Blanco crabapple

On the wet morning of December 6th I wended my way down to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. One of the things I photographed there was this colorful leaf of a tree that botanists call Malus ioensis var. texana and that regular folks know as the Blanco crabapple or Texas crabapple. The specimens planted at the Wildflower Center are a little east of the Blanco crabapple’s natural range on the Edwards Plateau in central Texas.

Today’s post marks the debut of this species in these pages, and the photograph is also the first in a baker’s week of pictures from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (if a baker’s dozen is thirteen, then a baker’s week lasts eight days).

© 2104 Steven Schwartzman