October 2006 Vol. IV No. 2

Directors & Officers

Ruth Loper, Director

Lynn Sherrod, Director

Sonnia Hill, President

Phone 903-849-5357

Sonnia36@hotmail.com

Jim Showen, VP Programs

Elizabeth Parks, Secy/Treasurer

Liz Soutendijk, VP Field Trips

Herb Jarrell, VP Membership

Kay Fleming, Newsletter Editor

FROM THE PRESIDENT

Bob and I and a few of the NPSOT Tyler Chapter members just got back from a wonderful time in the Big Bend area at a ranch called Old Alazan. After our stay there we took our time getting home and made a few stops to photograph the incredible scenery and the flowers along the way. One of my favorite places we visited was the Monahans Sandhills State Park located just a few miles east of the town of Monahans in Ward County on the I-20. We took a tour of the Visitor’s Center and then headed out to the dunes. The park is part of a dune field that extends about 200 miles south of Monahans and north into New Mexico. In reading about how these dunes were formed I was amazed that the sand has been blowing here since the Pleistocene, about a million years ago. Its source is sand that is brought down from adjacent mountains by the Pecos River into the Pecos River valley and then blown east.

There were many plants that are found in these dunes. One very interesting one is an oak, Quercus havardii, shin oak, which serves to stabilize the dunes and is no taller than about 30 inches. Some of the sand dunes were topped with this small oak.

There are many other plants I want to share with you so I will give you some links to view them. I am using the common names in this list but the scientific names are given at each site.

Yellow woolly-white: http://www.wildflower2.org/NPIN/Plants/Detail.asp?Symbol=HYFL

Sand palafoxia: http://wildflower2.org/NPIN/Gallery/Detail2.asp?ID=10998

Lemon scurf-pea: http://www.biosurvey.ou.edu/okwild/llpsoralea.html

Sand sage: http://museum.utep.edu/chih/gardens/plants/artemfil.htm

Spectacle pod: http://museum.utep.edu/chih/gardens/plants/DtoF/dimorphwiz.htm

Plains yucca : http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/ornamentals/nativeshrubs/ yuccacampes.htm

Pink plains penstemon : http://www.biosci.ohio-state.edu/~awolfe/Penstemon/spp/Pambiguus.html

James cryptantha: http://www.wildflower2.org/NPIN/Gallery/Detail.asp?ID=3269

I hope you enjoyed the tour of the dunes in the links I have provided and will make a trip to visit this exciting landscape. Sonnia Hill

SEPTEMBER PROGRAM

Our October 2^nd program will be presented by Densil March on establishing an arboretum in Longview to display native East Texas flora. Mr. March is Chairman of the board of Directors of the proposed Longview Arboretum. 

DINNER FOR GUEST SPEAKER – Our Chapter will be taking the guest speaker to dinner at Gilbert's El Charro at 2623 E. Fifth and the Loop.  We will meet at 5:15 PM prior to our Chapter Meeting.  Those interested should E-mail Sonnia at sonnia36@hotmail.com so she can make reservations. Unless notified otherwise, we will meet at the same place at the same time every month there is a guest speaker. Jim Showen

FIELD TRIPS

No field trips are planned for October due to our October 19^th through 22nd Annual Meeting and Symposium of the NPSOT in San Antonio.

Our next field trip will be to the Lewisville Aquatic Ecosystem Research Facility Saturday, November 4th, from 10:00am – 12:00pm. We will plan to have lunch at Nicks Pizza after the tour. Our host and tour guide Lynde Williams will join us for lunch.

The Aquatic Plant Research Program supports studies on biology, ecology, and management of aquatic plants.  The LAERF utilizes 18 water raceways, 3 large outdoor mesocosm facilities, a research greenhouse, and several laboratories in addition to 53 earthen and 21 lined ponds.  I told Lynde we were interested in the research they are doing on Native and Invasive Plants. If you want to know more about this facility before the field trip, go to:

http://el.erdc.usace.army.mil/facility/laerf.html

I will send directions and car pool information at the end of October.

Have a great October. Liz Soutendijk

NEW MEMBERS

We want to welcome new members to the Tyler Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas. It’s great to have you with us! If you haven’t come to one of our meetings or our field trips you are missing out. Also, if you have recently joined our chapter and are not listed below, let our Chapter President know. There’s always a possibility that our State office has failed to get the information to us on your membership.

RECENTLY JOINED MEMBERS

Dr. Suneeti Jog

Jo Spencer

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ANNOUNCEMENTS AND EVENTS

Annual Meeting of NPSOT/Fall Symposium: Those planning to attend the annual meeting in San Antonio on October 19^th - 22 should be sure and register by September 28, or you will have to pay an additional $10.00 per person.  Also, the hotel rate will not be guaranteed after September 28.

Call for Fall Symposium Silent Auction Items: Its time to start thinking about our Fall Symposium’s Silent Auction.  As most of you know the proceeds of each year's silent auction is used for grants and education.  This is going to be an exciting year as NPSOT moves more aggressively to fulfill its commitments toward "education" and "outreach".  A successful 2006, silent auction will position NPSOT so that we as an organization can "Make a Difference" with grant and scholarship funds that will meet our stated objectives.  This is one of the few ways that each member of the entire state organization can participate and contribute in a way that really can "Make a Difference" - either through the donation of items for the auction or through actively bidding on items during the auction.  We are asking each of the 32 chapters in the state to be responsible for the contribution of at least six items for the auction - whether chapter members or businesses in the area donate them. Most of the auction items should be valued from $30.00 to $50.00 if we are to reach our target for this year's silent auction.

Please call or e-mail us for an information form and then return it to our office. Please describe each donation in detail for display and catalog purposes - for example:  "two $50 gift certificates", "one-hour Swedish massage", etc.  If possible, please include a brochure, photograph or informational sheet.  Be sure to specify location if applicable (For example - "one-night stay at River Lodge on the Guadalupe River near Canyon Lake", and any limitations such as availability or excluded items such as ("available between September 1st and December 21st only", "does not include transportation", etc.).

If you have any questions, you can contact NPSOT Silent Auction Committee Members Larry Maroney at 830-72-0187 (E-mail: lmaroney@gvtc.com) or Elizabeth Bowerman (E-mail: cdrliz@sbcglobal.net)

PONDERINGS

Our Trip to Old Alazan Ranch

or - We Had To Go To the Desert to See Rain!

By Clyde & Fran McKinney

The cast of characters and we mean characters:

Ron and Ruth Loper

Bob and Sonnia Hill

Bill and Melia Huston

Clyde and Fran McKinney

Jim and Laquita Showen and Laquita’s brother Brian

The group converged on Marfa for lunch on Thursday, September 7^th at the Pizza Foundation. The restaurant accidentally gave Ron and Jim’s pizza to the Border Patrol men who arrived after us so we left a little later than expected for Old Alazan Ranch. We caravanned from Marfa to the ranch which was about 60 miles to the south. The last 30 miles were on a maintained gravel road. This part of the trip was suppose to take two hours but it took us three hours because of several stops to look at desert plants and interesting rocks. The wildflowers were incredible because of the recent rains.

We arrived at the ranch late afternoon and were greeted by Red and Waynelle Strachan and settled into our quarters. Two couples stayed in the main house and the rest stayed in the bunkhouse. We gathered on the front porch, snacked and watched the wildlife until dinner (jackrabbits, quail, dove, and pyrrhuloxia). Bedtime came early in anticipation of a road trip to Big Bend Ranch State Park on Friday.

Our new president, eager for the trip, was up at 5:10 A.M. greeting Red who was making coffee. She had read the clock wrong and immediately went back to bed. To our surprise we awoke to a gentle rain which sounded so nice on the metal roof of the ranch house. Most of us sat on the porch drinking coffee, marveling at having to come to the desert to see rain.

After a breakfast of bacon, eggs, biscuits and gravy, we packed up into three trucks and headed for Big Bend Ranch State Park which is adjacent to the southern side of Old Alazan Ranch. We stopped along the way to identify the many blooming plants.

Ron led the way because he had been to the park several times before. He managed to get his two-wheel drive dually stuck in a muddy spot on the road. After throwing several hundred rocks under the tires and shoveling away the mud, Ron brought out the chains. Our new president, ever eager to serve her flock, drove her four-wheel drive dually around in front of Ron and confidently pulled Ron out of the mud with the chain. Her truck then became the lead vehicle in case Ron managed to get stuck again.

When we finally reached the park headquarters, it was raining again so the park rangers offered to let us eat our picnic lunch in the bunkhouse if we promised to not track in any of the mud we had accumulated on our shoes. After lunch, we returned to the ranch and relaxed over several pitchers of margaritas.

That evening after everyone had retired to their quarters for the evening; we heard snorting and found five collared peccaries (javelina) outside our doors. We gathered in the morning for breakfast and lounged around the ranch before leaving for a picnic to the old ranch site up in the mountains. Alonzo built a campfire and Waynelle heated a cauldron of soup she called white chili and fried cornbread in an iron skillet. After lunch some of us hiked up to the old spring source that provided water to the original ranch and still waters the cattle. There we found more plant species and saw more wonderful flowers in bloom. The road out and back was rough, but the Strachan’s Mule and a couple of 4-wheel drive trucks were up to the task. That evening found us drinking more margaritas and listening to the rain, followed by another of Waynelle’s hearty dinners. We had to be careful going to our quarters that evening because there were skunks wandering around the backyard by our trucks.

The next morning after another great breakfast, the trucks dribbled out one by one during the morning. Luckily, Sonnia stayed until late morning. Melia, after a couple of hours on the road, found she had left her purse and called back to see if anyone was still there to retrieve it for her.

We (who live in East Texas) probably will never see the desert in that area in such a state again. More rain than usual prior to our arrival caused an incredible display of green and flowers.

Sitting on the porch in the early evening, we experienced the most remarkable thing – the absolute absence of ambient noise. Being 30 miles from a paved road and having no close neighbors, there was absolute quiet when no one at the ranch was talking. No loud mufflers in the distance, no weed eaters or lawnmowers, no far off people sounds at all. I’ve never experienced that before, but I definitely will seek it again.

HAS YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS CHANGED?

Just a reminder – If you have changed your Email address please let our newsletter editor know as soon as possible. Email Kay at kfleming@mycvc.net and let him know of the change. We don’t want anyone to miss out on any information or changes in an event. It also saves our chapter money if we can Email you instead of sending your newsletter by postal service.

Contributions to Newsletter

The newsletter is normally printed monthly, September through May. Members are encouraged to submit articles for publication in the newsletter. Contributions will be considered on the basis of interest, suitability, and available space. Grammar and spelling corrections will be made at the discretion of the editor. Email your articles and announcements to the editor at kfleming@mycvc.net or mail to Kay Fleming, 809 E. Clinton, Athens TX 75751. If you are able to receive your newsletter by Email, please send Kay your Email address. This will save the Chapter mailing expenses.

If you have never attended one of our meetings, and you are interested in learning more about native plants and their habitats, we invite you to give us a visit. We have a good time! Our meetings are normally held at the Walter Fair United Methodist Church in Tyler on the first Monday of each month, September through May. Walter Fair United Methodist Church is located just off 5^th Street, (Highway 64) at 1712 Old Omen Road, east of Loop 323.

NPSOT, Tyler Chapter

c/o: Kay Fleming

809 E. Clinton

Athens, TX 75751