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In August, 2023, the Shearwood Creek Fire destroyed almost 5,000 acres in Jasper County. These observations were made on private property that had its uplands planted in longleaf pines when the fire went through. The blooming plants that have come back seem more prolific than they were before.

This single plant was the target of our quest today. And finding it was extremely...EXTREMELY surprising. This plant (i.e. a stem from apparently the same underground rhizome) was first discovered in March 1984 by me. At the time, I tentatively identified it as Trillium gracile, a species of southeast Texas and eastward. The ID has been debated and the remarkable occurrence of the plant at this location is very curious (long story). I had rechecked this plant probably 15 years ago and it was still present, and now--some 35 years after its first discovery, it is still putting up a flower in a lonely attempt to propagate. (There is, and has always only been, just the one plant here.) All of us, including eminent botanist Bill Carr (4th image) and Dr. George Yatskievych (U.T. Herbarium, 5th image, kneeling to photograph the plant) were just floored that we could refind the plant.

The plant is found in a mesic shaded canyon head at a permanent spring. The plant is in moist silty loam at the base of a bluff adjacent to the springhead pool, with abundant leaf litter, under mature oak-ash-elm-juniper woodland. Aside from a wealth of recent invasives (Japanese Honeysuckle, Glossy Privet, etc.), the site includes several relictual species of very local occurrence in Travis County, including:
-- Spicebush (Lindera benzoin)
-- Cross Vine (Bignonia capreolata)
-- Bristly Greenbrier (Smilax tamnoides [= S. hispida])
-- Eastern Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis)

Durand White Oak (??) observed at Bird Pond unit of USFWS near Danciger TX. Single isolated (but large) specimen, in low swampy woods just east of Bird Pond. Leaves have minor usually-single points (bristles) on the ends of the lobes, and the trunk's bark seems more furrowed and less shingly/scaly, unlike other Durand Oaks in the area. Another difference is the low swampy ground, where Durands are usually found on upland sites near good drainage. No acorns were observed on low-hanging limbs or on ground. Magnificent specimen, whatever it is, and SO WORTHY of propagation for landscape use in this area (since it grows in low wet ground)! Please be sure to see adult (human) at base of trunk in left-most photo, to gain appreciation of its size.