TRI-COUNTY — Texas A&M University Press recently announced the publication of The Other Side of Nowhere, an exhaustive and detailed guide to the plants of Big Bend Ranch State Park. The book profiles 281 plant species, as well as their human names, uses and history.
Photographer and naturalist Roy Morey — who has lived all over the region — has been cataloging plants of the lower Big Bend for nearly 40 years. In 2008, he published Little Big Bend, a botanical celebration of “the overlooked small plants or inconspicuous tiny flowers of larger plants that so often go unnoticed” in the massive national park — which also happens to be the most biodiverse park in the national park system.
He shifted his base of operations from Terlingua to Lajitas after the book was published and set out to tackle a daunting new project — this time dedicated to the national park’s wilder younger sister, Big Bend Ranch State Park (BBRSP).
The book’s title takes its name from BBRSP’s unofficial motto, “The other side of nowhere.” At over 300,000 acres — over half of the total Texas State Park system — the “other” Big Bend park boasts its own dizzying array of landscapes and habitats.
Morey’s work is split among the six physiographic regions within BBRSP: La Cienaga, the Alamito-Terneros Lowlands, the Bofecillos Mountains, the Solitario, the Fresno-Contrabando Lowlands and the Rio Grande Corridor. Most of the park’s visitors visit the last two regions; the rest are intimidatingly inaccessible.
As best he could, Morey tried to get to know each corner of the park, strategically hiking and driving to try to find new species to document. One of his favorite stages of the project was driving along all 70 miles of the park’s challenging 4×4 trails, exploring places that few people have ever seen. “It was a lot of fun,” he said.
He also tackled as many of the 238 miles of marked trails as he could, but the excruciatingly slow work of stopping to look at each individual flower and bush filled most of the 11 years it took to collect material for the book. “I’m so amazed that people can run on the trails,” he said.
Though Morey boasts extensive self-training in botany, he leaves the lab science to other people. His approach is more macro than micro, providing an overview that both scientists and laypeople can enjoy: each entry in the book includes common names, folk uses of the plants and a description of their geographic range.
Morey also includes “botanical notes” detailing where, when and by whom each plant was discovered. The result is a unique blend of human history and identifying information driven by his own interests. “I got a lot of advice, and I didn’t really take much of the advice — mostly I was being told that I was trying to cover too much,” he said. “Basically, I wrote a book that I would enjoy.”
One of the most rewarding parts of the process is finding plants in unexpected places. He was particularly tickled to find a date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) in a canyon that drains the Solitario. The plant was introduced by settlers to the Big Bend and still thrives at the BBNP hot springs, but typically doesn’t last long without dedicated care.
He found that tourists have also introduced their own species: Morey documented a watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) that took root beside a picnic table at the Grassy Banks Campground.
Morey hopes that his work will encourage others to slow down and appreciate the complexity of the landscape — which might in turn push people to defend the Big Bend’s wildness. “I think that anyone that starts paying attention to the plants will recognize their beauty and recognize the incredible diversity,” he said. “I think that makes you work to see that the plants are preserved, the diversity is preserved and that human-caused climate change is making a significant difference in their survival.”
The Other Side of Nowhere will be touring local bookstores and visitors centers over the next few weeks. A working schedule of book signings includes:
Saturday, March 9
Barton Warnock Center (21800 FM170, Lajitas), 10 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Thursday, March 14
Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute (43869 TX-118, Fort Davis) 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Saturday, March 16
Terlingua Trading Company (100 Ivey Rd, Terlingua, next to the Starlight) 12 p.m. – 2 p.m.
Saturday, March 23
Javelinas & Hollyhocks, (107 State St, Fort Davis) 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.