Part 18

Many other figworts are found in the state. The nearest relative to the garden snapdragon is the climbing snapdragon (Maurandia antirrhiniflora). Mullein is widespread in the state. The common monkey-flower is Mimulus glabratus.

Large-Flowered Beard-Tongue or Pentstemon (Pentstemon cobaea) is also known as false foxglove, dew flowers, fairy thimbles, wild belladonna, and balmony. It was called “balmony” by early settlers, who made a tea from the leaves to be used as a laxative. Several erect stems from perennial roots grow on the rocky slopes of prairies from Texas to Missouri and Kansas. It blooms in Texas in April and May.

The flowering spikes of bell-shaped flowers are large and showy. The corollas are usually pale, tinged with reddish-purple and marked with darker lines. The fifth stamen is sparingly bearded. The stems are 1-1½ feet high, and the flowers are 1½-2 inches long. The leaves are broad and partly clasping at the base, the margins usually indented with sharp teeth. It is thought that the common garden pentstemon is a hybrid derived from this beard-tongue and Hartwig’s pentstemon, a Mexican plant.

Scarlet Pentstemon or Beard-Tongue. Murray’s Pentstemon (Pentstemon murrayanus) is a very lovely plant growing in sandy soil in post oak woods of Central and East Texas and Arkansas. The plants are three feet high, the reddish stems having a few opposite, clasping leaves, those on the upper part being united and cup-shaped. The foliage is very smooth and has a somewhat downy covering.

The flowering upper portion of the stem is often over a foot long and bears a profusion of tubular scarlet flowers about an inch long. The stamens extend beyond the corolla, and the fifth stamen is not bearded. The long slender style remains on the capsule long after the corollas have fallen away. The flowers usually bloom the latter part of March in South Texas and the middle of April in North Texas. The plants are quite hardy and may be successfully transplanted or grown from seeds, but should be planted in sandy soil.

“Pentstemon” is Greek meaning “five stamens.” Nearly all members of the figwort family have only four stamens, but the pentstemons have five; however, the fifth stamen does not bear a pollen-sac and is often bearded. “Beard-tongue” refers to this bearded stamen. There are nearly a hundred and fifty species of pentstemons, about thirty of them being found in Texas. With the exception of one found in Southeastern Asia, they are all North American plants.

Murray’s pentstemon is quite similar to two red-flowered pentstemons of the mountains of West Texas. These two are likewise tall, vigorous plants and have showy clusters of flowers. Torrey’s pentstemon (Pentstemon barbatus torreyi) has narrow pointed leaves, and the superb pentstemon (Pentstemon superbus) has broad oblong leaves. The common blue-flowered pentstemon in West Texas is Pentstemon fendleri, with leaves nearly as broad as long.

TRUMPET-CREEPER FAMILY (Bignoniaceae)

Leaves opposite, mostly compound; flowers showy, often 2-lipped; calyx tubular, 5-lobed; petals 5, united; stamens 4 or 2, in pairs on corolla-tube; capsules often long, with winged seeds.

Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis), also called flowering willow, willow-leaved catalpa, and “mimbre,” is a common shrub along water courses from West Texas to Southern California and Northern Mexico. When it is not in flower or fruit, it may be mistaken for the black willow (Salix nigra), which has similar leaves. The delicate, lavender, trumpet-shaped flowers are about two inches long. White and pale-lavender forms occur. It is a shrub or small tree frequently cultivated for ornament in Texas and California. It blooms from May through the summer months. Mexicans use the wood for fence-posts and the branches for baskets. A tea made from the flowers is used as a remedy for heart and lung diseases.

Several other members of this family are native to the state and are well-known in cultivation. Among these are the red-flowered trumpet-creeper (Campsis radicans), the yellow-red cross-vine (Bignonia capreolata), the catalpa found in East Texas woods, and the yellow-elder (Tecoma stans) in South Texas and the mountains of West Texas.

ACANTHUS FAMILY (Acanthaceae)

Leaves opposite; calyx 4-5-lobed; sepals 5; petals 5, united, sometimes 2-lipped; stamens on tube, 2 or 4 in 2 pairs; fruit a capsule, often club-shaped, opening elastically.

Flame Acanthus (Anisacanthus wrightii) is covered with scarlet flowers from early summer until frost. It is a low, widely branched shrub, about 2 feet high, found in rocky soil of the mountains of West Texas. The corollas have a narrow tube and five narrow, spreading lobes which are nearly equal but somewhat 2-lipped. The two stamens and the style extend beyond the corolla. The small leaves are ovate-lanceolate in shape and are 1-2 inches long.

The flame acanthus is an excellent garden shrub for dry regions and has been known in cultivation for some time. This species is named in honor of Charles Wright, an early collector of Texas plants and one of the first teachers in the state. Wright was a Yale graduate who collected plants in Texas from 1837 to 1852 for Dr. Asa Gray of Harvard University. He accompanied a baggage train to El Paso in 1849, and in 1851 he joined the Graham Boundary Survey. On both of these trips he collected many plants not previously known to science.

Wild Petunia. Ruellia (Ruellia nudiflora) has flowers very much like those of the cultivated petunia, a member of the potato family. It is a very common plant in Central and South Texas, growing in open woods or on rich prairies. It frequently takes possession of lawns and flower beds.

The plants are erect, 12-16 inches high, and have few branches. The few leaves are oval, narrowed at the base, wavy-margined, and blunt or rounded at the apex. The forking flower clusters have one to five flowers open at the same time. The flowers do not last very long. Leaves and stem are often marked with red or purple.

The delicate, funnel-shaped corollas have five spreading lobes and are about two inches long. The four stamens are inclosed in the tube. The seed-capsules are nearly an inch long and turn brown as they mature.

This ruellia was formerly confused with Ruellia tuberosa, a tropical plant with tuberous roots. The ruellias belong to a large group of plants with about 200 species most of which are found in tropical South America. They are named for Jean de la Ruelle, an early French physician and botanist.

There are several other ruellias widely distributed in the wooded sections of the state. The hairy ruellia (Ruellia ciliosa) is abundant on the prairies in Texas and the Eastern States. Miss Eaton, in an article in the National Geographic in 1925, reports that carpenter-bees use circular pieces of the corolla to plug off their nesting cells made in tunnels in soft wood. Drummond’s ruellia (Ruellia drummondiana) is found in woods in Central Texas. The flowers are rather small and are nearly hidden by the leaves.

PLANTAIN FAMILY (Plantaginaceae)

Herbs; leaves basal; calyx 4-lobed; corolla papery, 3-4-lobed; stamens 4, on corolla-tube; capsule (in ours) opening by a horizontal division.

Tallow-Weed. Wright’s Plantain (Plantago wrightiana) is a common plant on prairies from Texas to Arizona and blooms from April to June. It is called tallow-weed because cattle fatten on the plants. The stems are 6-8 in. high, and the numerous basal leaves are half as long, narrow, smooth, and dark green. The small 4-lobed flowers have a stiff, papery white corolla with spreading lobes. The small capsules open by a lid.

Red-Seeded Plantain or Ribwort (Plantago rhodosperma) has broad leaves, 3-5-ribbed, and narrow spikes of flowers. The leaf-rosettes are often a foot broad. The corolla lobes are erect and are closed over one another. The ribwort is a very common weed in sandy soil from Missouri to Texas and Arizona.

There are many other plantains in the state, all more or less abundant. The group has retained the old Latin name. Scilla-seed, a laxative in recent use, is obtained from a South American plantain. The seeds of the lance-leaved plantain are sold as food for birds.

MADDER FAMILY (Rubiaceae)

Leaves opposite or whorled; in ours, sepals and petals usually 4, but may be 4-10, calyx joining ovary wall; stamens 4-10, on corolla-tube; ovary inferior, 2-5-celled.

Small Bluet (Houstonia patens) has violet-blue flowers which are among the first blossoms of spring. They dot golf courses and sandy meadows from Texas to Virginia and Illinois in February and March. The bluets are also called innocence and angel-eyes.