Texas landscapes have treasures from across the world. Here’s what to know about them
You'd be amazed at the lineage some of our most common landscape and garden plants bring to our surroundings. Knowing what they had in the "old country" can help us succeed in growing them here in Texas. Let's take a look around the globe. It gets really fascinating.
Weeping willows. This plant's scientific name is Salix babylonica, but it's possible that Carl Linnaeus, the father of binomial nomenclature, was mistaken into thinking that these were the willows found along the rivers of Babylon in the Bible. Indeed, these trees are native to northern China.
Pampas grass. One might guess from its name that pampas grass is native to the Pampas regions of South America, and that would be correct. That includes Argentina, also Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. We have grown it as a very large (8 to 10 foot) perennial grass for more than 100 years here in Texas, but in parts of the world it is banned because of its invasive behavior. Its dry foliage and plumes can also become a fire hazard. The thick clumps harbor rats and other rodents, and its leaves are razor-sharp.
Crape myrtles. There's another misnomer in the species name here. Lagerstroemia indica would suggest that the oldest species we have grown in our gardens was found originally in India, but instead it is native to China. The species name should have been "sinensis" to indicate China. Another more recently cultivated species, L. fauriei, is from Japan. It was used in the extensive breeding work of Dr. Don Egolf of the U.S. National Arboretum in the 1960s-90s and was the parent of most of the cultivars bearing Indian tribal names. Today there are some 150 named varieties sold in the nursery industry.
Azaleas. This history is far more complex. We certainly have native azaleas in the U.S., but the types we most commonly see in nurseries and landscapes have descended from plants collected in China and Japan. Azaleas' early histories predate free trade from the Far East to western civilization.
Nandinas. These plants stem from the species Nandina domestica, native to China and Japan. The species is known as "heavenly bamboo," although it is in the Barberry family, not even closely related to true bamboo (a member of the Grass family). Serious interest in nandinas began about 60 years ago, and today we have 15 or 20 cultivars in common production in the nursery industry. Japan has several times that many.
Kentucky bluegrass. We don't grow this grass as turf here in North Texas, but in a class as I worked on my Master's degree at Ohio State, Agronomy professor Dr. Robert Miller taught us that Kentucky bluegrass is not native to the United States — that it is native only to Europe. I now read that it is also native to North Asia and to the mountains of Algeria and Morocco. Names can certainly be deceiving.
St. Augustine. I had to do the research on this one. Texas A&M says St. Augustine is native to areas around the Gulf of Mexico, the West Indies, and Western Africa. It has also been collected from Africa, Australia and New Zealand. This grass certainly does "get around."
Tomatoes. You might be surprised to learn that these are perennial plants in their native homes in western South America, Central America, and Mexico. Their domestication dates back to the Aztecs, and fruit of those early tomatoes were tiny by today's standards. Europeans considered them to be ornamental plants, afraid to consume its fruit because of the plant's membership in the Nightshade family, many other members of which are deadly poisonous. Breeders have worked to improve fruit size and quantity, also production and flavor. We treat them, of course, as annuals in our gardens.
Oleanders. We got these lovely summer-flowering shrubs via the Mediterranean regions. The several dozen varieties are adapted to warmer parts of Texas. They're a bit sketchy here in Fort Worth/Dallas due to frequent encounters with severe cold. Note that all parts of the plant are quite toxic.
Deodar cedars. We hit a bonanza on this one. This handsome tree that resembles Colorado blue spruce is native to eastern Afghanistan, northern Pakistan, northern India, western Nepal, and the western Himalayas. It's curious, then, that they are hurt by extreme cold spells here in North Texas. Go figure.
English ivy. Widely used as a shade-loving groundcover, this trailing vine is native to much of Europe and western Asia. When it ascends tree trunks it blooms and sets fertile seeds. They're appealing to birds, and the plant is invasive in some parts of the world — not so much here in Texas.
Boston ivy. Here you go. This popular wall-clinging vine is native to eastern Asia, notably Japan — certainly nowhere near Boston. Its sister, Virginia creeper, however, stays true to its name. It's native to the eastern and central United States south to Mexico.
Pomegranates. These are among the oldest fruits known to civilization. As one might expect, they are considered to have originated in Iran, also in southwest Pakistan and parts of Afghanistan. That may give us an insight into why they do better in more arid parts of West Texas.
All this is to say that plant collectors have been busy for 250 years bringing us rich assortments of horticultural treasures from all over the world. The more we can know about where they were natively, the better we can care for them here.
