Event Info

Travel back through time and explore the roots of South Texas natural history with stories from decades of field work, research and unexpected discoveries with Naturalist and Writer, Christina Mild!


Mild’s fascination with native plants began after the freeze of 1989–1990, when tropical ornamentals on her Harlingen property died while the resilient native arroyo brush thrived. This sparked a lifelong journey into the natural history of Deep South Texas—from early hands-on work at Valley Nature Center to studying historic botanical records introduced by local naturalist Bill MacWhorter. Mild later audited botany courses at UTRGV under Dr. Alfred Richardson and Dr. Robert Lonard, exploring rare and often overlooked botanical publications across South Texas libraries.