— by Cindy Chrisler
Seventeen NPSOT members and family attended the field trip to Museo Benini and Middleton Ranch on April 27, 2024.
The group began the day at Museo Benini outside of Marble Falls, where Lorraine Benini greeted us with enthusiasm and walked the grounds with us for over an hour, regaling us with tales of developing the property for wildflowers and a bird viewing area as well as a sculpture garden. In addition to meadows of firewheel, the group identified phlox, prairie milkvine, trailing rhatany, lazy daisy, purple threeawn, Texas thistle, Eve’s necklacepod, meadow pink, and more. The group also enjoyed a tour of the artist’s gallery before leaving.
About half the participants continued on to the ME Middleton Ranch in Spicewood to eat lunch and hike around a working cattle ranch. Gary Bowers spotted pointed sandmat, a member of the spurge family usually found further west in Texas. Highlights in the afternoon included larkspur, Drummond’s rain lily, antelopehorn milkweed, agarita in fruit, four nerve daisies, and Carolina woolywhite.
See photos from this field trip and others in our album=>
See field trip plans on our Home page.
