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We all love Texas native plants for their beauty and their sense of place, but some of us also enjoy the way they taste. Here are twelve native edible plants suitable for a small Texas garden.
Horseherb
Horseherb or Calyptocarpus vialis is a lovely, adaptable, durable groundcover that provides nectar for small pollinators. Not just horses, but other mammals including dogs and humans can be seen chewing on the leaves when they need some greens. For me, the flavor is a little spicier when eaten in quantity.
Frogfruit
Phyla nodiflora is an extremely adaptable groundcover that provides nectar to tiny garden pollinators who cannot reach other nectar plants; and is larval host to 3 native butterfly species. Frogfruit adds interesting texture to a meal.
Frogfruit so adapts to the conditions of location and weather that a plant growing in sunny, dry weather in compacted soil looks very different than a plant grown in partial shade during a rainy season. The leaf size varies drastically with weather conditions. My own experience is that Phyla nodiflora can successfully be transplanted with patience. Often the leaves will die at least once and the plant will replace them with leaves more appropriate to the new growing location (smaller leaves in a sunnier location, etc.). It also reseeds prolifically.
Pink Evening Primrose
Pink Evening Primrose is easily recognized as one often seen with Texas bluebonnets in photos of roadside wildflowers. The common name does not necessarily hold true, as the plant may bloom during the day in Texas and it may bloom white in states with cooler climate.
Oenothera speciosa can be grown from seed with some patience. It is a wonderful ground cover. Combining with non-aggressive native plants, either annuals or other low-growing perennials, can create a good effect and provide sustained blooms and nectar. It is important to recognize that the plant is not as evident in the garden when not in bloom so that it won’t be inadvertently removed. Oenothera speciosa young leaves and particularly flowers are often used in salads. Some people prefer the greens cooked. The Oenothera family contains a fatty acid important to humans.
Dewberry
Rubus trivialis or Dewberry is another plant that may serve as a groundcover, but with different gardening considerations. It will form thick mats of vine-like growth if allowed, so place it in a contained space or raised bed to get maximum harvest using its natural growth patterns and prevent it being trampled.
Rubus trivialis fruits attract birds and mammals, and additionally its growth has small thorns which provide cover for birds. I see it looking very healthy on the banks of our local waterways in the transition area between the riparian plants and the compacted park mowed zones where it gets plenty of sun. Humans consume the berries and make tea from the fresh leaves or petals.
Blackberry
Rubus arvensis or Blackberry has many characteristics similar to Rubus trivialis “Dewberry” and is loaded with even more minerals that we need for human health. Blackberry fruits are ripe when the shine is no longer evident. The leaves can be steeped for a tea, as can the petals.
To add Blackberry to your garden, create a space for it where no one will walk through. Plants can be trimmed after each year’s harvest.
Barbados Cherry
Malpighia glabra is a lovely plant that can best be appreciated for its natural arching and flowing shape. However, with its recent increase in commercial availability, some have sheared it to make a stunning pink-blooming border. Beware of harming hummingbird nests if you do.
People who are familiar with the Acerola cherry juice (rich in Vitamin C and thus often at the high end of juice prices in the grocery store) often express surprise that it is the Barbados Cherry in their landscapes.
Malpighia glabra grows well with other plants and will produce well even in filtered sunlight. As with many plants, the mature height decreases, and fruiting increases, with more sunlight. Malpighia glabra is native to San Antonio and farther south but can be grown in containers elsewhere if protected because it is cold-tender.
Elderberry
Two subspecies of Sambucus nigra grow in Texas. The other subspecies, commonly called “Blue Elderberry” or “Blue Elder” is much larger than the “Black Elderberry” subspecies. Both subspecies have this in common: The ONLY EDIBLE part is the RIPE fruit.
Ripe black berries are loaded with nutrients that protect human health. To me, the organic extract with agave tastes like boysenberry pancake syrup; and the juice tastes similar to molasses. Sambucus nigra ssp. canadensis naturally grows on the edges of riparian areas; and so it is a good candidate for the splash zone where you clean your bird bath; although remember that no plants should ever be grown under a bird bath because they can hide predators such as cats.
American Beautyberry
Callicarpa americana is a lovely understory plant that can best be appreciated for its natural arching growth by allowing it to fill the void in most U.S. gardens–the understory, of which it is naturally a part. The unripe berries have such a fascinating magenta shine, almost metallic. Eat the fruit when it deepens beyond the shine, to a deep purple.
But how can you harvest the berries before the birds get them? As I have added more of these plants to the wildscape gardens for the birds and a total of 3 to my own edible garden, the harvest has been enough for my breakfast for several months and plenty for the birds as well. Callicarpa americana thrives on the edge of a raingarden or as backsplash for a bird bath but is also very hardy through drought once established.
Red Spiderling
For years I observed this plant in the most heavily-mulched area of the edible garden. In drought it would have tiny leaves. In wetter seasons, its leaves would be lush. And such shiny flowers! Finally a Native Plant Society member identified it and told me it was edible.
Boerhavia diffusa is used medicinally in many cultures, and as a vegetable in parts of Africa. Humans and livestock eat it. Photographs and suggested uses are available on many websites. Here is report on uses. Those who include Boerhavia diffusa in their vegetable consumption recommend roasting the leaves.
Winecup
Callirhoe involucrata is a plant that captures the attention of every viewer with its graceful beauty which appears so delicate. It can be grown from seed with some patience in variety of soil and light conditions but not where its roots will stand in water–rock garden but not raingarden potential.
Gardeners delight to plant Winecup in combinations with other flowering plants. I don’t think there is any combination more stunning than Callirhoe involucrata with Oenothera speciosa.
Leaves are cooked and stirred in to thicken other dishes. Those who cook the roots compare the taste to sweet potato although “Foraging Texas: Merriwether’s Guide to Edible Wild Plants of Texas and the Southwest” also includes raw use of the root.
Agarita
Mahonia trifoliolata is a flowering and fruiting shrub that will add great visual interest as a hedge or natural barrier in an edible garden or Texas Wildscape garden. It can be grown in many conditions so long as soil is well-drained. I have seen it flourish along the edges between rural roads and ranchland, sometimes in quite dusty conditions. Yet many gardeners grow it easily on the edges of wooded areas or pathways.
Mahonia trifoliolata can be eaten raw. Traditionally, abundant berry harvests have been preserved through fermentation or with sugar.
There is a philosophy that says wherever a person lives, the food that will keep the person healthy in that climate is what grows there naturally. I think this must be why several years ago I began craving cranberries in early summer; it is really Agarita that I crave.
Chili Pequin
Capsicum annuum is a favored plant in south Texas. Even people who automatically dislike anything that has grown from bird droppings welcome this one. “Chile pequin” salsa is now commercially produced and available on grocery store shelves in Texas.
Capsicum annuum flavor is tastier than many other hot peppers, and of course every fruit tastes best freshly harvested and grown in its native zone. During the cooler days, I eat habanero peppers and its varieties such as Ghost Pepper, Carolina Reaper, to warm my chest. All other days of the year I pop 2 red Capsicum annuum chiles off the plant, chomp them to release the flavor and then swallow them to ward off arthritis pain. It works. I find growing them throughout my yards and gardens in sun and in shade the best method for ripe red peppers all 12 months of the year.
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