Trip Report: Exploring Austin, part 1

I spent two weeks in Austin this summer, taking a training course to be a Red Hat System Administrator. In the evenings I traipsed around the metro area, birding in local parks and natural areas and doing my normal thing - observing and logging everything new species (to me) using the iNaturalist app.

I visited 10 different parks during my two weeks and covered a lot of ground. I observed a few new species of birds (Black-crested Titmice, Least Grebe, Pectoral Sandpiper), several new dragon/damselflies (Swift Setwing, Marl Pennant, Kiowa Dancer, Dusky Dancer, Checkered Setwing, American Rubyspot), several new plants, and even found a nice gastropod fossil. But this is a plant blog, so let me dive in to more detail about some of the plants.

Small bilobed leaves of the Anacacho Orchid tree (Bauhinia lunarioides)

Along the Colorado River in Austin there is a nice walking trail that is well used by locals walking their dogs, cycling, and jogging, as well as to observe bats at the Congress Avenue Bridge. (I sort of stumbled along this myself and was treated to quite the spectacle around sunset.) Along this path I came across a couple of really neat plants. The first was a small shrubby tree (probably about 6' tall and about the same width that was covered in opened seed pods. There was nothing too remarkable about the tree except that the seed pods had all split open in a spiraling fashion and they were pretty conspicuous. Upon closer examination I realized the leaves were the distinct shape of a Bauhinia, which greatly excited me. I took some photos and uploaded the observation to iNaturalist, which suggested the name of Anacacho Orchid (Bauhinia lunarioides), a native of central and southern Texas into northern Mexico. This species has small and deeply split leaves, almost appearing as two leaves. The flowers (which appear in the spring) are white (or occasionally pink) and showy. I don't have any of my own photos of flowers to show, but the photos below are from iNaturalist observations (here and here).

Photo by iNaturalist user anschad.

Photo by iNaturalist user johnkarges.

Of course I collected a handful of seeds and brought them home for experimentation. I have started other species of Bauhinia from seed and they have germinated easily and been a fairly easy plant to grow, although they are tropical and cannot winter outdoors in my climate. This species appears to be a little more hardy, but not enough (zone 8) to overwinter in central Oklahoma (zone 7). It's not clear to me whether the tree was growing naturally along the path or had been planted there. I'm guessing the latter but who knows?

Part 2 coming later this week!