Knowledge of plants is fundamental to
range and pasture managers and, when combined with knowledge of soils
and climatic conditions, forms the basis for range management and
successful ranching.
With recent rainfall we have started to see a little
green in our pastures and in some cases a few plants that have us
wondering what in the world they are. Texas is large with extreme
variation in environmental conditions and provides growing conditions
for about 5,000 species of flowering plants that have been named.
Because of the variability in weather, past management on the ranching
landscape and different goals of land ownership, no two ranches are
exactly alike, have exactly the same plant species or densities of
plants, or have the exact same capability for the production of plants.
For many reasons, each ranch owner or
manager needs to have some idea of the names of the plants growing on
the land, their value and meaning in a management sense. The plant
species growing on a ranch can often indicate the success or failure for
the land manager. Plants respond to our management imposed on the
land.
Livestock and plants belong together. However, livestock and plants do
not necessarily exist for each other’s convenience. In fact, it appears
that plants will try anything to avoid being eaten. Plants will crawl
under rocks, grow thorns, give off obnoxious odors, taste bad, grow
inaccessibly high in the air or low to the ground, become unpalatable,
change from high nutrient quality to low and even produce toxic or
poisonous chemicals. If you can’t identify the plant you can’t manage
it.
Some people know plants by sight or general appearance. Many people have
come to recognize, consciously or unconsciously, the many points that
make plant species different from each other. Others have learned the
value of a plant through experience. Some plants are easier to
distinguish than others. It has always been one of our human
characteristics that we name things and arrange them in some orderly
fashion. We have always needed to name things in order to have a means
of communication.
We name plants to help communicate about it. Without a
name, we cannot look it up in a book and find information others have
written. Without the name and the attached information, we can only
learn about plants through experience and this could be a costly if it
is toxic or invasive
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