Vestigial Plant Ecology & Homeless Camps
Added 2024-03-20 04:20:30 +0000 UTCIn San Antonio, Texas we inspect a relict plant community that offers us a glimpse into what the Flora of San Antonio may have looked like 150 years ago. the only reason that this plant community still survives is due to the steep Limestone cliff it grows on and the fact that it is sandwiched between to on ramps and a freeway.
Because of its out-of-the-way & undevelop-able nature, the native plants are allowed to thrive and the cities disenfranchised populace is allowed to reside without harassment by City officials or the police.
Plants like Diospyros texana are allowed to thrive, unmolested by ecologically-blind landscapers with poor taste during the summer heat on the thin-soiled limestone, where as the dreaded crepe myrtle might otherwise be planted in their place if this were a maintained landscape in say, am office park or strip mall.
It always blows my mind that cities will scrape their landscapes clean and destroy native plants that easily thrive in the region only to end up planting non-native, horticultural garbage (like crepe myrtles) that are poorly suited to the region, instead.
Comments
Hey Joey, I was taught in a Pesticide certification class that glyphosate has an effective range between 50F-80F, so I've always done the Glove Of Death when it's between those two temps. Have you found using glyphosate to be effective outside that range? I really wish I could plant some of those plants here! Especially the bluebonnets. I'd let them run rampant in my yard, but I'd probably get busted by our lawn police. I wish Diosperis Texana would grow in N. IL, but then it wouldn't be native any more. And it gets waaay too cold.
April Hughes
2024-03-20 16:42:53 +0000 UTCTexas needs a law that allows you, as an expert botanist, free access to all state lands, for research purposes. You might be the primary leader in local conservation.
Prof Braino
2024-03-20 15:11:13 +0000 UTCThe best place to be for wildlife is always just areas humans aren't paying attention to. No matter the amount of landmines or contaminated soil that's keeping the apes out.
Norman A. Letterman
2024-03-20 07:31:48 +0000 UTC
