San Antonio Botanical Garden and Guadalupe River State Park

These first three images were made at the San Antonio Botanical Gardens where we spent the better part of the day. Jan and her long time friends Karen and Peter joined us and we had a very nice time walking around these very large gardens.  I think I mentioned the lack of trees along the highways we were driving the last few days, as you can see, the trees are here. 

The first picture is from the cactus garden; it's a simple hairy Opuntia with the sun shining through.  Usually, the Opuntia [prickly pear cactus] have short and long spines that all mean business.  I've never really liked them because of the times I've had to pot them up; not a fun experience, but that's another story...  This one has long hair that just looked good.

The next picture is of a Crape Myrtle.  These trees shed their bark to reveal a very smooth skin, sometimes with colour patches.  They have busy limbs and look so naked at this time of year.

The third image is of Cypress Knees.  Everything I have read about these growths is that the scientists don't really know what they're for: they don't behave like roots, they don't grow into trunks or have branches or leaves.  They are usually found at the base of Cypress trees but not always, often in the water, but again, not always.  We thought these looked like a small group of gnomes, having a meeting.  Hope you like them as we do.

The botanical gardens include greenhouses with air plants [including lots of orchids!]; ferns and palms; cactus and succulents; ancient cycads and all manner of interesting sights.  ... and mid 80 degree sunshine!

Then we convoyed to Jan campground the Guadalupe River State Park, where this last image was made. 

The Guadalupe River in the background has a fairly large catchment basin nearby.  Texas soil around here contains a lot of clay so when it rains, the water stays on top of everything until the clay gets wet and softens a little; then it can absorb more water and the soil starts behaving like it does 'back home'.  In the meantime, rain water in the catchment area quickly swells the Guadeloupe beyond its shores and flash floods happen.  Many roads have signs warning of water on road or flash flood area.  

In the case of this section of the Guadalupe River, these large trees are almost completely submerged when the rains last a few days!  Where I stood making this picture would be thirty feet under water!  A few days later [after the rains stop] the water would begin seeping into the ground and the river would find its waistline again.  It would be spectacular to see for sure.  It happens here often enough that most of the tree branches grow pointing downstream!  It was strange to see weeds, sticks and other detritus stuck in branches ten or more feet off the ground.  Aside from all this, I liked the fantastic root systems that were unveiled by the frequent floods.  All along the shore, you could see many of these huge trees with their roots exposed.  

Beautiful!  ... just watch your step.