Ferns and mosses at Bull Creek Park
Five years ago today I visited Bull Creek District Park, where I found these mosses and southern maidenhair ferns (Adiantum capillus-veneris) thriving on a cliff along Bull Creek after heavy rains in May.
© 2020 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
Beautiful. I’d have thought this was a scene from the damp Northeast.
Robert Parker
June 29, 2020 at 6:13 AM
People from other places are often surprised that central Texas has some places like this. I’ve seen it looking less lush, but that spring we’d had some torrential rain.
Steve Schwartzman
June 29, 2020 at 7:11 AM
We love ferns, ancient plants.
MichaelStephenWills
June 29, 2020 at 6:25 AM
I’ll include myself and say we do indeed.
Steve Schwartzman
June 29, 2020 at 7:11 AM
i love ferns and mosses, and this is a lovely spot
beth
June 29, 2020 at 6:38 AM
It is. Not having been there in a good while, I may have to head back.
Steve Schwartzman
June 29, 2020 at 7:14 AM
This would be a great place to cool off on a hot summer day! The plants appear to be thriving on the bare rocks. Very impressive photo, Steve!
Peter Klopp
June 29, 2020 at 7:40 AM
The plants sure were thriving here five years ago today, thanks to heavy rain. I’m afraid that on many summer days the green of this little alcove shades to brown, and the adjacent stretch of Bull Creek often slows to a trickle.
Steve Schwartzman
June 29, 2020 at 7:46 AM
How pretty! You’ve found a bit of tropical rain forest there.
circadianreflections
June 29, 2020 at 9:15 AM
You could be fooled into thinking that. This is a natural grotto nestled into some cliffs along Bull Creek. Immediately adjacent areas aren’t as scenic.
Steve Schwartzman
June 29, 2020 at 11:22 AM
IN TEXAS NO LESS! 😂
circadianreflections
June 29, 2020 at 1:11 PM
Central Texas does have its scenery, though it’s on a smaller scale than in better-known locales. Probably my favorite stretch of Bull Creek is this one:
https://portraitsofwildflowers.wordpress.com/2012/11/01/cliffs-along-bull-creek/
In west Texas the scale increases, for example in the Guadalupe Mountains, Palo Duro Canyon, and Big Bend.
Steve Schwartzman
June 29, 2020 at 1:28 PM
Green green
It’s green they say,
On the dark side of the hill.
Michael Scandling
June 29, 2020 at 10:06 AM
I didn’t initially catch the reference. Once I found and played the song, it was familiar, even though I hadn’t heard it in decades.
Steve Schwartzman
June 29, 2020 at 11:24 AM
Lead vocalist as Barry McGuire, best known for the Eve of Destruction, and the worst version of Monday Monday ever released. Same recording session as when the Mamas and the Papas did their version of their own song. Same backing tracks and backing vocals on both.
Michael Scandling
June 29, 2020 at 11:27 AM
I didn’t know that bit of musical history. According to the Internet, Barry McGuire is still alive at age 84.
Steve Schwartzman
June 29, 2020 at 11:37 AM
And so is McGuinn.
Michael Scandling
June 29, 2020 at 11:48 AM
McGuinn and McGuire just a-gettin’ higher
In their age, you know where that’s at.
Steve Schwartzman
June 29, 2020 at 12:40 PM
McGuinn is a deeply faithful Christian so none of that for him.
Michael Scandling
June 29, 2020 at 1:00 PM
I saw his connection to Christianity on the Internet. Unlike in the original song that I slightly modified, I used “higher” in its numerical sense: 84 is a higher number than 74, for example.
Steve Schwartzman
June 29, 2020 at 1:21 PM
Well, then it’s a done deal.
Michael Scandling
June 29, 2020 at 1:29 PM
This photo brings out the faerie in me.
Beautiful photo to share
Dawn Renee
June 29, 2020 at 12:20 PM
So the fairie enjoys the share-ie.
Did you see the lizard three posts back?
Steve Schwartzman
June 29, 2020 at 12:44 PM
Egad! No! Hang on
Dawn Renee
June 29, 2020 at 6:25 PM
I went. I saw. I squealed
Dawn Renee
June 29, 2020 at 6:29 PM
That’s a succinct and Julius Caesarish way to put it.
Steve Schwartzman
June 29, 2020 at 6:35 PM
Indeed
Dawn Renee
June 29, 2020 at 9:33 PM
Wow, lovely ferns and moss – clearly loving the extra moisture.
Eliza Waters
June 29, 2020 at 2:05 PM
Loving the unusually high amount of rain we’d had. That year in May alone Austin got half as much as its average rainfall for a whole year.
Steve Schwartzman
June 29, 2020 at 3:15 PM
Beautiful greens! Around here, mosses are at their greenest in winter.
tomwhelan
June 29, 2020 at 8:18 PM
Well, linguistically speaking, the root in wet appears in nasalized form in winter, literally ‘the wet season.’
Steve Schwartzman
June 29, 2020 at 8:36 PM
I do love a wet and weeping water-wall, and this is a beauty. My brother showed me a very similar one near his place in North Carlolina a few years back. I’ll have to revisit that soon, I think. Delightfully refreshing!
krikitarts
June 30, 2020 at 2:49 AM
I see you’ve carried over the w-theme from oww: “wet and weeping water-wall” has a poetic sound to it.
Steve Schwartzman
June 30, 2020 at 7:46 AM
Wet and weeping wall
Slowly seeping in the fall
Glistening overall
krikitarts
June 30, 2020 at 5:44 PM
I’m glad you answered the rhyming call.
Steve Schwartzman
June 30, 2020 at 7:32 PM
Reminds me of a lovely maidenhair fern that my mum used to have on a bench in the kitchen but seeing them here in such a beautiful setting is stunning!
Ms. Liz
June 30, 2020 at 3:20 AM
I’d never have imagined your mother would have a maidenhair fern on a bench in her kitchen. I agree with you that the natural setting adds a lot.
Steve Schwartzman
June 30, 2020 at 7:50 AM
It looked beautiful as did a lovely big cyclamen that flowered profusely with bright magenta flowers. Just those two that I remember, they were her special plants 🙂
Ms. Liz
June 30, 2020 at 3:06 PM
Happy memories for you.
Steve Schwartzman
June 30, 2020 at 3:31 PM
Even in some of the driest places I visit, I can find native ferns in a micro climate. They can wither away in heat only to reappear after rain. Just recently I found some surviving on dew captured from granite rock crevices. Love yours☺
eremophila
June 30, 2020 at 4:46 AM
Micro-climate seems so often to be the key. Imagine surviving on dew!
Steve Schwartzman
June 30, 2020 at 7:51 AM
We can only dream of heavy rains and lush, verdant colors, Steve. Heat, wind, and drought are not conducive to lushness.
tanjabrittonwriter
June 30, 2020 at 6:18 PM
Sorry to hear you’ve got heat, wind, and drought there. This pretty scene from five years ago resulted from the opposite affliction: half our average annual rainfall in one month.
Steve Schwartzman
June 30, 2020 at 7:34 PM
Both extremes are little desirable, and too much precipitation can be as destructive as too little, though in the end it’s better to have, rather than not have, water.
tanjabrittonwriter
July 1, 2020 at 6:38 PM
Agreed.
Steve Schwartzman
July 1, 2020 at 6:40 PM
Very pretty composition and find!
denisebushphoto
July 1, 2020 at 4:45 PM
I think of it as a green grotto, at least after we’ve gotten enough rain.
Steve Schwartzman
July 1, 2020 at 6:26 PM
Ahh, the beautiful maidenhair fern, thanks for posting this!
bluebrightly
July 2, 2020 at 7:50 PM
This is much more akin to something you’re likely to show from your temperate rainforest.
Steve Schwartzman
July 2, 2020 at 8:52 PM
For sure!
bluebrightly
July 3, 2020 at 2:46 PM
I’ve seen hints of such lush ferns and moss occasionally, but this is extraordinarily beautiful. Blake’s famous lines came to mind, here slightly revised:
I will not cease attentiveness,
Nor shall my lens sleep in my hand
‘Til I’ve recorded every sight
Of Austin’s green & pleasant Land.
shoreacres
July 3, 2020 at 8:23 PM
That’s an apt and clever revision of Blake. I’ve long been fond of the music that Hubert Parry set Blake’s words to in 1916 and that Edward Elgar then orchestrated.
Steve Schwartzman
July 3, 2020 at 9:14 PM
That has the appearance of something one might find in a rainforest. Or, as I saw above, a nice wet grotto.
Steve Gingold
July 4, 2020 at 4:18 PM
People from elsewhere are often surprised to find out that central Texas has places as green as this one. As I mentioned, the very heavy rain we got in the previous month helped the greenery along.
Steve Schwartzman
July 4, 2020 at 4:48 PM