False garlic

On March 19, 2019 By CarynIn Flora

Here is another early spring bloomer in Texas: Nothoscordum bivalve also known as false garlic or Crow poison. We had so many in the lawn at our last house that I would make wreaths and crowns for my kids. The long thin stems make it easy to braid into garland (albeit tiny tiny garland!)

I was excited to see it bloom in our new neck of the woods. It has definitely been a sure sign of spring for me for many years.

I stumbled upon a good article about the toxicity and history of this plant too. Apparently some chicken farmers would spread a paste of this flower in the heads of their chickens so if a crow ate the chicken, the crow would die.

I think I will just cover my runs, thank you very much.

The bane of my existence

On March 16, 2019March 14, 2019 By CarynIn Flora

When we first moved in I discovered a pesky thorny vine sprouting up all over the yard. The exterminator called it “heart shaped briar”, but I couldn’t find any online references to such a vine in Texas that matched what I was seeing. Some more searching brought up Sawbriar, which certainly fits with the sharp thorns along the vine. It also has tendrils which help it entangle the trees and other sawbriar vines. When they all gang together they form a scratchy nearly impenetrable mass that is very difficult to clear. I tried to dig up the root node, to make sure the thing didn’t sprout again, and after digging down over a foot on the first one, I settled for cutting the stem off at ground level at every opportunity. I’ve mostly cleared the large grabbing vines from my paths, and I recently picked up a long handled weeder that does a good job breaking the stems at ground level. I’ve adopted the weeder as my walking stick.

Sawbriar spreads by runners and seeds. The birds eat the berries faster than I can find them, and thus continue the spread. I have found that when I cut them at ground level, and leave them to die for a season, the vines are more brittle and easier to break down. Still as sharp, though.

These things are everywhere, grab at your legs and basically make a nuisance of themselves.

Find Your Balance

On March 14, 2019March 12, 2019 By CarynIn Flora, meme

Looking up into the trees is one of my favorite things. Balance is important not only physically, but mentally, socially and personally as well. It seemed appropriate to combine the words with my photo. I put this one together in Adobe Illustrator so I could put the word on a path (I like words on a path better than warping text, for most applications.)

Wild plums

On March 7, 2019March 4, 2019 By CarynIn Flora

I’m quite excited to see a different kind of white bloom in our little woods. Wild plums! We actually have several of these little trees scattered through the property. I found many of them last fall and gathered and ripened the fruit (the tiny plums are too tart to eat straight, but make a nice jelly). I’m excited that I found at least two more this spring. Being the only tree in our yard with white blooms (we don’t have Bradford Pear or Callery Pear), they are easy to spot amongst all the other dormant branches. I’ve purchased some mylar ribbon to mark the trees so I can find them this November.

Now I have had a couple slight panicky moments thinking that we were harboring the dreaded invasive Callery Pear, but it is possible to tell them apart before they bear fruit. Bearly. #punintentional

While they both bloom white first thing in spring, and they both have blooms with five petals, the ends of the stamens on the wild plum are yellow, and those of the Callery pear are reddish. And those of the Callery pear stink.

I’m hoping for enough tree ripened fruit this year for a few jars of jelly!

Bradford pear

On March 6, 2019March 4, 2019 By CarynIn Flora

It is spring, and trees are starting to bloom. One of the first to bloom is the Bradford pear, which turns out to be a huge horticultural “oops”.

Bradford pear at a local elementary school

Although it can be beautiful, this ornamental tree was supposed to be sterile. Mostly it doesn’t bear fruit and mess up the carefully groomed sidewalks of suburbia, unless there are other pear trees. Then it apparently can pollinate with every other kind of pear. And those offspring have 3″ thorns, choke out native trees, and are considered an invasive species. Lovely.

And spotting the invasive Callery pear is also pretty easy in the spring.