Texas Mountain Laurel

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Texas Mountain Laurel prolifically flowers  in the spring. The grape jelly bean scent wafts through the light breeze.

Texas mountain laurel (Dermatophyllum, formerly Sophora) is an attractive evergreen shrub or understory tree. The tree likes full sun and well-drained, rocky limestone soil. The foliage is an attractive dark green shade. 

Dermatophyllum secundiflorum is a species of flowering shrub or small tree in the pea family, Fabaceae, that is native to the southwestern United States (Texas, New Mexico) and Mexico (Coahuila to San Luis Potosí ). The Monte Vista area in San Antoninio was called the Mountain Laurel Hills.

Common names include Texas mountain laurel, Texas mescalbean, frijolito, and frijolillo. 

It is well-adapted to arid and semi-arid habitats but is most common in riparian zones.

An evergreen, its leaves are pinnately compound, with small, roughly spatulate leaflets; the leaflets are rather thick, and waxy to the touch. Never tall, and rarely having a straight trunk, its bark is smooth in all but the oldest specimens. It grows slowly to a height of 15 ft (4.6 m) and a crown diameter of 10 ft (3.0 m).

Extremely fragrant purple flowers, resembling the smell of grape jelly beans, are produced in large clusters in March and April. They are followed by 4 in (10 cm) pods containing deep orange seeds.

The flowers are both grape in shade and scent.

The seed pods are pendulous and typical of pods from the legume or pea family. 

Seeds found inside the pods are red and can be scarified to induce early germination.

Fascination growth on Texas mountain laurel 

Fascination growth on Texas mountain laurel 

Uses In the landscape

                                              Dallas, TX                                                     photograph by Jeanette Hyden                                                 

Texas mountain laurel trimmed to form a hedge

                                                      

Texas mountain laurel as an ornamental

Botanical Taxa

• Sophora secundiflora (Ortega) Lag. ex DC.

Casimiro Gómez de Ortega (1741 - 1818) was a Spanish physician, and botanist who was the First Professor of the Royal Botanical Garden of Madrid. Under Charles III of Spain Gómez de Ortega directed the formation of the Royal Botanical Garden as a place, in particular, to collect and study the new species of plants being identified by European explorers. Gómez de Ortega published extensively on plant species, and on the economic botany of plants collected during Spanish sponsored explorations of South America.

• Sophora secundiflora f.xanthosperma Rehder

Alfred Rehder (1863 - 1949) was a botanical taxonomist and dendrologist who worked at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. 

https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/375274#page/459/mode/1up

Fasciation in Sophora secundiflora, Vasey, George Botanical Gazette, Vol. 12, No. 7 (Jul., 1887), pp. 160-161 (3 pages); The University of Chicago Press

Table 1:  Native Texas Understory Trees, Shrubs, and Forbs

Agarito	Lime prickly-ash
Allthorn	Littleleaf sumac
Amargosa	Live oak
Anaqua	Lotebush
Blackbrush	Mountain laurel
Brasil	Narrowleaf forestiera
Catclaw	Palo verde
Cedar elm	Prickly pear
Cenizo	Retama
Coma	Shrubby blue sage
Coyotillo	Southwest bernardia
Creosotebush	Spanish dagger
Desert yaupon	Sugar hackberry
Four-wing saltbush	Tasajillo
Granjeno	Texas ebony
Guajillo	Texas kidneywood
Guayacan	Texas persimmon
Hogplum	Twisted acacia
Honey mesquite	Vine ephedra
Huisache	Whitebrush
Knife-leaf condalia	Wild olive
Lantana	Wolfberry

2021 Hyden Photography

for

Grassroots Horticulture

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Crested Fasciation

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Gardening Mysteries

Fasciation on Texas Mountain Laurel Tree

Texas Mountain Laurel is a small tree known for it's grape scented purple pea-shaped flowers that bloom in the spring. Occasionally it will develop an unusual growth called a fasciation. The fasciation appears as though parts of the growth have "melted" together. There are several possible reasons for this, (stress, bacteria). This tree is located next to a parking lot at the Fort Worth Botanical Garden.   

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This symptom can be seen in other plants, as well, and can be a desirable trait. Celosia is another plant that comes to mind.

Texas Mountain Laurel (Dermatophyllum secundiflorum, formerly Sephora  secundiflorum)

      

Fasciation exhibited in Celosia

 

                                                                                                                                  

All material © 2007-2019 by Jeanette Hyden for Grassroots Horticulture

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