Remember the alamo

“Remember the Alamo!” was the battle cry in 1836 of Texans who wanted to free themselves from Mexican rule. The motto referred to the then-recent massacre by Santa Ana’s Mexican army of the defenders of the Alamo, a former mission in San Antonio inside of which a band of rebellious Texans had taken refuge. So what’s with the lower-case alamo in the title of today’s post? Spanish-speaking settlers had given the mission the name they did because of the cottonwood trees that grew there, alamo being the Spanish name for that type of tree. Botanists, whether they speak Spanish or English, know it as Populus deltoides. The first word identifies the tree as a kind of poplar, and the second refers to its leaves, which are roughly triangular in shape.

After Austin’s Mueller Airport was taken out of service in 1999, most of the pavement from the runways was removed and regular mowing of the property ceased. The result was that all sorts of native plants began springing up again, including quite a few cottonwood trees. On September 30th I wandered through a northern section of the old airport that has not yet been redeveloped, and there I found this cottonwood tree. It is probably just a few years old, given the rapid rate at which this species grows.

For more information about cottonwood trees, including a clickable map showing the many places they grow, you can visit the USDA website.

© 2011 Steven Schwartzman