Diario del proyecto 6th Annual Lubbock Lake Landmark Bioblitz, May 26-June 4, 2023

To my surprise cactus expert Wolfgangb identified an Echinocereus reichenbachii cactus I observed at Lubbock Lake Landmark on May 27 as a subspecies I had not known about, White Lace Cactus of Texas, https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/164055979.

The variety seems to be characterized by a longer and denser thicket of white spines on the crown of the plant. Be on the lookout for these. E. reichenbachii are plentiful at LLL and a variant is easily missed.

This appears to be the first iNat report of this subspecies west of Big Spring. Of course, the identification may be mistaken.

It occurs to me that I found Lace Hedgehog Cacti at LLL in past years that looked different and that I wanted to ID as something else but were still confirmed as the usual subspecies, perbellus. I need to comb through my 135 other observations of E. reichenbachii to see if any are this new subspecies.

Observations MADE within the LLL boundaries qualify. This means that if the plant or animal is seen or heard from within the boundaries then it qualifies; thus birds you observe while you are inside the LLL boundary qualify, as well as a plant growing in the right-of-way just outside the fenceline. BUT for location you must use your own observer's location inside LLL boundaries.

When you post your observations please be sure the location including margin of error is entirely inside the boundary; if any part of the circle of location error lies outside the boundary, the observation will not be included. Thus obscuring the exact location will exclude it from this bioblitz.

Before this bioblitz/project there have been 10 others at Lubbock Lake Landmark, some continuing. https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=lubbock+lake+landmark

The inaugural survey lasted two days and was in 2016. https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/lubbock-lake-landmark-inaugural-survey