Grasses of the Texas Hill Country

Grasses of the Texas Hill Country PDF Author: Brian Loflin
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1585444677
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
This photographic guide to grasses gives all who have been frustrated trying to identify these difficult plants an easy-to-use, visually precise, and information-packed field guide to seventy-seven native and introduced species that grow in the Texas Hill Country and beyond. With a blade of grass in hand, open this book and find: Handy thumb guides to seedhead type, the most visible distinguishing characteristic to begin identification. Color photographs of stands of grasses and detailed close-ups. Concise information about economic uses, habitat, range, and flowering season. Quick-reference icons for native status, toxicity, growing season, and grazing response

Grasses of the Texas Hill Country

Grasses of the Texas Hill Country PDF Author: Brian Loflin
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1585444677
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 210

Get Book Here

Book Description
This photographic guide to grasses gives all who have been frustrated trying to identify these difficult plants an easy-to-use, visually precise, and information-packed field guide to seventy-seven native and introduced species that grow in the Texas Hill Country and beyond. With a blade of grass in hand, open this book and find: Handy thumb guides to seedhead type, the most visible distinguishing characteristic to begin identification. Color photographs of stands of grasses and detailed close-ups. Concise information about economic uses, habitat, range, and flowering season. Quick-reference icons for native status, toxicity, growing season, and grazing response

Trees, Shrubs, and Vines of the Texas Hill Country

Trees, Shrubs, and Vines of the Texas Hill Country PDF Author: Jan Wrede
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1603441883
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
If you imagine the Texas Hill Country solely as dry limestone slopes of cedar and scrub oak, prepare to have your eyes opened. The Edwards Plateau, upon which the Hill Country sits, is also a land of lush cypress-lined streams, diverse thickets, and shady hardwood bottomlands. Edged by canyonlands and intersected by creeks, these rocky hills support an abundance of trees, shrubs, and vines that provide food and cover for wildlife and create a distinct and durable landscape. In this book, Jan Wrede has compiled a field guide to more than 125 species of mostly native, mostly woody plants of the Texas Hill Country. A thoughtful introduction discusses deer, cedar, water, oak wilt, and invasive species—timely issues of increasing importance for a growing number of Texas landowners. Plant descriptions contain information about the leaves, flowers, fruit, and bark of each plant and also give insights into the species’ range and habits. A color photograph accompanies each account. Especially useful is a comprehensive plant chart with tips about color, scent, flowering period, height, site preference, and wildlife and livestock utilization. A recommended reading list, a resource guide, and a glossary round out this information-packed book.

A Naturalist's Guide to the Texas Hill Country

A Naturalist's Guide to the Texas Hill Country PDF Author: Mark Gustafson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781648433313
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
In this guide, biologist Mark Gustafson introduces residents and visitors to the history, geology, water resources, plants, and animals found in the nineteen counties occupying the eastern part of the Edwards Plateau, the heart of the Hill Country. He profiles three hundred of the most common and unique species from all of the major groups of plants and animals: trees, shrubs, wildflowers, cacti, vines, grasses, ferns, fungi, lichens, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, and invertebrates. Color photographs are included for each species along with a brief description. He closes with a chapter on significant state parks and natural areas in the region as an invitation to visit and explore the Texas Hill Country. As large metropolitan areas continue to encroach on the Hill Country, newcomers are moving in and more people are flocking to its many attractions. This guidebook will enrich the appreciation of the region's rich and unique biodiversity and encourage conservation of the natural world encountered.

Hill Country Landowner's Guide

Hill Country Landowner's Guide PDF Author: James P. Stanley
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1603443436
Category : Gardening
Languages : en
Pages : 221

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Book Description
In this invaluable new book, Jim Stanley charts a practical course for understanding and handling a variety of problems that both new and established landowners in the Texas Hill Country will confront--from brush control, grazing, and overpopulation of deer to erosion, fire, and management of exotic animals and plants.

Wanted! Mountain Cedars

Wanted! Mountain Cedars PDF Author: Elizabeth McGreevy
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780578843322
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
This controversial, eye-opening book by Elizabeth McGreevy suggests a different perception of Mountain Cedars (also called Ashe Junipers). It digs into the politics, history, economics, culture, and ecology surrounding these trees in the Hill Country of Texas from the 1700s to the present. Since the 1920s, reporters, writers, scientists, landowners, politicians, and cedar fever victims have characterized the trees as a non-native, water-hogging, grass-killing, toxic, useless species to justify its removal. The result has been a glut of Mountain Cedar tall tales. Yet before the 1890s, people highly respected Mountain Cedars. The Mountain Cedars they reported were large timber trees with strong, decay-resistant heartwood. Most were cut down and sold to boost the young Hill Country economy. The clearcutting of old-growth forests and dense woodlands and the continuous overgrazing of prairies that followed led to mass soil degradation and erosion. Acting as nature's bandage, Mountain Cedars morphed into pioneering bushes and spread across degraded soils. This book tracks down the origins of the tall tales to determine what is true, what is false, and what is somewhere in between. Through a series of revelations, the author replaces anti-cedar sentiments with a more constructive, less emotional approach to Hill Country land management.

A Naturalist's Guide to the Texas Hill Country

A Naturalist's Guide to the Texas Hill Country PDF Author: Mark Gustafson
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 162349236X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
In this guide, biologist Mark Gustafson introduces residents and visitors to the history, geology, water resources, plants, and animals found in the nineteen counties occupying the eastern part of the Edwards Plateau, the heart of the Hill Country. He profiles three hundred of the most common and unique species from all of the major groups of plants and animals: trees, shrubs, wildflowers, cacti, vines, grasses, ferns, fungi, lichens, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, and invertebrates. Color photographs are included for each species along with a brief description. He closes with a chapter on significant state parks and natural areas in the region as an invitation to visit and explore the Texas Hill Country. As large metropolitan areas continue to encroach on the Hill Country, newcomers are moving in and more people are flocking to its many attractions. This guidebook will enrich the appreciation of the region’s rich and unique biodiversity and encourage conservation of the natural world encountered.

Guide to Texas Grasses

Guide to Texas Grasses PDF Author: Robert B. Shaw
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1603441867
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 1098

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Book Description
In this new, complete Guide to Texas Grasses, Robert B. Shaw and the team at the Texas A&M University Institute of Renewable Natural Resources provide an indispensable reference to the world’s most economically important plant family. After discussing the impact of grass on our everyday lives as food, biofuels, land restoration, erosion control, and water become ever more urgent issues worldwide—the book then provides:a description of the structure of the grass plant;details of the classification and distribution of Texas grasses;brief species accounts;distributional maps;color photographs;plus black-and-white drawings of 670 grass species—native, introduced, and ornamental. Scientific keys help identify the grasses to group, genera, and species, and an alphabetized checklist includes information on: origin (native or introduced); longevity (annual or perennial);growth season (cool or warm season); endangered status;and occurrence (by ecological zone). A glossary, literature citations, and a quick index to genera round out the book. Guide to Texas Grasses is a comprehensive treatment of Texas grasses meant to assist students, botanists, ecologists, agronomists, range scientists, naturalists, researchers, extension agents, and others who work with or are interested in these important plants.

Texas Cacti

Texas Cacti PDF Author: Brian Loflin
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1603443681
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 314

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Book Description
In Texas Cacti, authors Brian and Shirley Loflin present a concise, fully illustrated field guide to more than one hundred of the cacti most often found in Texas and the surrounding region. The book opens with an illustrated introduction to cactus habitat and anatomy. The species are then organized by stem shape, with each account featuring detailed color photographs, specific identifying features (including spines, flowers, fruits, and seeds) and information about common and scientific names, habitat, flowering season, and more.?The photographs, range maps, and icons designating shape, conservation status, and blooming period, along with easy-to-understand descriptions, make this book a quick and friendly guide to cactus identification for botanists, amateur naturalists, and cactus enthusiasts alike.

Attracting Birds in the Texas Hill Country

Attracting Birds in the Texas Hill Country PDF Author: W. Rufus Stephens
Publisher: Texas A&M University Press
ISBN: 1623494419
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 842

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Book Description
After years of working with landowners, land managers, naturalists, county officials, and others about wildlife management and land stewardship for birds in the Texas Hill Country, biologist Rufus Stephens and educator Jan Wrede teamed up to write a practical guidebook on how to improve habitat for birds on both small and large properties throughout the Hill Country. Because each bird species has specific needs for cover, food, water, nesting, and rearing their young, the book is organized by Hill Country habitat types: wooded slopes and savannahs; grasslands; rivers and creeks; canyons, seeps, and springs; tanks and ponds; plus residential backyards. Each chapter contains an in-depth discussion of common problems and possible solutions for developing optimum habitat. The book showcases 107 species in their habitats with color photographs and a short descriptive account of how to know the bird and care for its habitat. Three additional chapters on predator control, deer management, and cedar management offer detailed information on these special issues that impact the presence of birds throughout the region. As a comprehensive guide to habitat assessment, identification of birds and the habitats they use, plus stewardship practices that will benefit these birds, Attracting Birds in the Texas Hill Country offers landowners the ideal “how to manual” for writing an effective Wildlife Tax Valuation plan. By helping readers recognize and evaluate habitat health and then use appropriate habitat enhancement practices, the authors hope to inspire and enable widespread and effective bird conservation in the Texas Hill Country. And as bird populations flourish, so do the populations of other wildlife.

Manual of Grasses for North America

Manual of Grasses for North America PDF Author: Mary E. Barkworth
Publisher: University Press of Colorado
ISBN: 1457180987
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1552

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Book Description
Grasses are the world’s most important plants. They are the dominant species over large parts of the earth’s land surface, a fact that is reflected in the many different words that exist for grasslands, words such as prairie, veldt, palouse, and pampas to mention just a few. As a group, grasses are of major ecological importance, as soil binders and providers of shelter and food for wild animals, both large and small. Some grasses, such as wheat, rice, corn, barley, rye, tef, and sugar cane are major sources of calories for humans and their livestock; others, primarily bamboos, are used for construction, tools, paper, and fabric. More recently, the seed catalogs that tantalize gardeners each winter have borne witness to an increasing appreciation of the aesthetic value of grasses. The Manual of Grasses for North America is designed as a successor to the classic volume by Hitchcock and Chase. It reflects current taxonomic thought and includes keys, illustrations, and distribution maps for the nearly 900 native and 400 introduced species that have been found in North America north of Mexico. In addition, it presents keys and illustrations for several species that are known only in cultivation or are of major agricultural significance, either as progenitors of bread wheat and corn or as a major threat to North American agriculture because of their ability to hybridize with crop species. The Manual of Grasses for North America is a major reference work for grasses that will retain its value for many years.