Size: 21,000 sq mi.
Av. Rainfall: 30-50 in./yr
Characteristics:
Nearly level slowly drained plain, dissected by streams and rivers flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. The region includes barrier islands along the coast, salt grass marshes surrounding bays and estuaries, remnant tallgrass prairies, oak parklands and oak mottes scattered along the coast, and tall woodlands in the river bottomlands. Soils are acidic sands and sandy loams, with clays occurring primarily in the river bottoms.
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Alvin--49.44 in / 51 ft
Baytown--51.85 in / 26 ft
Beaumont--57.00 in / 24 ft
Galveston--42.28 in / 20 ft
Houston--50.83 in / 55 ft
Port Arthur--42.42 in / 18 ft
Raymondville--27.57 in / 40 ft
Richmond--44.34 in / 104 ft
South Padre Island--21.38 in / 5 ft
Sugar Land--45.33 in / 82 ft
Victoria--28.74 in / 93 ft
Wharton--41.53 in / 111 ft
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Grasses; tallgrass prairies; live oak woodlands; some mesquite, and acacias
Sugarberry
Green ash
Sweetgum
Water oak
Willow oak
Southern live oak
American elm
Holly
Yaupon
Red mulberry
Wax myrtle
Cherry-laurel
Sweet bay
Red chokecherry
Short-leaf pine
Rare Plants and Habitat
Prairie dawn:
Poorly drained, sparsely vegetated areas in open grasslands
Slender rush pea/South Texas ambrosia:
Grasslands or mesquite invaded grasslands
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Muskrat
Coyote
Marsh rice rat
Mink
River otter
Bottlenose dolphin
Alligator
Diamond back terrapin
Bull frog
Kemp's Ridley sea turtle
Loggerhead sea turtle
Attwater's prairie chicken
Roseate spoonbill
Whooping crane
Black skimmer
Rare Animals and Habitat
Attwater's prairie chicken:
Tall grass coastal prairie
Eastern brown pelican:
Offshore islands, spoil islands, mudbanks
Eskimo curlew:
Migrates through the grasslands from the Arctic tundra to Pampas grasslands of Argentina
Piping plover:
Winters along Gulf Coast; tidal mud flats, sandflats, or algal flats
Whooping crane:
Winters on Texas Gulf Coast; marshes and sandflats of Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and nearby areas |