LARGE-FLOWERED PRAIRIE PHLOX PRAIRIE PHLOX
Prairie Phlox. Prairie Sweet William (Phlox pilosa) has a delightful fragrance common in lesser degrees to many of the phloxes. The widespread prairie phlox was named in 1753 from plants taken to France from Virginia. The stems are low and have a few opposite leaves which are pointed and widely spreading. The flat-topped clusters of pale pink, blue, white, or purple flowers bloom in March and April in Texas. The stems and flower clusters are clothed with soft hairs.
Large-Flowered Prairie Phlox (Phlox villosissima) grows in a strange environment for a phlox. Charles Wright found it in 1849 on the gravelly bars of the Nueces River, where it still grows. It is also found on other rivers in Southwest Texas. It has long, woody roots reaching toward the necessary moisture. The flowers are very large, and only a few are open at a time. It differs from the prairie phlox in its shorter and more numerous leaves, its larger flowers with their broader lobes, and alternate branches in the flower cluster. The prairie phloxes are perennial and are easily grown in Southwest gardens.
WATER-LEAF FAMILY (Hydrophyllaceae)
BABY BLUE-EYES PURPLE PHACELIA
Flowers usually in curled clusters; calyx deeply 5-lobed; petals united, usually 5; stamens 5, on corolla-tube; ovary superior; styles 2.
Baby Blue-Eyes. Flannel Breeches (Nemophila phacelioides) forms a lovely carpet on banks and in moist woods near the prairie regions of Texas and Arkansas. The dainty flowers are about one inch broad, with 5 broadly-spreading lobes of lavender, paler at the base. The leaves are divided into 5-9 broad segments which are irregularly toothed. It is not known in cultivation, but a similar plant from California is used to cover beds in which bulbs are planted.
Purple Phacelia (Phacelia patuliflora) is a low, spreading annual growing on sandy prairies in the southern part of the state. “Patuliflora” means “spreading flower” and refers to the royal purple corollas which are widely spreading and nearly an inch broad. It is the handsomest phacelia among the fifteen or more species found in the state. It blooms from February to May.
Blue nama (Nama ovatum) is a water-leaf growing in ponds and streams of East Texas and blooming in the summer. It has lovely sky-blue flowers nearly an inch broad and spiny stems. Sand bells (Nama hispidum) has small, reddish-purple, bell-shaped corollas.