Mustang Grapes

There are many Mustang grapes (Vitis mustangensis) growing on our property. This species is native to our area and is quite common. The Wildflower Center's entry is here. The Texas A&M native plant database entry is here.

The grapes are edible and you can make wine and jam and jelly from them. There are many recipes available on the Internet. Central Texas soils are good for growing grapes and there are several wineries near us, although they are not growing this native.

These photos were taken on July 3rd of this year. This particular vine is growing in a live oak tree right beside our driveway. Although it doesn't have any large grape clusters, it has many small ones. Remember, this is a wild grape. It hasn't been cultivated or bred to produce large clusters. It survives and thrives on its own - no fertilizing, watering, or pesticides. The grapes are ripe in these photos. Earlier in the season, they were green in color.

Birds will eat the grapes and then scatter the seeds. The birds always know when they're ripe, so it's a race to try to eat one before the birds do. I've tasted the grapes and they're not very sweet. When I took these photos, they weren't bad, but definitely not what you would buy at the grocery store. I had tried them a few weeks earlier and they were very sour. Mary can attest to the face I made. Sorry, no photo.

Here's a photo of the base of the vine. About 10 years ago, before I knew what the vine was, and thinking that it might damage the tree, I cut the vine. I remember that a lot of water poured out of the cut end, so the vine itself stores quite a bit of water. You can see how it grew back. Each vine is about 1 to 2 inches in diameter.

The vine can overwhelm a tree, but my perspective now is to let nature take it's course, for the most part. This tree is on our driveway, so if the grape vine gets too big, I might take it down again, but in general I'll leave them alone.

Fixin' Leeks at Onion Creek

Earlier this year, Mary and I had the chance to work at Onion Creek and help remove an invasive species.

The Onion Creek property is managed by the Wildlands Conservation Division of Austin Water Utilities of the City of Austin. The conservation management program that WCD administers is known as the Water Quality Protection Lands (WQPL). These lands were purchased with funds from a 1998 bond election for the purpose of water quality protection for the Barton Springs segment of the Edwards Aquifer. You can read more about the WQPL here. The Onion Creek property is one of these and consists of 2500 acres located along Onion Creek in central Hays County.

Our project leader, Tom Watson, had previously flagged the location of many leeks, mainly along the creek. Tom’s experience includes being an Assistant Professor of Botany at the University of Montana, and a Lecturer at UT-Austin. He's also been the President of our Chapter and is currently our Chapter's State Representative. He is also an invaluable friend and a great resource for me. I frequently ask for his help in plant identification and he's always very glad to help.

He noticed the leeks while working on the property and conducted a survey to locate them for future removal. The leeks are invasive, having been introduced to the United States from Britain although they are originally Eurasian. Tom thinks the ones we removed were basically escapees from cultivated gardens. They're wild in the same sense that feral hogs are.

The species, Allium Ampeloprasum, is a member of the onion genus. They reproduce rapidly in the wild. This spring, before the native grasses grew too tall, was a good time to take them out.

Our crew, consisting of fellow Master Naturalists, walked along Onion Creek, found the flags, and dug up the plants. The soil along the creek was nice, probably due to many floods and deposits over the years. It was deep and easy to dig in. The leeks were also fairly shallow, typically less than a foot down, and easy to remove. There were often multiple plants at a single site.

Here's a photo Mary digging up a clump.

 There were actually five plants in the clump.

We gathered quite a few. They are edible and Mary reports they are quite good.

This was a great way to spend 3.5 hours on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. The creek was running as you can see in the first photo because of all the spring rains we had.

Texas Flood

I saw a vivid demonstration of the event known as a flash flood recently, as Tropical Storm Hermine moved inland. The center of the storm passed about 50 miles west of our location on September 7th.

We started getting rain from Hermine on the 6th, although only 0.1 inches that first day. On the 7th, we received 3.2 inches and on the 8th, 5.2 inches. These numbers are measured with a rain gauge at our house. Other areas in central Texas received over 12 inches.

When I got home on the 8th, I checked the rain gauge and it read 3.6 inches. I recorded the value and emptied it, thinking that we might get more and I didn't want it to overflow. A little later that evening, we had a very heavy downpour that lasted about half an hour. When it was over, I checked the rain gauge again and it showed 1.6 inches, so the event was producing about 3.2 inches of rain per hour.

As I was walking back to house, I realized I could hear the roar of rushing water. Our drive/road way has a low water crossing at a wet weather creek and the sound was coming from that direction. The road was fine when I first got home, so I drove down to see what it looked like.

The first photo shows the view back to where I left the car. I didn't try to drive across the culvert because I couldn't tell how deep the water was. The culvert is about 3 feet high. The water came up to my knees when I waded across and I realize now that it was very dangerous for me to cross. The current was strong and swift and exerted quite a force. A car would have been swept away.

The culvert is not designed to handle this much water. There are four pipes, each about 2 feet in diameter, but they are clearly overwhelmed. The culvert actually acts more like a dam and you can see the water mounding up on the left side of the photo.

This photo shows the same area, taken on September 12th, for comparison. You can see how the current swept away the rocks that are normally piled up against culvert, as riprap, meant to control erosion. With a current this strong, the riprap failed and I've got some work to do to put it back.

The third photo is a view downstream of the culvert, where we have a couple of ponds that hold water for a while after a rain, but eventually dry up. The area is completely flooded.

Here's the same area, as it normally appears, for comparison.

As quickly as the water rose, hence the name "flash" flood, it receded. About 20 minutes after the first photo was taken, the water was no longer spilling over the road. These floods are dangerous because they can catch you by surprise.

There are several factors involved in creating the flash flood: terrain, topography, and the amount of rain. In this case, a 1.6 inch rain event is not large. By itself, it would not have caused this flood. However, it occurred in a short period of half an hour, and after the ground was already saturated by almost 7 inches of rain in the previous days. This was an ideal combination for a flash flood.

6th Annual Naturescapes Photo Contest & Exhibition

The Awards Reception for the 6th Annual Naturescapes Photo Contest will be held this Saturday, September 11th from 5:00 pm to 7:30 pm at the San Marcos Activity Center. The Exhibition will run from September 11th through November 5th, in the Activity Center's Walker's Gallery.

Winning entries will be announced at the reception. The contest received 180 entries and 65 were selected for the exhibition.

In addition, a silent auction with more than 25 items is being held as a fund-raiser for the San Marcos Greenbelt Alliance.

The Crystal Creek Boys will provide music.