By Bill Ward
Published in The Boerne Star on September 9, 2005
When our neighbor Denise Blanchette walks around our subdivision, she is especially attracted to the remnant wild patches. Since she moved to the Boerne area from California, Denise has been educating herself on our native plants.
The closest place for her to see some the plants she reads about is right in her own neighborhood.
Native bushes and wildflowers still thrive along gullies and difficult-to-mow slopes at the fringes of many of the landscaped yards. Also, many builders in our subdivision saved much of the native vegetation.
On our lot, for example, the only native vegetation that was cut to build our house was what grew within the footprint of the house.
When we moved in, we already had many nice shrubs and small trees beneath our large liveoaks. Landscaping by Mother Nature. That saved us a lot of money in landscaping and watering.
Maybe more importantly, much of our understory vegetation was preserved. The understory is the significant ecological niche that is too often obliterated when subdivisions are developed.
Denise Blanchette has learned some interesting stories about many of the native plants she sees on her walks. Following are excerpts from reflections Denise wrote after a recent trek through the neighborhood:
“I see sotol (Dasylirion texanum), one of the primary food sources of Native Americans in our area. The sotol heart at the base of the leaves was roasted and chewed. Leaves of sotol were woven with rabbit fur to make mats for sleeping.
“One neighbor carefully mowed around antelope-horns milkweed (Asclepias asperula), host plant of the monarch butterfly. The common frostweed (Verbesina virginica) is a source of nectar for the monarchs. It is a special treat to see a frostweed after the first frost of winter, when the sap will freeze, splitting the stem and producing a thin “icіcle.”
“The twist-leaf yucca (Yucca rupicola) is an easy plant to identify. Its flower stalks were used as building material. Leaves were woven into baskets and mats, Even the root was useful as it makes a good soap.
“Of course, the most visible natives are the liveoak (Quercus fusiformis) trees in almost every yard.
“Acorns are relished by many birds and mammals and were another important food source for Native Americans. Acorns are a good source of protein, fats, and minerals. Preparing acorn flour must have taken a prodigious amount of work.
“Look for galls on the branches of the oaks. They are formed when a tiny cynipid wasp pierces the tree with its egg-laying device and deposits an egg. Fluids deposited with the egg cause cell multiplication to begin in the plant.
“The wasp larva develops within the spherical gall; the oak gall provides shelter and food. The adult wasp will chew its way out of the gall; look for exit holes in galls fallen to the ground.
“Historically, oak galls were used to make ink. Important documents, including the Mayflower Compact, Gettysburg Address and the Declaration of Independence, were written with oak-gall ink. There are recipes for the ink on the Web.
“Gall has come to mean an irritation or annoyance, as the tumor on the plant tissue is caused by an irritation (Webster’s New World Dictionary). In “Twelfth Night” Shakespeare instructs, ‘Let there be gall enough in your ink; though thee write with a goose-pen, no matter.’”
