Native Texas Nursery

Drinking the (grape) Kool-Aid.

Last summer, I went to see some family in Missouri with several examples of “Texas” plants in the back of the Jeep.  There was a Texas Star Hibiscus back there- and it’s just a wonder some curious trooper didn’t want to take a closer look at it- there was an Esperanza, and there was the one specific request: a Texas Mountain Laurel.  My aunt was here in Texas in April and decided she had to have one for her yard in central Missouri.

            Here in Texas, when we think of a Sophora, many of us think of grape Kool-Aid.  The Texas Mountain Laurel (Sophora secundiflora) has a purple, wisteria-like bloom that smells to me just like grape Kool-Aid, and really, there are a lot worse things to smell like. 

When we in Texas say Mountain Laurel, we usually know we mean the evergreen under-story tree with dark green leaves, incredible looking and smelling blooms in the spring, and nifty red seeds in lumpy seedpods in the late summer.  We have to be careful, though, when we say Mountain Laurel.  As my aunt in Missouri pointed out, the name in other states refers to a different shrub entirely (Kalmia latifolia). But, well, they’re not Texans…

            Here in Texas, the Mountain Laurel is seen more and more in landscapes as more people become aware of it and how absolutely glorious it will be in the spring.  They really jazz up and anchor a landscape.  Very often you can smell the flowers in bloom before you see them.  Here in the nursery, a whole row of blooming Mountain Laurels can literally stop traffic on the road coming in to the nursery.  We love it when they do that.  The Texas Mountain Laurel is one shrub that sells itself.

            The seeds of Texas Mountain Laurel look like bright red marbles littering the ground under the tree.  They will fade to orange while the hard seed coat softens enough for the seed to germinate, which could take a couple of years.  Apparently, different cultures have used the seeds for everything from a hallucinogen to jewelry.  They’re incredibly hard, and they’re substantially toxic, so I’m not sure why you would bother.  But I’m not into hallucinating or wearing jewelry, so I’m not a good judge.

            There is another Sophora you can see alongside Mopac or loop 620, and increasingly in landscapes.  Sophora affinis, Eve’s Necklace, has finer foliage and a softer look than the chunky Texas Mountain Laurel.  The small flowers of Eve's Necklace are pretty when seen close-up, but don’t stand out like those of the Mountain Laurel.  But the seedpods on the Eve’s Necklace are little jewels in their own right.  Little shiny black jewels.

 

Eve's Necklace flowers



Eve's Necklace seeds



            Another interesting, though not quite as useful Sophora, ‘Silver Peso’, is rarely seen in landscapes.  The leaves are silver and fuzzy, and it’s interesting by merit of being different from the Texas Mountain Laurel that everybody knows and loves.  On its own, though, the ‘Silver Peso’ doesn’t perform nearly as well in the Hill Country as the Texas Mountain Laurel or the Eve’s Necklace.  Maybe because of the pubescence on the leaves, it tends to attract mold and begin a slow general deterioration. 

            The Texas Mountain Laurel is one of the things we Texans look forward to in the spring.  It let’s us know spring is really here.  After all, the bluebonnets in Washington County, the Texas Mountain Laurels in the Hill Country, and the deep green grass have to be enough to get us through the long summer months ahead.  And they do so admirably.