Your prairie plants!  I have just posted photos of blooming plants seen recently at a prairie remnant in Pasadena.  These plants are blooming and surviving on natural rainfall, after our 30 triple digit days in August and in our historic drought. Harris county rainfall gauge near this prairie remnant showed the following inches of rain: March (1.4 inches), April & May (0 in.), June (2.8 in.), July (1.5 in.), Aug. (0.5 in.).  We visited on Sept, 13 and the last time it rained more than 0.1 inch near here was probably on August 25.  (I have included blurred photos in order to document what is blooming at this site.) 

Recently much have been made in the news of all the trees that are dying.  I like trees and see their value for habitat and to keep our concrete city much cooler.  However, my standard response these days to people bemoaning the loss of trees, both from the hurricane and our drought:  historically for tens or maybe even hundreds of thousands of years up to about 100-140 years ago, the greater Houston area was tall grass prairie - "a sea of grass with islands of trees" [where there is more water, such as bayou bottom land].  Jaime said early settlers wrote that  Galveston had only one live oak on the entire island.  So all the oaks lost during Ike were planted by early settlers.  Most of the trees we are losing were also planted in the past 100 or so years.  Grasslands generally exist in areas too dry to support trees.  Mother nature knows best!