View from Skyline Drive
Late in the afternoon on November 20th we turned off into Davis Mountains State Park and drove to the top of Skyline Drive. The prominently pointy and sawtooth-edged plants you see here, including the one whose seed stalk is so tall, are sotol. Two species of Dasylirion grow in this area, but I’m afraid I can’t tell you which one this is. Look beyond the sotol to the land stretched out below and you’ll get a good feel for the vastness and aridity of west Texas.
© 2015 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
We have a Skyline Drive in Virginia too but it looks vastly different from yours😅
norasphotos4u
December 1, 2015 at 5:24 AM
You said it when it comes to being different. The Skyline Drive in Virginia is 105 miles long, while the one in Davis Mountains State Park goes for only a few miles before dead-ending at the summit near where I took this picture. Each place has its charms.
Steve Schwartzman
December 1, 2015 at 8:10 AM
I was surprised to read that “so tall” can be as much as nine to fifteen feet. I especially like the X-marks-the-spot feel of the photo, with the vertical and horizontal crossing at the midpoints of the plant and the mountains. That you managed to tuck the plant into the gap between the two peaks is a bonus.
shoreacres
December 1, 2015 at 5:26 AM
In looking back at my archive, I see that I took eight pictures of this so tall sotol, and in each one I positioned the camera in a way that lined up the stalk with the notch in the distant mountains. Sotol is attractive enough that many people plant it in Austin, but I’m happy that I could see it growing wild in its native habitat. The same is true for cenizo
Steve Schwartzman
December 1, 2015 at 8:23 AM
Beautiful view!
Traveling Rockhopper
December 1, 2015 at 5:54 AM
We’d visited the Davis Mountains ten-and-a-half years earlier but didn’t go on (or even know about, I think) the Skyline Drive.
Steve Schwartzman
December 1, 2015 at 8:29 AM
This is just what I think of when I think of Texas. Just beautiful. The plant…looks like a cross between a grass and an aloe. I’ve never seen anything like it.
melissabluefineart
December 1, 2015 at 8:52 AM
Actually you have seen this plant before, but not in its natural habitat and not with a seed stalk:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2014/10/06/texas-sotol/
Grasses are monocots, as are aloe and sotol. The genera Aloe and Dasylirion are both in the order Asparagales, so you’ve picked up on a kinship that’s real.
Steve Schwartzman
December 1, 2015 at 9:23 AM
As I typed that, I was afraid I was saying something idiotic. This is really a neat plant, isn’t it?
melissabluefineart
December 1, 2015 at 9:29 AM
It is a neat plant, and that’s why people cultivate it in Austin, at least two counties away from its natural range farther west. This is one more incentive for you to visit Texas.
Steve Schwartzman
December 1, 2015 at 9:49 AM
They are piling up, Steve 🙂
melissabluefineart
December 1, 2015 at 4:29 PM
Eventually you’ll have to come here to keep the pile from getting so tall that it topples.
Steve Schwartzman
December 1, 2015 at 4:59 PM
We just watched a “Fixer-Upper” on tv. My gosh, the house you can get for such affordable prices! The heat though…I think I’ll have to satisfy myself with a visit to knock down that visit.
melissabluefineart
December 1, 2015 at 10:04 PM
Where was the fixer-upper?
Steve Schwartzman
December 1, 2015 at 10:07 PM
To be honest I wasn’t paying much attention. I think they said it was in a town neighboring West.
melissabluefineart
December 2, 2015 at 9:42 AM
Ah, West, which isn’t in west Texas at all, but between Fort Worth and Austin.
Steve Schwartzman
December 2, 2015 at 9:47 AM
Names for towns can certainly be puzzling. The area really does seem quite appealing.
melissabluefineart
December 3, 2015 at 8:29 AM
You’ll find the explanation in this case several sentences into the article at
https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hgw06
Steve Schwartzman
December 3, 2015 at 9:11 AM
It’s vast, it’s arid, it’s stark, but it is a beautiful landscape. We enjoyed it a lot when we were there for our honeymoon.
Pit
December 1, 2015 at 9:49 AM
In Tristan und Isolde, Wagner wrote “Öd und leer das Meer,” but the description could just as well apply to the desert of west Texas. You’re the first person I’ve encountered who had a honeymoon there. I’m glad you enjoyed it.
Steve Schwartzman
December 1, 2015 at 5:02 PM
Steve,
I did know the words, but I didn’t know they were from Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. As to the West Texas desert, it is not as “oed und leer” as one is led to believe from the looks of the landscape. We stayed at Fort Davis’ “Veranda Inn” for our honeymoon and did a lot of driving around. And, as I said, we really enjoyed the area. We’d love to go back there (some time soon, maybe).
Best,
Pit
P.S.: We had an interesting experience with the Border Patrol [http://tinyurl.com/jp5ynws].
Pit
December 1, 2015 at 5:46 PM
You’re right that in spite of the fact that the Big Bend area is a desert, it is still home to many kinds of plants and animals. I saw my share of wildflowers there too, even though my visit wasn’t in the spring.
I read your anecdote and am sorry for your ordeal, but I was already aware that things must have turned out well because you’re still here.
Steve Schwartzman
December 1, 2015 at 8:24 PM
The ordeal was more for my wife who had to stay outside in her car and wasn’t told anything of what was happening to me. I didn’t feel too worried as the Border Patrol people were very polite.
Pit
December 2, 2015 at 7:20 AM
It is a vast landscape that does not seem to end as you drive across it…Interesting plant.
Charlie@Seattle Trekker
December 1, 2015 at 1:57 PM
Tell me about it: getting out to the Big Bend region from Austin takes a good six or seven hours, even though the speed limit on much of Interstate 10 out there is 80 miles per hour.
Steve Schwartzman
December 1, 2015 at 5:22 PM
Parece difícil que la flor pueda mantenerse en pie. Muy bonita foto.
Isabel F. Bernaldo de Quirós
December 1, 2015 at 3:47 PM
A veces se caen o el viento las aplastan, pero normalmente se mantienen bien.
Steve Schwartzman
December 1, 2015 at 4:56 PM
I like the way you cleft the two buttes. Referring to an earlier comment by me, this is more what I think of when Texas comes to mind than the intimate you recently shared. I’ll amend that with large never-ending stands of Texas bluebells.
Steve Gingold
December 1, 2015 at 4:44 PM
You might say I have a good eye for cleavage.
Texas is so large that it has several main climatic and geographic regions. For example, the far southeastern part of the state is a lot like Louisiana, with bayous, pine forests, and plenty of rain. On the opposite side of the state, the Trans-Pecos is a desert. Austin is between those extremes.
As for the flowers, we do have bluebells, but I think you probably meant bluebonnets, which can indeed form huge stands:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2014/05/21/interpenetrating-colonies/
Steve Schwartzman
December 1, 2015 at 7:03 PM
Yup, typical Steve G misspeak.
Steve Gingold
December 2, 2015 at 12:34 AM
Sorry if I put a bee in your bonnet.
Steve Schwartzman
December 2, 2015 at 2:43 AM
I can’t think of anything witty or clever to write, Steve. I just love this scene. It takes me back to my Australian outback years. I love those blue skies and open spaces and the stalk sets it off.
Jane
December 2, 2015 at 5:24 AM
From the pictures I’ve seen and from what you say, the Australian outback has a lot in common with the American West. Too bad I can’t drive from here to your outback in six hours.
Steve Schwartzman
December 2, 2015 at 8:38 AM
This is a great photo – I like the vastness of the landscape and your perspective with the nice grass in the foreground…
Truels
December 8, 2015 at 3:26 PM
A vast landscape it is indeed, the real American West. I was glad to be able to drive up on the Skyline Drive to get this perspective.
Steve Schwartzman
December 8, 2015 at 4:38 PM
[…] showing you a so-tall sotol, I thought I should show you another tall-stalked plant that grows in the Chihuahuan Desert, the […]
Not all stalks so tall are sotol | Portraits of Wildflowers
December 19, 2015 at 5:17 AM