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Archive for July, 2014

A wetland plant nursery for Exploration Green park is under way

Posted in Bay-friendly, Galveston Bay, native plants, stormwater wetlands, tagged , , , , on July 28, 2014| 1 Comment »

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The stormwater wetland at Exploration Green in Clear Lake City will require about 30,000 native plants for the park’s first phase. Fortunately, we can grow our own! For that, we need a nursery. Here are some views of the wetland plant nursery as it is being built.

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Framing out the tanks. There are ten total, and each tank will have three compartments.

 

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A bed of sand in each tank keeps the bottoms level.

 

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The heavy duty pond liners are going in today.

Although excavation for the lake in Phase 1 hasn’t started yet, the planning has been in full swing for months.  We’ll be collecting and growing plants in the nursery so that all the plants have been propagated and grown by the time we need them.

Watch for an invitation to the Open House when the wetland nursery is complete in August!

For more on Exploration Green park, check out the website.

 

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What’s the name of THAT plant?

Posted in Uncategorized on July 17, 2014| 1 Comment »

 As I am organizing for the upcoming Wetland Plant ID class, it strikes me that I have actually lost count of how many years we (“we” being Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service) have hosted this class.  This will be either the 10th or 11th class we have held to teach some of the basic plant family groups we utilize in our wetland restoration efforts.  It has always been a lab-oriented class with hands-on specimens that students can touch, examine and rip to shreds (per the instructor’s guidance).  In the last couple of years, we added a class to review botanical terminology which has been taught by our own Charriss York. Now students are less confused when Andy talks about the pedicels on the Sagittaria flowers and verifying if they are recurved or not to determine the difference between species.

Could you identify WHICH two species of Sagittaria (Arrowhead) are pictured here? You could after taking this class.

For Wetland Restoration Team members, the class comes as a welcome relief from the heat of the summer.  The class is a chance to sit indoors, use our heads and refresh our memories about the plants we handle regularly.  I always encourage folks to retake the class a couple of times–that way the information gets really “implanted”. 

If you are interested in taking the class, please contact Marissa at m-sipocz@tamu.edu.  Class size is always limited, and spots get claimed quickly.  Register early!!!

 

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