Brownsville, Texas - the construction crew & developer gave us a few extra days to salvage these rare caper trees before they clear the rest of the parcel for McMansions and tasteless non-native landscaping, which was very kind of them.

I even mentioned to One of the guys how stupid it is to remove this vegetation since it's not in the way of anything and all these plants are perfectly adapted to this climate and he agreed and shook his head. It's not their call, they're just doing a job, and these Ponzi-scheme developments are going up all over the country. It's an economic model that likely won't change, but maybe the landscaping choices can. It's my hope that if trees or native vegetation isn't in the way, maybe they can start leaving some of it. I've been studying the flora of this region for the past six years, and the plants that grow here are like finely tuned machines that thrive in these extreme conditions as a result of having evolved here over hundreds of thousands of years. They handle heat, drought and winds in ways that Crepe Myrtles, life oaks and Queen Palms can't.

Anyway, let's check out this habitat while we still can...