Biodiversity Blog
Brackenridge Field Lab awarded Green Fund for community-based restoration of Schulle Creek
Permanent water in Schulle Creek at BFL (Photo: Larry Gilbert) The Schulle Creek Restoration Program at the Brackenridge Field Lab (BFL) has been funded by a Green Fund award from the Office of Sustainability at UT Austin. The funds will support an ambitious multi-year project to restore native biodiversity of the Schulle Creek area which has be...
Armadillos to Ziziphus: David Hillis Talks About His New Book
Courtesy University of Texas Press 2023 With a state as big as Texas is, there is an extremely diverse ecology. From high altitude desert mountains in the west, to our vast coastline, to low-lying swamps in the east. Since most of the residents of the Lone Star State live in urban centers, sometimes it’s difficult to learn about the plants...
Trees of BFL: the Redbud
Photo collage: Larry Gilbert Nothing quite signals the coming of spring in Austin like when a redbud tree starts to bloom. After our brief but botanically-drab Austin winters, the bright pink flowers are a welcome and invigorating sight. At Brackenridge Field Lab, redbuds grow there natively in places where limestone quarries existed in t...
Meet Stengl-Wyer Scholar: Chase Smith
As part of the new Stengl-Wyer Endowment, the Stengl Wyer Postdoctoral Scholars Program provides up to three years of independent support for talented postdoctoral researchers in the broad area of the diversity of life and/or organisms in their natural environments. Chase Smith is one of three scholars starting at UT this year. Chase's researc...BACKYARD BIODIVERSITY: Mediterranean gecko
Photo: ZooFari (Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.)
Mediterranean gecko? What? But we’re in Texas!
While these are an Old World species, native to Southern Europe and North Africa, Mediterranean geckos have been introduced to many areas of the world, including Texas. They are common around Austin. You’... What's In a Name? Tummy Toads, Gastrophryne olivacea
Photo: Stanley Trauth 2007 (wikipedia)
A few years ago, I built several ponds near my house at the Double Helix Ranch, hoping that frogs would colonize them and I could enjoy the sound of frog calls outside my window. Several different species have come and bred there including Strecker's Chorus frogs (Pseudacris streckeri), Grey ... 
A Springtime Visit to the Candelaria Ranch
by Dr. George Yatskievych (Botanist and Curator, Billie L. Turner Plant Resources Center) and Dr. Dean Hendrickson (Curator of Ichthyology) The road to Candelaria, Texas is long and dusty, but well worth the drive. Candelaria is located on the Rio Grande in Presidio County. Rancho Pensado, headquartered in this tiny community, is noted for its swe...
