Welcome to the Texas Gulf Coast Vascular Plant Gallery! The coastal marshes, dunes, and beaches of the Texas coast form a narrow belt adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico. They represent the coastal edge of the Gulf Prairies and Marshes vegetation area of Texas (see Correll and Johnston, 1979). The landscape is low, flat, largely open, and marshy with numerous sluggish, flat rivers and streams that form estuaries as they enter the Gulf of Mexico. Occasional low rises support populations of live oak and other trees. Most of the coast occurs along thin barrier islands and peninsulas that are separated from the mainland by a bay. Large areas of the coast have become urbanized as the result of vacation home development. The climate is humid and the northeastern reaches of the Texas coast, the part the gallery mainly covers, receives roughly 50 inches (127 cm) of rainfall annually although rainfall along the southwestern portion of the coast is substantially less. This small gallery represents some of the plants commonly encountered on Texas beaches and in adjacent salt and brackish coastal marshes. Most of the photos were taken on the Bolivar peninsula (Sea Rim State Park) and on Galveston Island. Most images were obtained at 1704x2272-pixel resolution. Botanical Nomenclature follows Kartesz (1999). Currently one may browse by botanical family names within each of the major groups of plants. Click here or click the "Browse the Gallery" link.
In the future, we hope to enable browsing by easily-recognized characters such as flower color as well as by habitat type. The gallery will continue to connect students, laymen, and professionals with the plants that are the foundation of both the ecosystems and economy of Texas.
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