An Annotated Checklist of the
Vascular Plants of Travis County, Texas
February 2002 Draft
William R. Carr
Research Affiliate
Section of Integrative Biology
School of Biological Sciences
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas
Dedicated to
Brother Daniel Lynch
Notes on the January 2004 Draft
The following list includes all of the vascular plant taxa, both native and naturalized, that are known
to occur in the wild anywhere within Travis County. A first draft was completed in 1996. In this
February 2002 draft, nomenclature has been updated to reflect some of the multitude of subsequent
changes. It now corresponds more or less to that used in the Flora of North Central Texas (Diggs,
Lipscomb & O'Kennon, 1999), the most useful flora for the Travis County area.
Principal sources of information include the collections at the Plant Resources Center at The
University of Texas at Austin (TEX-LL); smaller but obviously relevant herbaria maintained by the
Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge (BCNWR), the City of Austin's Office of
Environmental Resource Management (COA), and the Travis County Transportation and Natural
Resources Department (TCTNRD); previous regional floras (Young, 1920; Brown, 1948; Higdon,
1948; Lynch, 1974); published systematic literature; and unpublished plant lists from local managed
areas (e.g., Lyter, 1986; Muzos, 1986; Sexton, 1996).
Arrangement follows the traditional Engler and Prantl sequence of plant families, except within the
Pteridophyta where the more modern treatment in Volume Two of the Flora of North America
(various authors, 1993) is adopted. Genera, species, and subspecific taxa are arranged
alphabetically.
Annotations for each taxon include a brief estimate of its local abundance and a description of its
habitat. Both are based on the perceptions of the author and may be biased in any number of ways.
An apology must be offered for the lethargy of much of the prose in the current draft; hopefully at
least some sections will be improved during moments of inspiration in the near future.
Specimen citations are provided for the less common taxa. In such cases all of the sheets at TEXLL, but only a selected few of the specimens at smaller herbaria, are included. For the more
common taxa, only the number of sheets at TEX-LL is mentioned. It could be argued that citations
are of little value, particularly those of specimens with labels providing nothing more than the word
"Austin," a date and the name of the collector. Nonetheless they are offered here for the benefit of
the curious, to generate interest in the relatively few collectors (Mary Sophie Young, B. C. Tharp,
Annie Armer, Barton Warnock, Fred Barkley, A. M. Ferguson and others) who contributed so much
to the persistent knowledge of the local flora in the first half of the 20th Century, and perhaps to
demonstrate the comparative dearth of local collections since then.
A historical perspective was also the motive behind the inclusion of references to "previous Travis
County floras." Both floras-- the first account of the plants of "the Austin region" by Mary Sophie
Young, posthumously published in 1920, and the 1974 account of the plants of an urban subset of
Travis County by Brother Daniel Lynch-- are fascinating treatments of which some students of the
local flora may be unaware.
i
Finally, it should be pointed out that this effort toward a florula of Travis County is incomplete.
Additions and corrections are both welcome and encouraged. The author can be contacted at 6106
Woodview, Austin TX, 78757, at (512) 459-5326, or at bcarr@tnc.org.
Acknowledgements
This project, which has consumed the happiest and sanest bit and pieces of my free time virtually
since the moment I first set foot in Travis County in 1981, would not have been as rewarding
without the help of a host of others who share a keen interest in the local flora. First and foremost
among these friends is the late Brother Daniel Lynch, who in the early 1980's invited me to
accompany him and Edward A. Kutac in their investigations toward a flora of the nineteen-county
area surrounding Austin. The botanical education Brother Daniel provided (and the introduction to
ornithology Ed provided) on Saturday trips during the next three or four years were well worth the
price of smelling Ed's sardine lunches.
This project simply would not have been possible without the help of the Section of Integrative
Biology, School of Biological Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin and its Plant Resources
Center. In their various capacities, Dr. Billie Turner, Dr. Beryl Simpson, and Dr. Carol Todzia
never failed to make me feel at home despite the comparatively parochial nature of my task. Dr.
Turner's unique brand of vociferous support, to which all of his many students have been treated,
was also extended to-- and greatly appreciated in-- this more informal setting. Over the years Dr.
Mark Mayfield and Dr. Guy Nesom assisted with determinations of countless specimens and the
occasional enlightening field trip, and more recently Dr. Tom Wendt has continued this fine
tradition of enthusiasm.
I am also indebted to Dr. Stanley Jones and Dr. Jay Wipff for the identification of hundreds of
specimens of Cyperaceae and Poaceae from various parts of Texas, including Travis County.
Thanks is also due to the staff of the now-defunct Texas Natural Heritage Program, and in particular
to its former coordinator, Dr. David D. Diamond. Work on David's various projects offered me the
opportunity to become at least passingly familiar with the flora of all other parts of the state.
Although more interested in big-picture ecology, David, along with fellow botanist Jackie Poole,
always encouraged my interest in the minutiae of the Travis County flora, and he scoffed at my
resistance to conduct such research on the clock during my tenure with the program from 1988 until
1995. During that same era, David Riskind of the Public Lands Division of Texas Parks and
Wildlife also broadened my horizons, sometimes directly but more often via a cryptic remark the
import of which was not discerned until much later.
A debt of gratitude is also owed to the Travis County Transportation and Natural Resources
Department, which employed me during the summer of 1996 to, among more useful tasks, look for
interesting plants on Travis County parks. Clif Ladd, Terri Siegenthaler, Phil Koepp and others
never failed to get excited about each and every remotely unusual plant record that surfaced. That
ii
job was brief and was conducted during the worst drought in at least fifteen years, but all of the
information gathered was quite germane to this project.
Several interesting records came to light during a 1999-2000 inventory of watershed protection
areas managed by the City of Austin Water and Wastewater Department. Willy Conrad is thanked
for access to the tracts.
A special thanks is extended to a small cadre of other folks whose intimate working knowledge of
and unabashed interest in the flora of Travis County has been the source of new records as well as
different perspectives on old familiar species. Marshall Enquist, Pat McNeal, Dr. Chuck Sexton,
Paul Turner and Burford Westlund have all contributed more to this project than they would be
willing to admit. Going out and looking at plants would not have been nearly as educational
without their varied insights and certainly not as much fun without their company.
Last but never least I must thank my wife, Dr. Mary Lou Price, who has graciously tolerated my
episodic obsession with this project and other botanical foolishness during the past fifteen years.
iii