Rare & Endangered

After many calls to locate this specimen I found that The San Antonio Botanical Garden had a reclamation project with a few specimens but I also learned about a man named David Bamberger who was also doing this work. It turned out that his ranch was close to my hill country home, which was perfect because this painting took me two years to complete.  After many visits and countless hours with him to research the Texas Snowbells I would consider him a friend.  I would like to share what was written about him in Water from Stone - The Story of Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve: "While, on the face of it , this project may not seem particularly heroic, the implications are far reaching in the second largest American state with the smallest percentage of public lands. "Private land rights in Texas are the sacred cow," ... and in the region where the snowbell grows ranchers are particularly suspicious of the Endangered Species Act and federal intervention on their lands.  David went straight to the private landowners, searching out new Texas Snowbells colonies, growing the plant himself and reintroducing it where the federal government isn't welcome." This is just a small glimpse into the life of a man very dedicated to conservation and his mission to take the Texas Snowbells off of the critically endangered list. See more at www.bambergerranch.org

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TEXAS SNOWBELLS    Styrax texana Cory