Arid Country left unimproved

[tamrock]

I headed out before 6AM yesterday morning on my bike, before we see these 90 plus temps we're getting now. I went up to the crest of a hill to see what I could find. This sunflower is no more then 4 or 5 inches tall, as it is so hot and dry in this landscape only the very hardiest vegetation can grow here. The native sunflowers growing in the neighborhood are now more then 6 feet tall with all the watering they get. It really doesn't take much water to get a wild sunflower to grow that tall either, so you know this hill sees very little rain this time of the year. I saw a few of these odd plants with white leaves and a green stripe in the center. I've no clue what they are, but I haven't gone online to see if I could find out what they may be. The other interesting plant is these small shrubs. They're very attractive looking and are no taller then 6 to 7 inches. They look like they'd be good for dry landscaping your yard in places. All in all I was hoping to find some artifacts on the hill, thinking it looked like a good place for ancient hunters to run big game up in that ravine and place other hunters just behind the crest of the hill to attack as a herd of western American plains animals would be slowed down going up the ravine. Who knows if a scene like that ever took place here, but it makes for a great picture in my mind in this type landscape, plus I have found a few artifacts in the surrounding area hills. I like going here because no one else goes here, plus there's a wonderful breeze from the east up here in the morning. Most others like to hike, jog and ride bikes on the improved trails along the waterways on the weekends, so it's not as peaceful as it is on the weekdays when I can look for birds and other things to photograph.

 

[Old Dude]

That striped plant is very neat looking.

 

[kcm]

I agree. Pluck a leaf or cut the tip of a limb/stalk and take it to a florist. They'll probably know what it is. Heck, they may even have them for sale!

Growing up in Texas, we had some plants that grew wild on the property. They were called Yaupon:
yau·pon (yô′pən) n.
A small evergreen holly tree (Ilex vomitoria) chiefly of the southeast United States, having red or sometimes yellow fruit and glossy leaves formerly used to make a bitter tea.

Dad HATED those things! The roots grew to China and you couldn't kill them, no matter what! Then one day he heard someone talking at church, mentioning that they had just bought some yaupon at the nursery for $30 or $40 - this was back in the '80's!! Dad told them to come dig all they wanted. ...I do believe he would have "paid" them to come if he thought he had to! They came out one day and dug about 5 plants. ...Only left a couple hundred behind!