Plants of the Weston Ranch
The Weston Ranch is located in south central Texas just outside of New Braunfels. It covers about 4200 acres in the northwestern part of Guadalupe County with a small portion extending into Comal County. This area is part of the Blackland Prairie region of Texas and originally was tallgrass prairie. Soils are mostly clay. The vegetation is dominated by grasses, shrubs, and trees.
Dominant trees over most of the ranch are mesquite, huisache, cedar elm, Texas persimmon, and hackberry. Shrubs such as agarita, basil, and elbowbush are common in open areas.
Prickly pear cacti are also abundant in some parts of the ranch. A wide variety of herbaceous plants are also present in the open grasslands. Abundant wildflowers include Indian blanket, coreopsis, bluebonnet, Mexican hat, and common sunflower.
Near the center of the ranch is an area of wooded land where limestone is close to the surface, with some large flat exposures of bedrock . The plant community in this area is typical of the Edwards Plateau region of Texas, with Ashe juniper and live oak the dominant plant species. Spanish moss hangs from the branches of some of the older live oak trees. The picture to the left shows a limestone outcrop area with Ashe juniper and live oak woods in the background.
Another set of unique habitats for plants are the riparian areas of Santa Clara and Fourmile Creeks. Despite the fact that these areas are mostly dry during a good part of the year, wetland-adapted plants still grow in these areas, perhaps surviving the dry years as seeds or rootstock. Some species of plants such as black willow, spiny aster, and cattail are also only found on the margins of the ponds and creeks.
Plants of the Weston Ranch is intended to provide a reference guide to some of the most common and most interesting plants found on the ranch. The Weston Ranch Project at Texas Lutheran University has documented over 300 species of plants on the ranch. Over 2000 voucher specimens have been collected and used to create herbarium specimens that document the presence of each species on the ranch.
The specimens are located primarily in the herbarium at Texas Lutheran University, but duplicate specimens of many of the species have been sent to the herbaria at the University of Texas in Austin, Louisiana State University, the Missouri Botanical Garden, and the Botanical Research Institute of Texas.
Most of the photographs in Plants of the Weston Ranch were taken at the Weston Ranch. The described uses of these plants are based primarily on uses by American Indians or early European American settlers.
-Alan Lievens and Mark Gustafson
Please check out Plants of the Weston Ranch below. There you will be able to see the over 300 types of beautiful plants you can find at the Weston Ranch!