Top 10 Remarkable Plants for CTG

1. Texas mountain laurel – Sophora secundiflora
2. Chiltepín – Capsicum annuum
3. Horsetail – Equisetum hyemale
4. Yaupon – Ilex vomitoria
5. Prickly-pear cactus – Opuntia engelmannii
6. Yellow horsemint – Monarda punctata
7. Rattlesnake master – Eryngium yuccifolium
8. Live oak – Quercus virginiana
9. Wild grape [Gray-bark grape]– Vitis cinerea var. helleri
10. Plains coreopsis – Coreopsis tinctoria

1. Texas mountain laurel – Sophora secundiflora
   • In TX archaeological sites back 10,000 yrs ago
   • Found in arch sites through west TX and Edwards Plateau
   • Hypothesis: shamanism
   • Historic tribes (Caddo, Comanche, Tonkawa, Kiowa) used in rites & rituals involving divinations & visions
   • Item of trade – more than 30 tribes used for beads attached to clothing
   • Horse would be traded for a string of 8-10 beads
2. Chiltepín – Capsicum annuum
   • Progenitor of almost all the peppers we know and use today (Anaheim, bell, cayenne, jalapeno, poblando, serrano)
   • Wild pepper remains in Mexico – one of 1st documented spices used by humans anywhere in world (9200 yrs ago)
   • Rich in antioxidants, raises metabolism; capsaicin renowned as a painkiller
   • Official state native pepper of Texas (1995); great part-shade plant in garden
3. Horsetail – Equisetum hyemale
   • Living fossil: has one of longest fossil records of any living genus of plants – back to late Devonian (350 mya), ancestors were trees 60’ tall, 2’ across at base
   • Some of Earth’s first extensive forests were of this tree
   • Peaked in diversity in the Carboniferous (290-350 mya) in which 75% of world’s coal was formed
   • Only plant known to require silicon to grow
   • Wartlike tubercles of silicon on surface: scouring agent
   • Erosion control – great for water gardens if contained
4. Yaupon – Ilex vomitoria
   • Great tea plant – dried leaves contain 0.27% caffeine – only wild tea in TX with the stimulant
   • Almost every indigenous tribe in the SE drank this tea, as did Spanish and English colonials, pioneers
   • Vomitoria comes from ritual purgings (3-6 gallons/person); not from plant itself
   • Parallel story:  yerba mate (same genus, same story in S America)
   • Why didn’t “yaupon mate” become a southern drink?
5. Prickly-pear cactus – Opuntia engelmannii
   • Official State Plant of Texas (1995)
   • Arguably, of all our native plants, pp has been most responsible for keeping humans and beasts from starting during times of deprivation
   • Every part is useful for something
     • Pads:  food, medicine, material (rich Vit A & calcium)
     • Flowers:  edible
     • Fruit:  edible – Cabeza de Vaca and “tuna time”!
     • Seeds:  ground into flour and baked
     • Thorns:  arrow pts for small birds (Kiowa); tattoo needles (Apache)
     • Sap:  varnish, color fixer; water clarifier
     • Cochineal insect – 3rd most valuable export from New Spain (1520-1850) after gold & silver
6. Yellow horsemint – Monarda punctata
   • Ideal candidate for those wanting instant wildflower patch
   • Thymol = antisceptic & fungicide, normally obtained from common thyme
   • Y. horsemint as 2x much thymol; used as substitute in WWI when common thyme unavailable
   • Thymol used in Listerine, lip balms, toothpaste
   • TX beekeepers consider several spp of Monarda as most important source of honey in state; 20% of TX honey crop
   • Beebalm – crushed leaves applied to bee stings
   • Steep a few leaves in your next tea
7. Rattlesnake master – Eryngium yuccifolium
   • Great accent piece in garden
   • Indicator plant of the Tall Grass Prairie – only 0.1% of this ecosystem remains in native state
   • Root: antidote for poison, snakes in particular – tribes throughout whole eastern half of US
     • Raw, steeped in water, boiled – also chewed and applied as poultices
     • Romans used another sp. of same genus for snakebite
     • Rural Jordanians use another sp. of same genus for scorpion bites, for which there is scientific evidence of its effectiveness
   • Ancient fiber plant:  archaeological remains to 8300 bp (MO, AR, KY, TN)
   • Some of oldest footwear in N. Amer made from this; also, cords, bags, cloth
8. Live oak – Quercus virginiana
   • Extremely hard wood; among heaviest of all U.S. woods
   • Days of wooden ships:  strongest and most durable shipbuilding wood in US and 2nd in world only to teak  (used for frames and knees – stronger than any artificial joint)
   • Northern lumbermen would come to the South for “live oaking”
   • Ship of the line needed approx 680 trees
   • USS Constitution – “Old Ironsides”—famous e.g.; War of 1812; oldest commissioned warship afloat in world today
   • Live oak is 1st American tree to be set aside for future use as a forest preserve (islands off Georgia)
   • [Acorns; oak galls; commemorative trees]
9. Wild grape [Gray-bark grape]– Vitis cinerea var. helleri
   • Roughly dozen spp of grape in TX (half of the US total)
   • Texas saves the European wine industry
     • US wild grapes are largely immune to the phylloxera insect (a sap-sucking, aphid-like louse)
     • Phylloxera appears in S. France in mid 1860s
     • 2/3rds of European vineyards were destroyed; all of southern France
     • Thomas Volney Munson (Denison, TX) directed French scientists to native grapes that would withstand both phylloxera and chlorosis; crossing of TX rootstocks with French rootstocks was smashing success
     • “Man who saved the French vineyards”
     • Munson receives the French Legion of Honor (only 3rd American to do so…Thomas Edison and Dwight Eisenhower)
   • Texas wines:  TX ranks 5th among US producers of wine; 15000 sq mi in central TX is US’s largest official American Viticultural Area
10. Plains coreopsis – Coreopsis tinctoria
    • Among top 20 favorite flowers among gardeners in every region of our state
    • Dye plant: White Mtn Apache, Cherokee, Zuni used; red, red-brown, orange-red, gold, yellow
    • Tea: Lokota called it “boiled weed”; both Lokota and Zuni made a red drink from plant (boil flowers in water few minutes)
    • Pioneers used in mattress stuffing – repel fleas & bedbugs (also horsemint)