Dry mud on the bottom of Somerville Lake in Birch Creek Park. Texas, September 17, 2011
Middle Bayou near Road 50, 4 miles south-east from crossing with Road 60, near Batts Ferry Road, south from College Station. Because of dry spell and hot weather, water level dropped revealing caked mud and bare iron bridges at the bottom of the bayou. Texas, July 19, 2009
Dry landscape with caked mud of Middle Bayou near Road 50, 4 miles south-east from crossing with Road 60, near Batts Ferry Road, south from College Station, Texas, July 19, 2009
Animal tracks on caked mud of dry bottom of Somerville Lake near Birch Creek Park. Texas, August 21, 2011
Caked mud on dry bottom of Somerville Lake near Birch Creek Park. Texas, August 21, 2011
Psathyrella mushrooms on drying mud on Caney Creek Trail (Little Lake Creek Loop Trail) in Sam Houston National Forest, near Huntsville. Texas, June 2, 2018
Small brown gilled mushrooms on dry mud in a normally dry area on Caney Creek section of Lone Star Hiking Trail in Sam Houston National Forest north from Montgomery. Texas, September 17, 2020
Ascomycete fungus Hymenoscyphus epiphyllus(?) on a dry leaf on wet mud on Caney Creek Trail (Little Lake Creek Loop Trail) in Sam Houston National Forest north from Montgomery. Texas, April 11, 2021
Cup fungus Hymenoscyphus epiphyllus(?) on a dry leaf together with Scutellinia superba on wet mud on Caney Creek Trail (Little Lake Creek Loop Trail) in Sam Houston National Forest north from Montgomery. Texas, April 11, 2021
Dry leaves of lotus (Nelumbo lutea) in caked mud of Flag Pond near Lake Somerville Trailway near Nails Creek Unit of Somerville Lake State Park. Texas, October 16, 2022
On the dry bottom of Flag Pond, the exposed basin was covered with an almost continuous green-and-yellow carpet of cursed buttercup (Ranunculus sceleratus), turning what is usually open water into a bright spring sheet of bloom. The plants spread densely across the dark, uneven mud, with only a few bare patches and scattered taller shoots breaking the surface of the low, fine-textured vegetation.The broad open expanse, distant tree line, and heavy gray clouds make the scene feel both striking and a little surreal, as if the pond has briefly become a flowering meadow. Near Nails Creek Unit of Somerville Lake State Park. Texas, March 14, 2026
In this wider view of the dried Flag Pond basin, the landscape reveals a different growth pattern of the cursed buttercup (Ranunculus sceleratus). Rather than forming a low, continuous carpet, the plants here have grown into distinct, robust clumps separated by wide veins of pale, heavily caked mud. The deep fissures running through the sun-baked earth create a striking geometric web, framing the bright green bushes of buttercup. In the background, a band of dry brown reeds marks the pond s original edge, giving way to a dense tree line under the same overcast, gray sky. Near Nails Creek Unit of Somerville Lake State Park. Texas, March 14, 2026
In the caked mud of Flag Pond, a bright green, bushy seedling of cursed buttercup (Ranunculus sceleratus) emerges strongly from the deep fissures. Beside it lies a single, perfectly round, olive-green leaf of an American lotus (Nelumbo lutea) seedling, dotted with a few tiny water droplets that highlight its water-repellent surface. Scattered around these two fresh sprouts are the thick, dried, gray-brown stalks of mature lotus plants from a previous growing season, resting lifelessly across the severely fractured, dry earth. Near Nails Creek Unit of Somerville Lake State Park. Texas, March 14, 2026
In this wide expanse of the dried Flag Pond basin, the vegetation pattern of the cursed buttercup (Ranunculus sceleratus) has shifted dramatically, becoming highly sparse and widely scattered. Here, the landscape is dominated by pale, heavily baked mud that has contracted and fractured into a vast, repeating network of geometric desiccation polygons. Emerging from these deep, crisscrossing fissures are a few isolated, bright green clumps of buttercup, accompanied only by the dry, curled, and withered stalks of last year s aquatic vegetation. Near Nails Creek Unit of Somerville Lake State Park. Texas, March 14, 2026
In this detailed close-up of the desolate Flag Pond basin, the cursed buttercups are entirely absent, leaving behind a stark canvas of severely fractured, gray-brown mud. The features of this dry landscape are two incredibly clear, five-fingered tracks pressed directly into the center of a large, unbroken slab of the baked mud crust. While it is easy to imagine these prints belonging to a large wading bird, avian species almost exclusively leave three- or four-toed, fork-shaped tracks. Instead, these highly distinctive, hand-like imprints with five long, slender, splayed toes are the classic signature of a foraging raccoon. Flag Pond near Nails Creek Unit of Somerville Lake State Park. Texas, March 14, 2026
