Welcome to Trans-Pecos Plants! (Version 22.12)

The Trans-Pecos Mountains and Basins region includes the westernmost parts of Texas. The polar opposite of the Pineywoods, the Trans-Pecos consists of rugged terrain with desert valleys and wooded mountain slopes and summits. Mean annual precipitation ranges from less than 10 inches (25cm) in portions of the desert lowlands to as much as 20 inches (51cm) on the higher mountains. Elevation ranges from 2,500 feet (762m) to 8,749 feet (2,6667m) at the summit of Guadalupe Peak, Texas' highest mountain. The lowlands make up the largest extent of the Chihuahuan Desert in the United States (Correll & Johnston, 1979). The dramatic variation in topography, elevation and climate in the Trans-Pecos results in an equally varied array of plant communities including 'islands' of conifer forest in protected mountain canyons, juniper-pinyon woodlands at high elevations, desert grasslands at mid-elevations, and desert shrublands at lower elevations.

This small gallery, representing some of the more commonly-encountered west Texas desert and mountain plants and wildflowers, is a product of vacations and excursions to Guadalupe Mountain National Park, Big Bend National Park and the Davis Mountains. Botanical nomenclature mostly follows The the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), occassionaly deffering to the Flora of North America (FNA 1993+) series. Family circumscriptions follow the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group IV classification (APG 1998, 2003, 2009, 2016). Correl and Johnston (1979), Evans, (1998), Loflin & loflin (2009), Morey, (2008),Powell, (2000),Powell, (1998), Powell et al. (2008), and West (2000) were used for species identification.

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