Behind the Martha Knies Keep Wimberley Beautiful Park, located next to the Wimberley Radio station, you can walk down a ramp to the Cypress Creek Nature Preserve Trail. This 7.2 acre Preserve is owned by the City of Wimberley. The trail leads up to The Blue Hole Park and eventually to the parking lot near the swimming hole. The land in this Preserve has never been developed or farmed and gives you an opportunity to view a pristine riparian landscape, which is a unique ecosystem.
In November the huge deciduous Cypress trees that line the creek are dropping their unique needle-like leaves which have turned a rustic bronze color. In previous articles in this column we have mentioned how, from a high point, such as Old Baldy or Emily Ann Memorial platform, you can see just where the Cypress Creek meanders from the reddish trail of Cypress Trees along the Creek.
This month on the trail there are several native wildflowers and shrubs in bloom or with berries. The bright red Turk’s Cap (Malvaviscus arboreus) flowers are found in the Park and down along the trail. Turk’s Cap is a native plant that can take considerable shade. I did not water mine through the summer drought and they are putting on quite a show since the rains have come.
The Frostweed (Verbesina virginica) white flowers are in bloom all along the trail. We have not had a freeze yet. I watch for the first hard frost to see if I can spot the expanded frozen sap from the Frostweed plant. It is quite a sight but it can only be witnessed once a year immediately after the first hard frost.
Other plants we spotted on the trail leading up to Blue Hole park were White Boneset (Eupatorium serotinum), magenta colored berries on American Beautyberry shrubs (Callicarpa americana) and red berries on Yaupon and Possum Haw small trees. Pictures of most of these plants can be found on the kiosk located at the top of the ramp.
