By Bill Ward
Published in The Boerne Star in September 2006
Operation NICE! (Natives Instead of the Common Exotics!) selection for October is Barbados-cherry (Malpighia glabra). This shrub is native to the Corpus Christi-Rio Grande Valley area of Texas, as well as Mexico, tropical America, and some Caribbean islands.
Ordinarily, we would not think of a deep-South Texas native plant to recommend for Hill Country gardens, but Barbados-cherry fits the bill for a NICE! plant. It is drought-resistant, thrives in limestone-derived soils, has a long bloom period, is fairly cold-hardy, and looks good planted with Central Texas natives. Importantly, Barbados-cherry probably does not escape into the wild in the Hill Country. Now that’s NICE!
Barbados-cherry is a semi-evergreen flowering shrub that usually grows three to four feet high. There is variation in the form of this species, and some get as high as nine feet tall, while others grow as low mounds. These shrubs are characterized by many slender stems lined with small opposite leaves that are pointed and mostly hairless. In mild winters, the plant is evergreen. During severely cold winters, it could freeze back to the ground.
Barbados-cherry blooms intermittently from March to December, but the flowers are especially profuse in the fall. The small flowers are pink with five petals. The fruit is a glossy red drupe resembling a small cherry less than half an inch in diameter. It is edible and is said to be high in ascorbic acid. Commonly, the plant has both blossoms and fruit at the same time.
This shrub grows in a wide variety of soils, and it blooms in dappled shade, part shade, and full sun. Barbados-cherry, therefore, can be used in a variety of garden settings. Apparently it doesn’t suffer from being trimmed back occasionally. Nurseries sell a miniature version for areas where low shrubs or hedges are desired.
The Boerne Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas provides free planting and care instructions for Barbados-cherry at nurseries participating in Operation NICE! (Hill Country African Violets and Nursery, Barkley’s Nursery Center, and Maldonado Landscape and Nursery).
To tell the truth, until recently I never paid much attention to Barbados-cherry. The name made me think it was a Caribbean plant that probably had no business being planted in the Hill Country. Earlier this year I discovered I was wrong. I had ripped out some standard exotic landscape plants from a front-yard bed and needed something to take their place. Whatever went in that bed needed to thrive in mostly shade and in calcareous soil that is watered only now and then. Also it needed to be resistant to deer browsing.
I experimented with several plants, but the one that best met all the requirements was Barbados-cherry. I went back to the nursery and bought some of the miniature varieties to grow as a border. Despite planting them in one of the driest years we’ve experienced in a while, all the plants survived with only occasional watering. With the recent little rains and cooler weather, every one of our Barbados-cherries are now blooming. Why did it take me so long to discover that Barbados-cherry is a really NICE! plant for our yard?
