There’s nothing like a sunny winter day in Central Texas! The air can be cool and sometimes windy, but when it’s sunny it can be quite comfortable. Most winter days seem to be damp and overcast.

I was treated to this lovely view while driving along a back road earlier this winter. I had to stop and capture it. The photo was take in late afternoon and you can see the long shadows some of the trees are casting across the road. The terrain is typical of the Hill Country, with steep slopes and sharp ravines.

There wasn’t much traffic so I didn’t have to wait long for the road to be clear. Most of the green trees you see are Ashe Junipers (Juniperus ashei). The yellow ones are probably Cedar Elms (Ulmus crassifolia) and the red ones are Red Oaks.

Hill Country View

Here’s a densely-berried Possumhaw Holly (Ilex decidua). Unlike its close cousin, the Yaupon Holly (Ilex vomitoria), the Possumhaw loses its leaves in the winter. The bright red berries make a nice contrast to the gray, almost white, branches.

The number of berries on individual trees seems to vary a lot. This one had many branches and they were all covered with the berries. The berries are about a quarter inch in diameter.

Possumhaw Holly

This lichen is always on the local trees, but you can’t see it until the trees lose their leaves. This one is a fruticose, which means branching, lichen. This one is yellow with small orange flecks. They’re are others which are a gray green. This one is about 3 inches long and maybe an inch at its widest point. They’re quite small.

Lichens are actually composite organisms which result from algae or cyanobacteria living with fungus in symbiosis. They’re really quite amazing and they are all around us.

Lichen