 Photo from Fort Bend County Master Gardeners, Texas Native Demonstration Garden |
Texas kidneywood is an open, airy shrub with spikes of fragrant white flowers and lacy compound leaves. It can grow to 10 feet, often with several trunks, and is particularly attractive when pruned into a small tree. It blooms intermittently from April to October, especially after rains, although it has the most flowers in late August to September. Texas kidneywood grows in rocky limestone soils from the Rio Grande Plains to the Edwards Plateau and Trans-Pecos. It grows best in full sun to light shade and is very drought tolerant once established, although it may drop its leaves in periods of drought. It will grow faster with more moisture, but still must be planted in well-drained soil. The leaves have a tangerine scent when crushed. Its flowers are very attractive to bees and butterflies, as the whole plant is to deer. Although Texas kidneywood is in the same family as acacias and mimosas, it does not have their characteristic thorns.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||