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JULY NEWSLETTER

JULY VIRTUAL MEETINGS 

FRIDAYS, 10 A.M., FREE

TRAVIS COUNTY AGRI-LIFE OFFICE

Schedule:

July 10th- veggie pests
July 17th- attracting insects to your yard (including beneficials)
July 24th- butterfly & caterpillar ID
July 31st- insect orders

These seminars are presented by Wizzie Brown, BCE, Extension Program Specialist- IPM, Texas AgriLife Extension Service out of Travis County.  She has set up all the seminars to use the same link and password.  If you’re interested in any of the programs, please email me at marciamiller70@hotmail.com and I will send you the link and password for the presentations.  

Are you thinking “wait a minute, we’re supposed to be about native plants?”  Well, insects are a vital part of a healthy ecosystem and while we might characterize some insects as bad (mosquitos, fire ants) and others as good (pollinators), there are many other beneficial or harmful insects. In addition, many of our bird species rely on insects for their diet.

 

Elizabeth “Wizzie” Brown is an Extension Program Specialist- IPM with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.  She received her Bachelor’s of Science in entomology from The Ohio State University and a Master’s of Science in entomology from Texas A&M University. After leaving Texas A&M, Wizzie worked in structural pest control before taking a job with Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service in Austin.

 

 

 

 

 

MOUNTAIN PINK

Centaurium beyrichii

Gentian Family Gentianaceae

Who doesn’t love a flower that grows as a pretty little pink bouquet?  Also commonly called Catchfly or Quinineweed, Mountain Pink is in the Gentian family as is our showy Texas Bluebells (see Cyd Brown’s article on Bluebells in our May newsletter).

 

I didn’t see this plant blooming until the last week in June by FM205 in Somervell County.  It only seems to grow in the worst soils.  It is a low, under 12 inches upright slender annual with 5 petal flowers to 3/4 inch, blooming pink to rose. Flowers are numerous, in clusters at the ends or in forks of the branches.  Leaves are linear and opposite, with lower leaves up to 1 1/2 inches long and upper leaves shorter and almost hairlike.  It prefers gravelly or rocky limestone soils, hillsides and slopes and seepages if they’re well-drained.

Mountain Pinks are a great nectar plant for pollinators.  They do not transplant well so should be planted from seeds.  If you don’t want to collect seeds yourself, seeds are available from the Native American Seed company.  These plants work great in a rock bed or a slight slope where water will run over them.  They won’t grow in soils with too much organic matter.  They usually bloom from late May into July.

Mountain Pinks were named for the mythical Centaur (Centaurium).  The Gentian family is named after Gentius, king of Illyria (180-167 B.C.) who supposedly discovered the medicinal properties of the European plant.  Although almost all of our native plants have some type of medicinal properties, we don’t normally talk at length about them in this newsletter,.  Plants in the Gentian family are especially interesting and so we’re going to go into more detail than usual.

Native Americans taught early settlers how to use the plant as a fever remedy and they called it a quinine plant.  Lady Bird Johnson was so interested in growing these plants on the ranch there is a variant called Centaurium texense.  The European Gentian root is still used to flavor vermouth.  Before hops, gentian was used to brew beer.

There is a wealth of information from Legends and Lore of Texas Wildflowers by Elizabeth Silverthorne that is condensed and summarized below.  According to Pliny the king of Illyria (Gentius) discovered the medicinal properties of gentians and used them to cure a mysterious fever that had stricken his army.  While these plants bear his name, Egyptian papyrus records indicate they had used gentian’s medicinal properties for at least a thousand years before Gentius.

Gentian was listed in The Pharmacoporia of the United States of America from 1820 to 1955 as a digestive stimulant.  Early colonists would soak the dried plant in brandy and then give to the patient three times a day (not sure if the recipe worked or the brandy!).  It is still considered effective by American and European herbalists as a bitter tonic for increasing the appetite and improving general debility.  The slang term “moxie” (courage with a dash of cunning) comes from a soft drink made with gentian root.  First introduced in 1885 as “Beverage Moxie Nerve Food” it was considered a tonic.  The original label touted it as a cure for “brain and nervous” exhaustion, loss of manhood, helplessness, imbecility and insanity.  After these claims were dropped, it continued to be a popular soft drink and outsold Coca-Cola for years.  It is still available in New England with gentian as one of its ingredients.

In China, where the gall bladder was considered the seat of courage and resolution, Gentiana scabra was called “Dragon’s gall” and its root was used to improve the energy (chi) of the liver and gall bladder and to arrest fear.  Taken over a long period of time, it was said to “improve wisdom, lessen forgetfulness and lighten the body”.  Recently Chinese physicians prescribed it for arthritis because studies there have shown it has anti-inflammatory properties.  All in all, a pretty amazing family of plants.

DEMONSTRATION GARDEN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A big THANK YOU to those of you working in our demonstration garden in Glen Rose.  It’s beginning to look a lot better.  Anyone who has just a little extra time, please come down and help us get this beautiful garden in shape.

 

I love the randomness that happens sometimes with native gardens and plants.  The picture below might be hard to see but we have two Pokeweed plants (Phytolacca Americana) that volunteered this year.  They probably would have been pulled when younger but they’re pretty well established now.  As a precaution (and an apology to any true southerner), no matter what you’ve heard about pokeweed salad, these plants are toxic – all parts of them!

 

 

 

FALL PLANT SALE/NPSOT FALL SYMPOSIUM

Our plan is to hold our fall plant sale during Texas native plant week, which is the third week in October.  NPSOT is planning a lot of virtual events during this time in honor of the 40^th anniversary of Texas NPSOT, so anyone who has ideas or wants to contribute a short video, please contact us.  Also, please start planning on what plants you’ll need in the fall for our fall sale.

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**ARCHIVED POST AUTHOR: prairierose