Pistacia mexicana
Pistacia mexicana is a large, airy, rounded shrub or multi-trunked small tree, 12-20 ft. tall. Its glossy foliage, reddish in spring, dark-green later, is pinnately compound. Clusters of small, white flowers are followed by clusters of red, nut-like drupes on females. These become almost black on drying.
Platanus occidentalis
The American sycamore is a wide-canopied, deciduous tree, usually 75-100 ft. tall, with a massive trunk and open crown of huge, crooked branches. The bark of large, old trunks sloughs off in scales or plates leaving a smooth, whitish inner bark. Leaves broadly ovate or broader, blade often wider than long, long pointed. Globular fruits […]
Solidago nemoralis
Slender-stemmed plant, 1 1/2 to 3 ft. tall. Thin, coarsly-toothed leaves. Flowers occur on the upper side of hairy stalks which arch out and downward creating a vase-shaped flower cluster. Clumps of slender, gray-downy stems produce terminal, one-sided, yellow plumes that gives the perennial a vase-shaped appearance.Prairie Goldenrod attracts butterflies. Individual plants bloom at various […]
Taxodium distichum
This lofty, deciduous conifer grows 50-75 ft. or taller. It is slender and conical in youth, becoming flat-topped in very old age. Sage-green leaves, which appear to be bipinnately compound (but are not) and resemble feathers, turn copper-colored before falling. A tapering trunk is slightly buttressed at the swollen base. “Knees” develop mostly in poorly […]
Oenothera speciosa
Originally native only to central grasslands from Missouri and Nebraska south through Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas to northeastern Mexico, Pink Ladies or Pink Evening Primrose is an upright to sprawling, 1-2 ft. perennial, which spreads to form extensive colonies. Its large, four-petaled flowers, solitary from leaf axils, range in color from dark pink to white. […]
Parthenocissus heptaphylla
Resembling Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia) but much less common, limited to the Edwards Plateau and Lampasas Cut Plain of Central Texas, where it is endemic; tendrils without discs, leaflets narrower, thicker, and shorter than in Virginia Creeper, up to 2 1/2 inches long, and turning color later in the fall. Leaflets usually 7 in number, […]
Parthenocissus quinquefolia
A woody, dedicuous vine, Virginia Creeper can be high-climbing or trailing, 3-40 ft.; the structure on which it climbs is the limiting factor. Virginia Creeper climbs by means of tendrils with discs that fasten onto bark or rock. Its leaves, with 5 leaflets, occasionally 3 or 7, radiating from the tip of the petiole, coarsely […]
Ilex decidua
Deciduous holly or possum haw is a small, deciduous tree or shrub,15-30 ft. tall, with pale gray, twiggy, horizontal branches. Glossy, oval, toothed leaves remain dark green through autumn, finally turning yellow. Inconspicuous flowers precede clusters of persistant, red berries on female trees which provide winter color.Possum Haw is conspicuous in winter, with its many, […]
Mahonia swaseyi
Shrub up to 3 or 6 feet tall. Leaves up to 3 inches long, with 2 to 4 pairs of leaflets and a terminal one on a central axis; leaflets firm textured, evergreen, margins with spiny teeth, veins prominent on the lower surface. Flowers yellow, about 3/8 inch wide, appearing from late February to early […]
Mahonia trifoliolata
This 3-6 ft. evergreen shrub, can reach 10 ft. in favorable conditions. The rigid, spreading branches often form thickets. Gray-green to blue-gray, trifoliate, holly-like leaves are alternate, 2-4 inches long, divided into three leaflets which have 3-7 lobes ending in sharp spines. Wood bright yellow. Flowers numerous, yellow, up to 1/2 inch wide with 6 […]