Nature Notes

The confluence of the Pecos and the Rio Grande is the Chihuahuan Desert's lowest, hottest point. The landscape bears the evidence. Across sun-blasted limestone, stunted plants seem to writhe and twist, waiting out the harsh sentence of soil and sky.

From uplands on the Pecos, a trail lead into a side canyon, then to a shallow cave – and the utterly unexpected.

Images blanket the 25-foot cave wall. Towering human figures with outstretched arms, renderings of deer and centipedes. Abstract or ambiguous forms – a stepped arch, an undulating mass – part-serpent, part-catfish.

The paintings here at White Shaman Shelter, and at related sites across the Lower Pecos, have long fasc...

In the 1830s, a group of Scottish and English naturalists were pursuing a new and unpopular idea: that the Earth's features could be explained by natural processes, acting over vast stretches of time. Studying the rocks of the British Isles, their attention was drawn to a particular variety of fossilized corals. From lower to higher rocks, the corals grew more complex. Anticipating Darwin, they inferred that they were observing the development of a life form. And they inferred something else: the fossil record could help interpret the rock record.

Two limestones may be similar in composition. But fossil remains are distinct. Wherever they're found, rocks that contain the same distinctive ...

Our arid region trains us to accept austerity, starkness. But it also prepares us to greet with special wonder any exception to the desert rule: a spring-fed pool, a soaking rain, a wildflower in bloom. Easterners can take wildflowers for granted. Here, their beauty is well-won.

LeShara Nieland, a botanist and Big Spring native, has written two wildflower books. They're user-friendly guides. They also tell rich stories about each plant – including their history of use by Native Americans. For Native societies, wildflowers are elements of survival – sources of food, fiber, dye and medicine.

It's all too common to underestimate the sophistication of earlier peoples. But any study of ...

Agaves are signature plants of the Southwest and Mexico. Today, a taste for distilled agave spirits – tequila, mezcal – is global.

But that's a recent footnote to the profound human bond with agave. For 10,000 years, from present-day Mexico to West Texas and Arizona, agaves were a foundation of survival. They were also a cornerstone of culture. Agave is central to the sacred stories and rituals of diverse Native peoples, from the Aztec to the Apache.

Agave Festival Marfa will be held June 1st through 4th. Inspired by the link between plant and people, the cultural celebration is designed to be specific to this place, and inclusive of its many cultures.

The hearts of century plan...

Naturalists know that the Big Bend's harsh conditions mask a tremendous diversity of living things. The Chihuahuan Desert is home to plants and animals found nowhere else on earth.

But did you know it was once home to an assortment of distinctive, endemic primates? Today, excavations are shedding light on this surprising part of West Texas history.

As primates ourselves, we can't help but take a special interest in the history of these mammals. It's a story that stretches back 65 million years.

Scientists say primates emerged in Southeast Asia in the early Paleocene Epoch, just after the disappearance of the dinosaurs.

For ages, they were limited to the Asian jungles. But about 5...

The Triassic redbeds are one of the scenic highlights of West Texas. They dazzle in the red cliffs of Palo Duro Canyon and Caprock Canyons state parks.

These colorful rocks are found all along the margin of the Llano Estacado, and where rivers like the Brazos and the Pecos cut the great plateau.

The redbeds are also one of the world's most important sources of fossils from the Triassic Period. In that distant time, strange and wondrous creatures roamed the Earth.

"It is a burning, seething cauldron, filled with dramatic light and color." That's what painter Georgia O'Keefe said about Palo Duro Canyon south of Amarillo.

The heart of that “cauldron,” the red rocks O'Keefe admir...

At the buzz of a rattlesnake, the heart races, and the adrenalin flows. Our response is primal, physical.

But rattlesnakes also exert a power over the imagination. For many, the fear of rattlesnakes is mixed with fascination.

Rattlesnakes are impressive predators, and they play an important role in the West Texas ecosystem.

Rattlesnakes first appeared about 4 million year ago. They're the most recently evolved snake – and the most highly specialized.

They're unique to the Americas, found from Canada to Argentina. But West Texas is truly rattlesnake country. The majority of rattlesnake species live in the American Southwest and Mexico.

Rattlers rely on complex adaptations to ...

“Birds do it. Bees do it. Even educated fleas do it.”

Lyricist Cole Porter may have rendered it with a characteristic wit and concision. But it wasn't a new idea. Poets have long seen in the bee's regard for the flower an image of attraction, of the energies of spring and the sweet forces of allure in nature.

The desert isn't usually part of the poetic picture. But, scientifically, arid areas are bee havens. And the Chihuahuan Desert has among the greatest diversity of bees of any region on earth.

Honey bees are the most recognizable members of the bee lineage. But they're imports, introduced by European settlers in the 17th century. Massing in colonies 60,000 strong, European h...

For Native peoples, the arrival of Europeans in the Americas brought destruction on a staggering scale. Along with the catastrophic human toll, there was cultural shock – the violent disruption of ancient traditions and histories.

But even where people were displaced or destroyed, clues to the history endure.

Two decades ago, Carolyn Boyd, an artist-turned-archeologist, founded the Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center. Based in tiny Comstock, Texas, it's dedicated to documenting – and preserving – a standout legacy of the Native American past: the painted murals of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands.

At the threshold of West Texas, near Amistad Reservoir, the Devils an...

As every school child learns from Johnny Appleseed, bringing plants to the people is good work.

Since 2002, the Big Bend chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas has been spreading the news about native plants. And on Saturday, April 22, the nonprofit will host a plant sale, behind Chambers Realty at Avenue E and North Eighth Street in Alpine. The sale will feature more than 75 native species, and as many as 1,000 plants.

Planted in a garden or lawn, native plants can reinforce a sense of place. And they provide food and habitat for wildlife – from hummingbirds and solitary native bees to monarch butterflies and more.

But it's not easy to find these plants in a commercial nurs...