary Angel Hair), had draped its parasitic growth over
vegetation. It uses modified roots to attach itself to the host
plant, from which it then secures the nutrients it requires.
This sand muhly grass dies out at its center each year,
creating an increasingly larger ring of new growth.
Burr visited with the ‘company man’ finalizing directions
to the salina we were about to view: a desert lake or playa
that has dried out and left precipitates in concentrated
amounts. These salt lakes naturally evaporate, leaving dry,
crusty alkali crusts across an area of substantial size.
Sandra Elms sketched in the early
sunshine as we waited at the gate.
A “chip off the old block”: this boy
was the cutest smaller version of his
idolized father, complete with
hands stuffed into his pockets and
cowboy boots topped with new blue
jeans!
A spider had made use of a trough
to set up insect trapping. Holes
were also hidden with vegetation,
making the ground quite uneven.
An area had been
cleared where an oil
rig once sat. Cattle are
also no longer grazed
here; slowly the land is
reverting to a natural
state. Never under
estimate the healing
ability of Nature !
Against all odds, a possible
Livermore “Diablo point”
arrowhead was discovered
on the drilling pad by one of
our group. The excited
finder kindly consented to
re-enact his phenomenal
discovery for my camera!
A true bug sat on four-wing saltbush (chamiso); named for four
wing type seed pod attachments. This plant deposits absorbed
salt into pouches on its leaves.
As we descended an arroyo onto the alkali lakebed, the firm
but spongy loam took on a grey cast.
A peculiar plant called pickle-weed seemed to be leading
the way down into the salina, one of the few plants willing to
make a go for it in this salty environment. Its stems
(modified leaves?) look like long slender tubular pinecones
or cork screws, in greens to brown.
Does alkali soil somehow bring out the blush in vegetation?
A purslane plant was truly pink instead of its typical shade
of green. Note the stiff, straight stalks of grass to its left.
The “tunas” or fruit bodies on the prickly pear were also a
particularly brilliant rosy peach.
Kochia (fireweed), a very prolific plant, had rhubarb colored
stems (being used as a temporary landing spot for a blue
damselfly!) For an enchanting essay on damselflies and
dragonflies in West Texas, go SibleyNatureCenter.org and
read the essay by Burr Williams entitled “Moseying:
Dragonfly Watching June 29, 2005.”
Note the eye-popping red on these! Their intriguing name:
“espantes vaqueros” or ghost cowboys . A member of the
amaranth family (Tidestromia lanuginosa), it is also found
under the name honeymat (because of its floral aroma)
and wooly tidestromia. It ranges over much of the country.
And the spurge group, which manages to show up at every
party, put in an appearance here as well with its pink legs
and emerald slippers.
Miniature gullies
looked like forested
canyons seen from
a pilot’s perspective.
Plants everywhere
were showcased by
the bare chalky white
background,
especially the
pickle-weed, here in
black and grey.
At right, possible sea
purslane based on the
leaf configuration.
Two types of tiger
beetles: these beetles
are predators, able to
fly as well as run
with great speed
along the ground,
but invisible on the
pebbles until they
move.
Movement on the
ground….
A lizard was caught,
examined, released.
And a carapace (turtle shell) was discovered with its attached
skeleton intact and visible inside. Note the portion of layered
shell made of scutes on the plastron (bottom); these can be used
to determine the turtle’s age but are also surprisingly fragile
in decay.
We may not have seen live animals, but from their tracks there was evidence of them in the drying crust:
deer, turtles, fox, bobcat, armadillo, javelina and coyote possible among them.
A solitary rock seemed to be a favorite rendezvous point for coyotes, where tracks arrived from
several directions. One coyote had left a pile of scat nearby, remains of mesquite beans within.
Insect life: Webbing tangled up stems of pickle-weed. Praying mantis found in brown form.
Black ground beetle plodded towards an anthill. Pale green tree cricket.
Black grasshopper with ruby legs and indigo wings. An unidentified banded leg grasshopper.
A cautious but curious robber fly. And another but with white rings on its abdomen.
Lower still, clumps of alkali sacaton grass grew abundantly. Around us, ridged terraces rose up like the
rim on a plate. The white fertile silt called ‘loess’, blown about in the same aeolian process with which
fine grains of sand are formed and spread, was a dazzling stage on which the wind played.
Paint store blue beamed down from the skies, and the vastness of this huge bowl, full of silence and
light, brought on a desire to draw the isolation in and wander off alone. This wasn’t simply my singular
reaction; usually our group remains fairly close together, listening, laughing, learning. But today as
wide as the horizon stretched, people walked the borders of this cracked earth, far flung and pensive.
Sibley staff was not sure of the origin of these
lumpy mounds. Also present infrequently were
porous rock, white or the color of peanut butter,
perhaps washed down in heavy runoff. This black
substance resembled charred wood, but I don’t
know what it was.
Sandra and I climbed the bluff which protected the north side of the lakebed, and found a wide array
of sandstone rock formations in colors from butterscotch to lavender to pink.
The loose rock really was tinted orange and purple!
Climbing the rest of the way to the top, I came upon a well trod path leading along the top of the butte,
strewn with bean pods from mesquite. The view from the top, overlooking the hikers and lake far
below, was lofty and spacious.
Javelina bush, below left, always seems to be in an argument with itself about which way to grow. Such
disorganization! In the scramble of branches below right, a lizard hides. Hint: Look in center of photo.
Creosote: A blackened skeleton clung to the cliff’s edge. A ping pong ball sized gall grew on a branch.
I’d seen the dried brown ones before, never the green.
Miniature twin mounds revealed warmer tones of soil brought up from below. Coyote scat lay near
an irregularly shaped anthill. Had he stopped to examine the mesquite beans nearby?
On the slope, a
yucca clung,
covered with a
rust colored
scurf, possibly
the adult stage
of a scale insect
which lives
under a tough
covering. And
what appeared
to be a large insect borer turned out to be an exposed root
bulging from the eroded bank, the size of a man’s thumb.
Arriving once again on the lakebed, it seemed as if
everyone had scattered across the lake, blown about like the
waving grasses. We weren’t even within calling distance, so
far away. Yet the shelter of the berms to the north, and the
endless sky above, gave a peaceful sense to the separation,
and a desire to linger on the landscape. We are so very
grateful to the owner for allowing us this day of wonder!
A single sunflower grew on the grassy bank. On closer
inspection, we found possible scale (the dark blurry dots)
growing beneath the sepals. Hornets floated nearby in
their own particular elegant fashion. These were identified
by Burr Williams as native yellow jackets or paper wasps.
And rounding out the trio of insects was a large orb
weaving spider.
We worked our
way down to the
lowest point in
the salina.
There, some
type of purslane
grew. Its leaf
tips appeared
misshapen; was
it due to the
intensity of the
salt or was it a different species? Photos usually show rounded tips. There is a lot of
confusing information in plant books and on the internet about purslane, portulaca, and moss rose.
A mirage of ripples vacillated ceaselessly on the narrow expanse of water. Dragonflies hovered in
stationery pose, mating, their shimmer matching the lake’s steely grey. An enlarged version of a turret
hole burrowed into the saturated sand near the water’s edge is below. I was hoping to catch a glimpse
of what was inside, but didn’t succeed. The hole itself was about the diameter of a woman’s ring finger.
Below: A perfect calcified millipede lay like a tooled serpentine shell necklace, yet fell apart when
I tried to pick it up. The bird tracks were so large that I laid my handheld recorder next to them to
prove their size. What had left them here? Most likely: Blue Heron.
Greens, browns, gold, black, grey, and now a saucy pink pickle-weed! Intrigued, I googled to
investigate further. Seems this “Hierba del Burro” (Chenopodiaceae) carries on photosynthesis in its
stems (also called scale leaves). It stores salt in its joints, and by fall this increase causes their color to
change to pink and then red, at which point the tips are ready to dry and break off, eliminating the
problem of excess salt. The closer the proximity to salt water, the redder the color will be. So I ask
again, does alkali soil cause the blush in plants?
We reconvened near
our vehicles and
drove to a location
close by.
It was hard to imagine that such a vast lake could be hidden in this panoramic view.
Burr was quick to warn us to avoid this flowering beauty at roadside. It was ‘stinging cevallia’, and
contact with skin would bring on a nasty reaction. Its leaves, which appear enticingly soft, have three
types of hair on them, according to Warnock. Nieland & Finley add that they contain formic acid, the
same toxin found in ant stings. Rare in this area, it is believed to be brought in by trucks during road
construction. The grasshopper sitting upon it, however, seemed oblivious to its dangers.
Bluestem, comely grass
attractive in all seasons
with its sturdy clumps
and stiff growth, at left.
A very small yellow
flower on flax-like stems
waved with the breeze.
An empty orb weaver
spider’s egg case sat like
a white whirlwind in a
green freeze frame. And
a green mountain
dwelling short-winged
katydid (Dichopetala
oreoca), gentle and easy
to handle, was extracted
from a kochia plant.
Scant moisture for many weeks had left plants starkly
attractive with their burnished leaves framing the caliche. Even
in this desert the ground is literally peppered with vegetation.
Life, relentlessly determined!
Puffball
mushrooms,
not much larger
than marbles,
released a black
spore powder at
the merest touch.
Unknown white
objects….
Bright red and
black spider.
Turret spiders
construct a lip or
edge on their
burrows: is it to
keep out water or
act as a sensor?
Beautiful shades
of earth were
evident in the soil
brought up from
below by ants,
contrasted with
the top soil above
ground.
The opening buds
of late blooming
cow pen daisies
look waxy.
Look for a lizard
racing for cover in
this photo.
Grasses and mesquite stretched away from the roadbed
toward higher ground, past the same shrubbery..
Nathan nimbly
captured this
collared lizard.
Eventually the
poor reptile ran
out of all patience
and showed his
teeth. He was
released. Strangely, nobody
jumped forward to
help this naturalist
with his insect
problem….
I hope our convoy
did not lead to the
demise of this
small snake.
A gravid female
praying mantis
was our last find
on this leg
of our visit.
Blackfoot daisies
bloomed sparsely.
It was, after all, September. Ah, Texas, with flowers in bloom from January till November! ‘Tis Heaven,
and who could ask for anything more?
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^**^*
Next, our band of merry naturalists would take out on foot, like Ponce de Leon seeking the Fountain
of Youth, to see if we could locate the spring which fed this alkali lake. That report, coming soon to
the Sibley Nature Center nearest you, is an essay to follow entitled:
Alkali Lake: Search for the Source. ^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^