Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Lady Bird Johnson - A Truly Beautiful Flower of Texas


Frank Wolfe Photo: Lady Bird Johnson In Field of Wild Flowers
"Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson (December 22, 1912 – July 11, 2007) was First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 during the presidency of her husband Lyndon B. Johnson. Throughout her life, she was an advocate for beautification of the nation's cities and highways and conservation of natural resources and made that her major initiative as First Lady." ~Wikipedia




"On December 22, 1982 (her 70th birthday), she and actress Helen Hayes founded the National Wildflower Research Center, a nonprofit organization devoted to preserving and reintroducing native plants in planned landscapes, located east of Austin, Texas. This earned her the nickname of "Johnny Appleseed" of Wildflowers. The Center opened a new facility southwest of Austin on La Crosse Avenue in 1994. It was officially renamed the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in 1998 in honor of Johnson, who raised $10 million for the facility. On June 20, 2006, the University of Texas at Austin announced plans to incorporate the 279-acre Wildflower Center into the University."




"Though the word beautification makes the concept sound merely cosmetic, it involves much more: clean water, clean air, clean roadsides, safe waste disposal and preservation of valued old landmarks as well as great parks and wilderness areas. To me…beautification means our total concern for the physical and human quality we pass on to our children and the future." - Lady Bird Johnson via Jerome Prophet


This center uses some very aesthetic means to store and efficiently reuse the natural stormwater through storage tanks...


... and aqueducts...

using beautiful natural native stone...


... while at the same time creating...


... a very serene natural space.


There is also a very nice gift shop...


... that helps support the Wildflower Center.


Pictures can't begin to show the natural beauty of this center...


... some places made me think of Zorro meets John Ford...


... or the settlement of Texas.


There were not a lot of flowers blooming when we were there and the weather was very iffy with a hurricane approaching but there were some "Prairie Zinnias - Zinna Grandiflora" blooming ...


... and more getting ready to bloom.


I also found a "Scarlet Musk - Nyctaginia Catitata"...


... and a group of "Lace Cactus - Echinocereus Reichenbachii"


The stonework was great on this wall...


... and on the tower...


...and sometime winking at me through narrow hallways.


One of the reason I know the biological names of the plants was from identification signs near the plants and after visiting the Visitor's Gallery...


I found a great gallery of identifications for plants like the "Indian Blanket, is an annual flower that happens to be the state wildflower of Oklahoma.


"American Beautyberry - Callicarpa Americana" occurs naturally from Maryland, south to Florida, and southwesterly into Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas. It also grows in Mexico, Bermuda, the Bahamas and Cuba.


"Leavenworth's Eryngo - eryngium leavenworthii" The eryngos are not true thistles and are often confused with thistles, due to similarity in both appearance and habitat preference. Splashing fields a brilliant purple, it provides an excellent source for late summer and early fall color.


The gallery also has several other displays that are both interesting and informative.


Then there is the wonderful tower...


... looking up from the inside you can see light radiating inside...


... and on the top there are great sights looking up...


... and out...


and down.


The funnel on the side of the Administration building ...


... is a great example of water collection from the Texas rains. You can also see here an example of the beautiful Texas limestone used in many buildings in Texas.


Walking down the tower stairs afforded a great view of it's construction...


and the metal aqueduct from the Visitors Gallery...


... and some of the drainage ducts directing rainwater...


... to a pool below.


You can also imagine an old Texas village looking down from the tower...


... and seeing this agave remember the tips were used as needles...


... and seeing the Opuntia, Made me think of many things. One of the contests on The Food Channel featured the Prickly pear or Nopales and an ingredient.

The stem of certain Opuntia have been investigated in the treatment of type II diabetes. Later, here in Arizona, We met a gentleman told us how all of this plant used to be eaten by local natives and when they adopted a westernized diet the incidence of diabetes increased.

Matthew has a Prickly pear in his front yard that has a fine white web looking substance on some of the paddles and I found out when rubbed between the fingers it turns into a red dye called cochineal. Soon after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire cochineal began to be exported to Spain, and by the seventeenth century was a commodity traded as far away as India. Cochineal became Mexico's second most valued export after silver.


I finally came down from the tower since Hurricane Hermine was closing in fast...


... and we said a hurried goodbye to this wonderful wildflower center and it's beautiful stone walls.

No Scrabble

Quote of the Day ~
"Become so wrapped up in something that you forget to be afraid." ~ Lady Bird Johnson

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