Our Park is part of a prairie restoration project that aims to show off the native coastal prairie ecosystem that was present in this part of Texas for the last 23,000 years. The silt from Hurricane Harvey dealt this project a setback, but there is a stunning patch of prairie plants going strong just to the east of Jane Gregory Garden.
This is a part of the Park that is high enough to have escaped the silt. What started a few years ago as a grouping of native plantings has blossomed into a genuine prairie landscape.
This is where to go!
This is not a part of the Park I usually walk through when I am looking for blog topics. The more manicured an area, the more paths through it, the less I usually find. I tramp the undergrowth. But while running on the trails near the Police Memorial I saw a plant I was unfamiliar with. I went back to look for it and what I found instead was a glorious prairie in the most manicured and cement trailed area in the Park imaginable!
Please, just go and look. Now. Don’t wait.
Over the coming weeks, I will write in some detail about the plants and insects in this post, but for now, just enjoy the photos and try to spend some time in a landscape once walked by the buffalo that gave our park its name.
Groundsel Tree. This large plant comes in male and female varieties. This is a female. It was this show-stopping plant that made me come back to this part of the Park.
Monarch Butterfly resting in the prairie
Gulf Muhly with downtown in the background. This photo was taken by Kennedy Black, a student I met while researching this post.
Native bee about to land on Goldenrod.