By Bill Ward
Published in The Boerne Star on February 1, 2008
One thing I regret is that I’ve never seen a Blanco crabapple (Malus ioensis var. texensis) blooming in the wild. It is native to Kendall County, and I even know where it grows just north of Boerne.
But every spring I forget about the Blanco crabapple until the blooming period is over. It doesn’t pay to be as absentminded as I am, but I’m trying to make up for this by growing a Blanco crabapple outside our kitchen window where I can’t miss seeing any flowers it may produce.
Friends who have seen Blanco crabapple in bloom say it is beautiful. This flowering tree is a desirable landscape plant that is well suited to the climate and soil of the Boerne area.
Blanco crabapple is the February plant of the month for Operation NICE! (Natives Instead of Common Exotics!). It is available in local nurseries from time to time, depending on wholesaler supply.
Blanco crabapple is a slow-growing small tree or tall bush, densely branched and sometimes suckering at the base. Twigs have numerous short lateral shoots with terminal thorns.
Dark-green oval-shaped leaves are two and fuzzy undersides. Fall foliage may turn dark red. During the spring, this native crabapple puts on showy clusters of pink and white flowers. The fruits are small sour green apples, which ripen in October.
The Boerne chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas provides free planting and care instructions for Blanco crabapple at nurseries participating in Operation NICE! (Barkley’s Nursery Center, Hill Country African Violets and Nursery and Maldonado Landscape and Nursery).
Blanco crabapple seems to do best in well-drained sites. It needs little attention, but this plant must be caged where there is any deer traffic. Also, in some places it is susceptible to the deadly cotton root rot, caused by the fungus Phymatotrichum omnivorum, which may thrive in the warm alkaline soils of this area.
Today Blanco crabapple has a very limited natural range. It is found only in Kendall, Kerr and Blanco Counties. Reportedly this plant once was more widespread in the Edwards Plateau, but its range was substantially reduced by browsing goats and deer during the first part of the past century.
Nowadays the goat population is greatly reduced, but the deer population keeps growing.
With the ever-increasing pressure from deer browsing, new seedlings of Blanco crabapple probably have little chance of survival unless they happen to grow in the protection of dense brush. Unless the overabundance of deer is reduced in this area, the Hill Country may lose one of its prettiest plants.
My friend Jan Wrede would say that Blanco crabapple is one of the “priority” native species that people should be encouraged to grow in their yards, because it is disappearing from the wild.
When you add this Hill Country endemic to your landscape, please don’t forget the deer exclosure. Caged Blanco crabapples are much better than no Blanco crabapples.
