TEXAS MOUNTAIN LAUREL
Leaves simple or compound; flowers pea-shaped; sepals 5, united in a tube; petals 5; stamens often 10 and united in 1 or 2 groups; fruit a 1-celled pod.
Texas Mountain Laurel (Sophora secundiflora) is an evergreen shrub or small tree growing on limestone hillsides from Texas to New Mexico and Mexico; it is particularly abundant in Southwest-Central Texas. The dense clusters of violet-blue flowers, at their best in the latter part of March but blooming earlier or later in different sections, are very showy against the glossy dark-green, leathery leaves. Many variations in color exist in nature from dark violet-blue to violet-tinged and white. The flowers have a strong, heavy scent which is disagreeable to most people. The brilliant scarlet beans, which mature in a few weeks, contain a poisonous alkaloid.
The Texas mountain laurel is not at all related to the southern mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia), a rose-flowered shrub of the heath family. The sophoras have retained the Arabian name and include in their group many handsome ornamental shrubs, among which is the Japan pagoda tree. The Texas sophora can be readily grown from seed but is seldom successfully transplanted.
BUSH PEA
Bush Pea. Large-Bracted False Indigo (Baptisia bracteata) is sometimes called hen-and-chickens pea from the growth habit of the plant. The clusters of cream-colored flowers grow downward and peep out from the bushy leaf-growth. The flowers are about 1 in. long, and the 3 gray-green leaflets are 1-3 in. long. It grows on sandy slopes or moist prairies from the eastern part of Texas to Minnesota and South Carolina, blooming in Texas in April.
Texas Bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis) (see [frontispiece]) was widely known in pioneer days as buffalo clover. It grows in great abundance on limestone hillsides between the Brazos and Pecos Rivers from Dallas southward into Mexico. Seed-houses sell the Texas bluebonnet under the name of Lupinus subcarnosus, the bluebonnet of sandy areas. It has narrower flower spikes and rounded leaf-tips. Several other lupines are found in Texas but are not very common. The name is from the Latin meaning “wolf,” because it was thought the plants ruined the fertility of the soil. On the contrary, the lupines are excellent fertilizers, as the small nodules on the roots contain nitrogen-fixing bacteria which add to the soil nitrates. It blooms from March to early May. The bluebonnet was adopted as the state flower in 1901.
INDIGO-PLANT