A Peek Into The Chihuahuan Desert Botanical Gardens
New Mexico Agave, Agave neomexicana
Now that’s a deer/antelope/sheep fence!
Cowpen daisy, Verbesina encelioides
Tree cholla, Opuntia imbricata
Beaked yucca, Yucca thompsoniana
Finally I’m starting these west Texas posts! It was after lunch when we arrived close to Fort Davis and the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute and Botanical Gardens. Chris had found the place in his scouting for other things do in the region and the admission for that day was half price, I believe. Just a day or two before there had been a presentation and book signing with an author on plants for the region and Chris was bummed to have missed it. That didn’t stop us, well, especially me, from oogling the excellent selection of books on their gift shop shelves.
And as the title suggests, this is really a peek into the botanic gardens because that’s about all we did. We spent the majority of our time hiking on the Clayton’s Overlook Trail. Both Chris and I were intrigued about hiking the Modesta Canyon Trail which had a spring somewhere in the middle but we were really pressed for time to hike, see the botanic garden, and then get to the state park before it got dark so we could set up camp and cook dinner. So, we chose the shorter Clayton’s Overlook Trail and then dipped into the botanic garden for a few minutes. We could have easily meandered through there for the rest of the afternoon, looking at the interesting desert specimens that we weren’t familiar with. Yay for plant labels! They helped me figure out a few things I’d seen during our hike.
Next up will be a post about the hike and then we’ll switch over to Davis Mountains State Park….just need to work on more photos!
One Comment
Patrice La Vigne
I love plant labels too!!!! There were all these new cacti in Baja and I wish I could have identified them!