Rhus virens
Evergreen sumac is a shrub or small tree, from 6-10 ft. in height with spreading branches. Its shiny, evergreen, pinnate foliage is tinged with pink in early spring and maroon after frost. Leaves are alternate, 2-5 1/2 inches long, with 5-9 fleshy leaflets on stiff stems. The 5-petaled, inconspicuous, greenish or white flowers grow in […]
Quercus muehlenbergii
A tree with light gray platy or scaly bark and smooth, gray twigs changing to brown on the current year’s leaf-bearing growth. Leaves up to 8 inches long and 4 1/2 inches wide with their widest part nearer the apex than the base. Larger leaves broadly rounded from the widest part to the apex and […]
Prunus mexicana
Bigtree or Mexican plum is a single-trunked, non-suckering tree, 10-35 ft. tall, with fragrant, showy, white flowers displayed before the leaves appear. Mature trunks become satiny, blue-gray with darker, horizontal striations. Leaves up to 5 inches long and 2 inches wide, ovate to narrower with serrate margins; minute glands on the petiole near the base […]
Quercus buckleyi
Small to medium tree to 15 m (50 ft) tall. Bark dark gray, smoothish, furrowed into ridges on lower trunk and older branches. Twigs slender, grayish or brownish, glabrous, ending in a cluster of small egg-shaped grayish or brownish buds. Leaves alternate, elliptical or obovate, 6-12 cm (2.4-4.8 in) long and 5-10 cm (2-4 in) […]
Quercus fusiformis
Plateau oak or Escarpment live oak is a thicket-forming shrub or large, spreading tree that is nearly identical in appearance to, and considered much hardier than, Q. virginiana. A short, tapering trunk supports picturesquely gnarled branches and limbs that over time will spread horizontally a great distance from the main trunk. It can reach a […]
Schizachyrium scoparium
Little Bluestem is a very ornamental bunchgrass with fine-textured foliage that forms very dense mounds 18-24 inches tall. Slender blue-green stems often reach 5 feet, or more, by September, and become radiant mahogany-red with white, shining seed tufts in the fall. Color remains nearly all winter. Perennial clumps grow up to a foot in diameter.This […]
Sapindus saponaria var. drummondii
Soapberry is a single-stemmed, low-branched, round-crowned tree, growing 10-50 ft. tall, depending on habitat. Gray, sculpted bark is distinctive in the dormant season. Leaves up to 18 inches long with a central axis and as many as 24 paired leaflets, usually fewer, and often no terminal leaflet. Leaflets unsymmetric with the broader part of the […]
Salvia engelmannii
Engelmanns Sage is a 1-1 1/2 ft compact mound of velvety, narrow leaves and showy flower spikes. Pale lavender to pale blue, tubular flowers occur on 4-6 in. spikes. The species of this plant is named for George Engelmann (1809-1884) who was born in Germany and settled in St. Louis, Missouri, as a young man. […]
Senna lindheimeriana
Velvet-leaf wild sensitive-plant or Lindheimer’s senna is a bushy perennial, 3-6 ft. high. Its yellow, 1 1/2 in. flowers are borne in terminal or upper axillary, spike-like racemes. The 5 oval petals are crimped at the edges. The compound leaves have 4-8 pairs of leaflets that are oval, sometimes pointed, and covered with soft hairs […]
Ungnadia speciosa
Mexican-buckeye, an 8-12 ft., deciduous tree, can reach 30 ft. in height. It is often multi-trunked with with light gray to brown bark, smooth on young branches, becoming fissured with age. Leaves up to 12 inches long, with a central axis supporting 2 to 6 paired leaflets and a terminal one; leaflets up to 5 […]