Anita’s Blog – Best Plants For This & That

Great Kiskadee snags a Turk's Cap fruit. (Photo by Anita Westervelt)

QUICK NOTE:

The Native Plant Project will be having a booth at the Trade Show of the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival again this year. They will be selling native plants from Mike Heep’s nursery. The festival is at the Harlingen Convention Center, 701 Harlingen Heights Drive.

Thursday, November 12, Noon-6 p.m.

Friday, November 13, Noon-6 p.m.

Saturday. November 14, 10 a.m-6 p.m.

Sunday, November 15, 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

Part 1 of 3

It’s tree planting time in the Rio Grande Valley

            But don’t forget the shrubs and winter blooming plants!

Written for those new to the concept of living with native plants and wildlife, thinking about or beginning to create a native garden and creators of established native gardens looking for something else to try.

November through February is optimal tree-planting time, as the mantra goes. Cooler months, trees are dormant; roots can establish without heat and drought stress and flourish when spring rain events cooperate.

The following ideas are this author’s whims. They reflect favorite plants, incorporate observations from local experts and are gleaned from hundreds of lectures I’ve attended and things I’ve read, discovered, found through original research and interesting pop-up plants I’ve let develop in our yard.

It is one of my epic communiqués, so it is split into three parts. Plants are not in any order of size, color, value or favoritism.

Best Plants For This & That:

Best small spring-blooming tree in citrus family for perimeter defense that attracts bees and so much more – colima, Zanthoxylum fagara. Larval host to giant swallowtail and sicklewing skipper butterflies and Lebeau’s and Forbes’ silk moths. Ripe citrus-scented berries and their seeds feed seed-eating and perching birds and quail; rodents eat fallen fruit.

Colima fruit. (Photo by Anita Westervelt)

Best tree for the sweetest fruit for birds – Texas persimmon, AKA chapote, Diospyros texana, nectar-rich bell-shaped flowers; dioecious, need more than one tree; both bloom, only female trees fruit. Entertain no expectation of getting any fruit for yourself – it’s that popular with the birds.

Texas Persimmon tree, budding out in spring. (Photo by Antia Westervelt)

Best blue berry-producing plant – Elbow bush, AKA Narrowleaf Forestiera, Forestiera angustifolia, yes, the bush with 90-degree angled branches; spring blooms attract bees, ripe berries are blue, eaten by songbirds, bobwhite quail, white-winged doves, and small mammals. A host to Calleta silkmoth.

Narrowleaf Forestiera's ripe blue fruit. (Photo by Anita Westervelt)

Best winter blooming plant for nectar – pink mint (AKA Drummond's Hedgenettle), Stachys drummondii. Colonizing plant attracts numerous butterflies, flies, wasps and moths December through February. Plants disappear by summer, return in subsequent years.

A moth attracted to Pink Mint; note the four-seeded pods at lower left of photo. (Photo by Anita Westervelt)

Best pink mint companion – pink blooming American germander, Teucrium canadense; also consider coastal germander, T. cubense, which has white blooms winter through summer. Both species form colonies.

Best plant to self-propagate and bloom in all seasons – tropical (or scarlet) sage, Salvia coccinea. Exhibits great transplant forgiveness for spring native plant sales.

Best plant for entertainment that blooms in all seasons, shade or sun – Turk’s cap, Malvaviscus drummondii. Best known for attracting hummingbirds; host to rare Deep South Texas moth, Eusceptis flavifrimbriata; birds glean bugs from the plants; great kiskadees eat the ripe fruit.

Best short tree for short-term spring Oriole and hummingbird entertainment – Coral Bean, Erythrina herbacea; bright magenta-colored tubular flowers come out in spring before leaves appear.

A Hooded Oriole draws nectar from a Coral Bean flower. (Photo by Anita Westervelt)

Best airy, upright fragrant major nectar magnet small tree – Texas Kidneywood, Eysenhardtia texana, excellent nectar source, host to southern dogface butterfly; jackrabbits browse the foliage.

Texas Kidneywood. (Photo by Anita Westervelt)

Best small shrub for summer color – Texas lantana, Lantana urticoides. Host to painted lady butterfly.

Best summer bushy plant for most insect variety – Sacred Datura, Datura wrightii. Big white trumpet like blooms open in late afternoon; attracts bees, flies, hummingbirds, hummingbird moths, moths; host for Carolina sphinx moth.

Best long-blooming shrub for nectar for insects and berries for birds – Berlandier’s fiddlewood, Citharexylum berlandieri. Can reach heights of 12 feet with a six-foot spread. Excellent resting sites for songbirds. Blooms, fruits at the same time, all seasons.

Berlandier's Fiddlewood fruit. (Photo by Anita Westervelt)

Best bushy plant for butterflies to rest at night – Esperanza, Tecoma stans, a South Texas, cold tolerant shrub that blooms most profusely in autumn with clusters of large, yellow trumpet-shaped flowers. Larval host for Calleta silkmoth.

Esperanza shrub, also called Yellow Bells. (Photo by Anita Westervelt)

Best plant for surprise beauty if lucky enough to find in scrub along pasture fences – devil's bouquet, Nyctaginia capitata, from Southern Texas Plains.

A visitor from West Texas, Devil's Bouquet. (Photo by Anita Westervelt)

Best long-blooming high-value nectar source for pollinators during hot, dry seasons in south Mid Valley – Mexican trixis, Trixis inula. Yellow blooming shrub attracts butterflies, moths, bees and hummingbirds; can bloom most of the year.

Mexican Trixis shrub. (Photo by Anita Westervelt)

Best small self-populating tree to attract purple/black giant carpenter bees – Mexican Caesalpinia, Caesalpinia mexicana. Offers continual interest: green leaves all year, yellow flower clusters when blooming, light green pea pods, then golden seed pods that burst open and fling seeds with audible effects.

Best shade-loving, long-blooming, berrying-producing, drought tolerant, short bushy plant – Pigeon berry, Rivinia humilis. White blooms, red berries – birds eat berries and help distribute seeds. Also loves full sun.

Pigeon Berry. (Photo by Anita Westervelt)

Best tree for evening pollinators, daytime butterflies – Texas Torchwood, Amyris texana. Slender tree six feet tall. Attracts hawk moths; host to giant and black swallowtail butterflies; attracts hummingbirds. Lizards and birds consume dark purple ripe fruit.

Texas Torchwood blooms. (Photo by Anita Westervelt)

Best prolific self-sowing, multi-value short plant – violet wild petunia, Ruellia nudiflora. Explosive dehiscence seed dispersal: seed capsules burst open, shooting seeds several feet. Ground beetles and birds eat seeds, nectar and pollen for butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds; host to six local butterfly species. Fun fact: 20 seeds per capsule; multi blooms per plant for seven-plus months; 90-plus percent germination rate.

Western Giant Swallowtail on Violet Wild Petunia -- check out all those seed capsules. (Photo by Anita Westervelt)

Resources: “Plants of Deep South Texas - A field guide to the woody and flowering species” by local authors Dr. Alfred Richardson & Ken King, Texas A&M nature guides. Available at many of the Valley’s nature centers.

The Native Plant Project meets monthly in Weslaco with guest speakers. Their website offers native plant handbooks that can be downloaded at https://nativeplantproject.com/

Link to a list of Rio Grande Valley Native Plant Growers & Nurseries here: https://www.stbctmn.org/post/valley-native-plant-growers-nurseries

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