Texas Wildflowers
2008 Wildflower Forecast
Evening Primrose among Early
Flowers Benefiting from Mild Spring Conditions
Mild temperatures and intermittent rains
have helped many wildflowers this season, with pink evening
primrose especially prominent along roadsides in Texas.
"The winter drought suppressed winter
grasses so they
aren't as tall or as full as usual, allowing shorter flowers
to be more visible, said Joe Marcus, collections manager
at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower
Center of The University of Texas at Austin.
"The rain we have had so far this spring has helped
pink evening primrose and some others put on a better display," he
said.
Besides providing a great show in Central Texas and at the
Wildflower Center, large patches of pink evening primrose
have been seen intermingled with Indian
paintbrush and other
early bloomers near Fort Worth, Houston and elsewhere.
Another native that has done well this year is Huisache,
a tree with golden flowers, while Mountain
laurel and some
others aren't as lucky.
"About three years ago, we had the perfect convergence
of conditions for Mountain laurel to bloom," Marcus
said, "but it really varies from year to year which
native plants do best."
Invasive Plants
Regardless of the year, native plants in Texas compete for
space and resources with those that aren't local. Native
plants are adapted to the regions they grow in, can use less
water and other resources to maintain, as well as being beautiful.
Some exotic plants can also be impressive, but those that
spread invasively can be expensive to root out, with herbicides
often called into play.
An example is the clusters of small, showy yellow flowers
found in North and Central Texas known as turnip weed or
bastard cabbage.
"Those little bastard cabbages are occupying space
that could be occupied by our native wildflowers like the
Texas bluebonnet," said Dr. Damon Waitt, senior botanist
at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
He noted that
every part of the state has different invasive plant challenges,
such as Salt Cedar in West Texas, Chinese Tallow along the
Gulf Coast - and even Kudzu in East Texas.
For this reason, the Wildflower Center helped develop the
Pulling Together Initiative as a statewide partnership with
the Texas Forest Service and others to address the threat
of invasive plants and train volunteers to identify them.
About 300 Texans have become Citizen Scientists through the
initiative since 2005 and have reported more than 2,000 occurrences
of invasive species statewide.
In some cases, that detective work has been supplemented
with research at the Lady Bird Johnson
Wildflower Center on how to outsmart an invasive flower, shrub or tree. For
example, Wildflower Center research suggests areas infested
with turnip weed can be over seeded in late fall with native
Indian Blanket as a control. With many other invasives, pulling
them out by hand is recommended.
To prevent the spread of invasives and protect our wildlands
and natural areas, consider the Plantwise
national educational program involving the Wildflower Center.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center
4801
La Crosse Avenue Austin, TX 78739
Phone:
512-232-0100
www.wildflower.org
www.wildflower.org/invasive
For updates on which flowers are blooming in
your area, call the Texas Department
of Transportation's wildflower hotline at 1-800-452-9292.
Also See: Tips for
touring the beautiful Texas wildflower bounties |
