but Texas plume is the only one na- 

 tive to the United States. 



Most species of Bauhinia have 

 symmetrical bilobed leaves. The two 

 lobes may have inspired the eigh- 

 teenth-century Swedish taxonomist 

 Carl von Linnaeus, who in 1753 

 named the genus in honor of a pair 

 of Swiss botanists, the Bauhin broth- 

 ers. Although the Bauhins lived 

 more than a century be- 

 fore Linnaeus, one of 

 them, Gaspard, was the 

 first to list plants by giving 

 them two names according 

 to a classification system. 

 Thus Gaspard Bauhin was 

 the true inventor of the bi- 

 nomial system of nomen- 

 clature, which is generally 

 credited to Linnaeus. 



Zone-tailed hawk 



Wetland plants and 

 trees abound along and in In- 

 dependence Creek. Away from the 

 stream, however, drier plant commu- 

 nities immediately begin to appear. 

 The slopes between the mesas and 

 the canyon floors are dominated by 



Ashe juniper and redberry juniper, 

 along with ocotillo, a cactuslike plant 

 with long, slender stems. The flat 

 mesa tops are also dotted with Ashe 

 juniper and ocotillo, mixed with 

 beargrass and wheeler sotol. Other 

 species appear along the large boul- 

 ders, cliffs, and ledges at the edges of 

 most of the mesa tops. 



One moist habitat of interest is a 

 small woods near the 

 confluence of Indepen- 

 dence Creek and the 

 Pecos River. It is the 

 nation's westernmost 

 stand of plateau live oak, 

 and the principal nesting 

 site of the black-capped 

 vireo, a bird on the fed- 

 eral list of endangered 

 species. 



Other species the 

 avid north-of-the- 

 border birder can add to his or her 

 life list are the tropical parula and 

 zone-tailed hawk. Among the rare 

 reptiles are the Big Bend blackhead 

 snake and the Texas horned lizard. 

 Native fish in the waters include 



Habitats 



Streamside Shrubs and small trees in 

 the creek or along its banks include 

 black willow, buttonbush, and desert 

 willow, a Chihuahuan Desert plant. 

 French tamarisk, an invasive species 

 from Europe, has made some inroads. 



Bushy bluestem, a grass with thick, 

 reddish brown spikelets, is common. 

 It often grows with tule, a tall, narrow- 

 leaved cattail. Another common wet- 

 land grass is rabbitfoot polypogon, 

 named for its soft, hairy, flowering 

 spikelets. Stands of common reed, an 

 invasive species from the eastern U.S. 

 seaboard, appear here and there. 



Wetland sedges include several 

 species of spikerush; one has stems 

 that grow so long that they bend 

 down to the streambed and form 

 roots at their tips. Among the other 

 sedges are two species of flatsedge, 



which grow three feet high; olney bul- 

 rush, a leafless plant with sharply an- 

 gled three-sided stems; and western 

 umbrellagrass, with small prickly-look- 

 ing flowering spikelets. 



Among the wildflowers are such 

 low-growing species as coast brook- 

 weed, spadeleaf, turkey tangle, wa- 

 ter pennywort, and the rare low 

 loosestrife. Larger herbs include 

 American germander, giant golden- 

 rod, purple marsh-fleabane, and 

 woolly rosemallow. 



Steep bank This habitat above the 

 streambed is usually dominated by 

 small-leaved, gnarly shrubs and trees, 

 such as honey mesquite, javelina 

 bush, knifeleaf squawbush, littleleaf 

 sumac, netleaf hackberry, Texas per- 

 simmon, and wait-a-minute bush. 



VISITOR INFORMATION 



Independence Creek Preserve 

 P.O. Box 150 

 Dryden, TX 78551 

 432-345-6773 

 http://nature.org/texas 



the headwater catfish, proserpine 

 shiner, and Rio Grande darter, the 

 latter two listed by the Texas Parks 

 and Wildlife Department as threat- 

 ened species. 



Robert H. Mohlenbrock is a distin- 

 guished professor emeritus of plant biology at 

 Southern Illinois University Carboudale. 



Canyon head Small trees grow at the 

 heads of canyons above the creek. 

 The dominant species are Ashe juniper 

 and two kinds of shin oak. Beneath 

 them grow the shorter Texas mountain 

 laurel; Mexican buckeye, so-called be- 

 cause its fruits resemble those of true 

 buckeyes; and desert myrtlecroton. 

 The Texas plume lives in this habitat. 



Mesa slope Ashe juniper, ocotillo, and 

 redberry juniper grow on most of the 

 slopes between the tops of the mesas 

 and the canyon floors. Common asso- 

 ciates are agarito, Texas silverleaf, and 

 the yuccalike wheeler sotol. 



Mesa top Ashe juniper and ocotillo 

 mix with beargrass and wheeler sotol. 

 Buffalograss and tobosa usually pro- 

 vide ground cover. 



March 2006 NATURAl HISTORY 



61 



