Rare South Texas Agaves that Grow on Ancient Oyster Beds

in this video we check out some of the most beautiful habitat in all of South Texas and inspect the only two native species of agave known from the region. both of these species grow on a substrate composed of 50 million year old oyster fossils.
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Thanks, GFY.

[@ryanak817]

Im 42, an ex-con and addict among other things. I just finished my first semester for a horticulture degree with a 4.0 GPA. I really do owe that to you and your videos man, I really appreciate them. Plants have been to only constant to bring me any peace, so I owe them too.

[@geoffbreen2386]

If only more people would stop and consider plants and their surroundings, the world could be a much better place.

[@Bc232klm]

Thanks for sharing your story. This channel has brought peace to me as well over the years ❤️

[@ulalaFrugilega]

More power to ya, mate! And peace, too.

[@MrEiht]

Peace? From plants? They are like wicked, drunken teenager with no comon sense or mercy. Yes, I love them, nearly all. But wont get any peace from them...taking clones and repotting and more work :)

[@yusufalfyfer9415]

Good luck with your future brother peace from Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿❤❤

[@doppenheim64]

Love you, kiddo! So glad I kept you home from school in 4th grade to help me plant our garden.😘

[@anaritamartinho1340]

I always love to see cactus in habitat

[@CarlosGarcia-mi4lh]

Joey, you are a National Treasure. We are fortunate to have you.

[@ulalaFrugilega]

International

[@myrmepropagandist]

Iove it when you do the close ups of the little plants.

[@Bc232klm]

Me too ❤️

[@JoseFloresEC]

Having a tatoo to measure length of plants/stuff is ingenious haha

[@JRvillablancademendoza]

Hell yeah that echinocactus looks so beautifully shaped and so nice out there in the desert; so much better than in anyone’s garden collection.

[@sagetmaster4]

Wow those water storage cells protecting the chlorophyll rich cells is so cool! Also shout out Swainson's hawks for doing that western prairie to chile/Argentina migration. Those lucky hawks get two summers and are migrating over the tropics during spring/fall

[@rvwashner2356]

Leathery fuck here loving your stuff.

[@deohere7647]

Man those Peyotes are beautiful. The whole area is beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

[@jedimindtrixr4kidz294]

ngl, only reason I subbed years ago lol

[@richardtyree9384]

Agave Are Cool....❤😊

[@thebassoonman2020]

Seeing agaves in situ is life changing. Went to Arizona and saw them everywhere. Now I have an obsession 😂

[@Tminus89]

Very interesting, loved it. These landscapes look very alien to me, because I live in Europe (The Netherlands). It always fascinates me to watch videos like yours. Also, beautiful dog! My first thought was Australian Cattle Dog mixed with something bigger like a shepherd. Am I warm haha? Or a Scottish Shepherd shorthair mix.. I only discovered my love for plants recently, while dogs have always been an important part of my life :)

[@earthnotforgotten]

Peaceful and beautiful. That pattern in the agave is insane

[@krissteel4074]

Often interests me how the native people's would have moved through these kind of environments, given they're full of hard, hot and sharp rocks. Then the plants are almost universally very spiny or spiked right at the level to poke you in the eyeball or fill you foot with thorns. I've walked around in semi-arid and scrub lands when I was young and allowed to go hike in nature for 3-4 days or a week, but the plant life was much different to Texas and you sort of learned very quickly how to live with and move through it.

[@OutboundShane]

0:22 I still remember the smell of that "Dysodia" plant as a kid in Louisiana. Minty but but a little heavier and not as sweet but still nice.

[@ulalaFrugilega]

It's amazing remembering smells and plants from childhood. Always makes me happy to encounter species we used to play with, or crawl through...

[@chucktaylor4958]

Beautiful species rich parcel of botanical heaven.

[@raphlvlogs271]

agaves are usually salt tolerant as well they can often be found growing on coastal rocks and low sea cliffs

[@JM-qr3zh]

"Sometime life is just a bunch of tubes!" Fugggg I'm dead😂🤣☠️ Really enjoy these vids, tho. Funny and informative, always learn something new. Love your channel, dude! 💯🔥

[@Lance.pigman]

Agave just wants to grow! They don’t even care what the soil looks like

[@jasonscott7803]

Love your work Bro and as an Australian the footage of you here is some of my favourite but it's always enjoyable to hear your dulcet tone and the extent of your knowledge is outstanding and highly educational, thanks for what you do Buddy.👍✌️

[@kweeshaatekneepunam2507]

🎉🎉Long form video content WOOOOOOO! 🎉🎉

[@bobbywright3479]

Love it Joey!

[@janewhite2331]

I hope you and your family had an enjoyable Christmas

[@user-oz1pw8jr7s]

So appreciate you. Live in Eastern Wa. Trying to do my part for the insects and mammals that share this earth.

[@Bc232klm]

Thank you ❤️

[@Joey-vw1id]

Merry Christmas Joey!

[@pamelapilling6996]

Hope you had a great Christmas Joey. Thanks for the look at the plants.

[@baronsamedi7304]

Always a good walkabout and rant bud, moisturize or youll end up looking like Larry King

[@charlesdeuter]

This one was a real banger!

[@edreasner44]

Totally dig your videos

[@aqua_cod]

Agave is my all time favorite plants

[@nowolwo2745]

awesome thank you

[@jamesrjohanniii774]

Marigold Tribe ?? Ok I love 💓 this plants classification ahould have a TRIBE !! LOL

[@spicychilicrisp]

Another epic video Joey - camera’s got some crazy zoom

[@mpv9866]

Thanks for the look at louisianica! I learn so much from you, certainly many others do as well! 🙏💚

[@cameronstoneadams1183]

Drops everything to watch crime pays..

[@SpecialSoldier109]

I live by joshua tree and have been collecting wild seed to fix my yard, old owner thought oleander was the way to go but i wanna have a bit more vegegation before i remove the oleander

[@PlayMoGame]

23:15 Bug nerd here, those are ailanthus webworm moths

[@01251974]

So cool!

[@snuugumz]

End ‘O The Year Gratitude Checklist circa 28th December 2023: i am grateful for, above and beyond all else, the fact that Joey brought his sidekick, his best bud and literal road dawg, Cap’n Jack, out in da cut while the weather is nice. The way some folks treat their pets like disposable inconveniences is fucking appalling and disgusting. If you ain’t ready to have a roommate for about 15 years, give or take, then DON’T GET A DOG. Oh, ya gotta move? TAKE YOUR DOG WITH YOU. It might cost ya more but tough shit, pal. Anyways, yeah: real men don’t bail on them what depend on him. I am grateful for the land and the mountains and gorgeous deserts of Texas, in spite of greed-based residents and politicians, and the drunk driver who killed my paternal grandfather in 1962. I am filled with gratitude every single time I read the comments and realize that the generations of now and of yet to be are not a pack of drooling fuckwits(for the most part), and we might just survive ourselves. FINALLY~ i am grateful to have crawled back out of that bottle 21 years ago, and stayed out. I am grateful for KZbin for sort of being what we were promised the Interwebs would be. Also, something I never ever thought would come true ! Can you guess?!? That’s right. FREE INTERNET PORN!!! HAPPY NEW YEAR, TO ALL O’ Y’ALL. And many mooooore!

[@katiekane5247]

Ya also need to be prepared to care for them if/when something happens. They become your responsibility and if you're just after something cool for your yard, get a gnome. A pack animal forced to live alone is miserable, treated like a pack member, they'll give their life to protect yours. I'm grateful to have been raised by a pack, raised my kid and grandson in one. Grandog got as many presents as the grandson lol So cool for this old lady to see the interest Joey has brought to native plants. Been my groove a long time 😊

[@snuugumz]

@@katiekane5247 preach, sistah! 😎💋

[@gavinspencer2308]

Hey great video as always! Your videos on the texas thornscrub were some of the first I saw of your videos and they continue to be some of my favorite ecosystems to see you botanize. Such a neat habitat and plant community overall. I plan to eventually see it myself some day! Also I wanted to mention that the orange insects you called beetles are actually lepidopterans, ailanthus webworm moths to be more specific. They're pretty awesome, I highly recommend taking a closer look next time you see one or at least looking at some close up photos because the pattern is just incredible! I'm super into entomology and arthropods in general among other things and I have a mounted specimen of this species I collected a few years back in Oklahoma. Anyway sorry to ramble lol, merry late Christmas and a happy new year, love what you do man! en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ailanthus_webworm

[@TheRedKnight101]

It's amazing how the spread of the invasive Tree of Heaven from China widened the range of a cool moth from South Florida

[@gavinspencer2308]

​@TheRedKnight101 yes! Sometimes its not all bad. Moths especially can often be more generalistic in the plants they feed on and lepidopterans overall are somewhat adaptable to utilize what plants are available, even if they're not a natural food source.

[@LukeMcGuireoides]

Ya know, I think that place used to be a massive oyster bed. Correct me if I'm wrong

[@billpuppies]

What I have heard, ants are the primary seed-distributor of those low-lying cacti. I heard it from a guy who said that most peyoteros do not even know that.

[@nepmobile3583]

Nice

[@thartwig]

City politicians will be highly offended by this episode.

[@ntacms90]

Look if you wanted native plants planted maybe you should have had a cousin Vinny on the city council like the current landscaping contractor.

[@Rectitude4U]

So entertaining.

[@ulalaFrugilega]

18:28 what a beautiful shot!

[@whatilearnttoday5295]

I have my first Mammillaria herderi fruit ripening as of yesterday. Off and running!

[@sass-gc6cw]

Great video but i think you (like me!) need your reading glasses more, your small beetles feeding on Nahuatlea hypoleuca are Ailanthus Webworm Moths, does its native foodplant (Simarouba) occur there or is it helping to control Ailanthus

[@helenpatterson3858]

Wow ! I never knew that there were vining varieties of ephedra !

[@christine9536]

Love you, weirdo, or at least I love the work you do. Keep posting vids and I'll keep forcing people to watch them because holy shit these vids are important.

[@richardlynch1094]

Fuck lotion! Here's to us leathery old fucking botanists Joe!

[@DrJason.]

Just out of curiosity how much organic material is in that oyster shell material? Just wondering how much builds up vs gets blown or flushed away. Have to admit im fascinated by that terrain and habitat. Thanks for sharing the detail shots.

[@geoffbreen2386]

I don't know but it appears negligible. That UV, heat and dry air would be cracking up any organic matter on top of the oyster beds and would wash down easily.

[@brandon9172]

Limestoneee not shell. There are habitats with sigificant amounts of nondegraded shell but those are on the coast.

[@user-cv6rl2qy1g]

"Horse Crippler" Respect.

[@katiekane5247]

😊Gold bond foot cream Joey, it's the shit and pretty cheap. It's also kinda like I'm not following directions to use it on my hands 😊

[@RobinMarks1313]

I think you're correct about the blue being from the calcium. . Calcium carbonate will turn blue with copper and will is called Blue Calcite. It will turn water that cool aqua green blue.

[@emilioburgess8871]

What do you say about paddock/AMP/grazing in west central Texas? Is it too good to be true or is it bullshit? Carbon cowboys documentary and reading a bit about it has me feeling optimistic.

[@ulrichminky9495]

Just noticing your fingertips in some of the closeups. They look like mine. Do you happen to play a stringed instrument?? Cheers from Canada. ~ulrich

[@colettehaskell9133]

Thank you for sharing such a fucking beautiful day with us! You're amazing Jack❤ besos beautiful pero viejo

[@deerdy1315]

I got that variation on my Ephedra when I dug up some roots and left them out open to the sun with the rest of the roots still in the ground

[@ulalaFrugilega]

What variation?

[@raphlvlogs271]

some Ephedras can produce a psychoactive effect when smoked

[@Toddis]

Wow there's an ephedra antisyphillitica too?

[@user-vk7cp1op9p]

You look at weedy bits of land where no one else looks for anything, except someone who lost a tool off the top if their car driving down the highway.

[@jackwood8307]

❤

[@myrmepropagandist]

There are ants around that area... I can just feel it. What do you have? Pogos? Atta?

[@joselvillarreal3158]

Is that the Santa Ana wildlife refuge?

[@MizMissiB]

Try taking cuttings of the woody plant specimens and root them

[@matthewsmeds101]

F cool.

[@HyrimBot]

shea butta brotha

[@jamesrjohanniii774]

I would love to see his seed stash ! Also does anyone have a good source of info for native plants and trees for the houston area ? So tired of the seas of non native grass and plants.🤮 Drain a bayou xlear xut a forrest for a lawn !?? Or concrete "Urbanite"

[@ac-hh1pg]

gotta love a good desert cryptogamic crust!

[@user-vk7cp1op9p]

The plants are beautiful, but hide in the desert as I pass by, so I do not notice them at first. I wouldn't see them, unless I was with someone like you, who would describe how these plants have long secret mouthful names and are like Borrowers beneath the floorboards, that these are beneath the sea shell soil, showing only their tops or proboscis above the sand, and seem to be a counter revolution in miniature, with spikes, prickers, and hairs in miniature! Also, these plants, both cactus and succulents, swear profusely, under their breath, allegiance only to you, to use that as a veil to hide all but their tops under a deep blue sky unless you whisper profanity so they show their secret names, and come out to shine for you, the plant whisperer.

[@OperationDarkside]

19:35 Somehow the video went silent there. Couldn't hear a thing, sorry.

[@MizMissiB]

A lot of times when you find a bunch of oyster shells like that, it’s from the Indians who harvested them and left the shells.

[@MrEiht]

Agave are like the Aloe of the sea. Or so...

[@cav3man360]

I wonder what ur favorite region of the world is now?

[@featheredfan]

Horse Crippler Cactus! 👍 Ailanthus Webworm Moth! 👍 (not a beetle)

[@deerdy1315]

Yung and leathery

[@ecomandurban7183]

I can send you some Cenchrus ciliaris seed from South Africa to fill in all those horrid bare patches

[@ronm3245]

What the _Hechtia_ think yer doin?

[@uwusmolbean]

Sotol, "sword plant"

[@isabeedemski3635]

Friend grows agave for alcahol

[@JennyBesserit]

Thornscrub. I always forget the name of that ecosystem.

[@theguything]

Sometimes Life is a Bunch of Tubes, gfyb

[@BRIANJAMESGIBB]

"...research station.." !?!? Who, what, where, when, why?????

[@jonathonalsum9063]

When you get touch ups on your fingure measure... please share here. 🤓😎

[@wiwingmargahayu6831]

meminer youtube channel

[@junkettarp8942]

Your a leather old thing now Joey.

[@Nphen]

Have you ever thought to go visit Shaun Overton Dustups ( @DustupsTexas ) while you're in Texas? I'm sensing a crossover episode!