Nature in the City: Spring Creek Forest Preserve

I’ve been digging around to find natural areas in the DFW Metroplex in order to explore some of these areas a bit more. Several months ago I’d bookmarked Spring Creek Forest Preserve in north Garland as an option to see. Finally on Tuesday we made our way out there. Turns out it is very close to my in-laws house and close to a Freebirds, so it was perfect!

There are two entrances on each side of Holford Rd, a two lane country road that you would have seen in this area even 5 years ago, but now most of them are spreading out to four lane and being colonized with shopping plazas. This was a wonderful respite from all of that!

Senecio ampullaceus, I think. This was the predominate flower blooming in the area.

More grape hyacinth on their way out. The bottom blooms are going to seed.

We did find a lot of trout lilies here, though they were already past their peak.

It seemed that there was a better rate of flowering and pollination here than at Tandy Hills.

A lingering flower.

I’m thinking this is a viburnum but am not sure.

The creek running through is really beautiful and the water is clear, but it is sad to see the shoreline littered with mostly plastic bags. They are up high and down low and really ruin the shots. You can see a blue one in this photo if you look hard enough.

Verbena

Lithospermum incisum, fringed puccoon.

More evidence of previous homesteads, garlic or onion of some sort growing wild.

Lingering red bud seed pods from last season.

I will definitely be exploring here more as the seasons change.