By Bill Ward
Published in The Boerne Star on April 29, 2003
In the last couple of weeks, I’ve visited a few limestone canyons in Kendall and adjacent counties, primarily to look at the geology. On the side, I also appreciate the large assortment of native plants that flourish in these stream canyons.
The ferns and flowering plants that grow in the cracks and crevices of the canyon walls seem to be especially hearty this spring. Probably that is because so many seeps and springs have kept the canyons damp ever since last summer’s deluge, even though we’ve had very little spring rain.
One plant on the canyon walls that caught my eye is cedar sage (Salvia roemeriana) with its stalks of brilliant-red flowers. This salvia not only looks good in its natural habitat; it also is a fine yard plant. Cedar sage is the Operation NICE! (Natives Instead of the Common Exotics!) plant for May.
Cedar sage grows only a foot or two high. It has 1-to 2- inch-wide kidney-shaped leaves with scalloped edges. It blooms in spring and summer with stalks of bright-red elongate flowers an inch or so long.
Hummingbirds are attracted to them. Manuel Flores says that cedar sage is pollinated by hummingbirds.
This little salvia is a good shade plant. It gets its name from the fact that it can grow in the dense shade of Ashe junipers (“cedars”). Judging from where it grows in nature, it needs good drainage, can subsist in thin or rocky soils, and is drought-tolerant. The plant can be used as ground cover under oak trees.
The Boerne Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Texas provides free planting and care instructions for cedar sage at the nurseries participating in Operation NICE!: Barkley’s Nursery Center, Boerne in Bloom Garden Center, Fair Oaks Nursery, Hill Country African Violets and Nursery, Maldonado Landscape and Nursery, and Where Wild Things Grow Native Plant Nursery.
Salvia roemeriana is named for Ferdinand von Roemer, a paleontologist with the Berlin Academy of Sciences.
The 27-year-old Dr. Roemer was sent to Texas to access the mineral resources. This was in response to a request to the Berlin Academy from Prince Solms Braunfels, the Commissioner General of the Society for the Protection of German Immigrants in Texas. Roemer arrived in late 1845 a few weeks before the end of the Republic. He came with a letter of introduction from Alexander von Humbolt. That prestigious letter undoubtedly opened many doors for Roemer among the intellectuals in the Texas German communities.
During his two-year stay, Dr. Roemer made extensive observations on the landscape, geology, vegetation and Indians of much of Texas. He is often called the Father of Texas Geology, because he was the first to make comprehensive and detailed geologic studies of the state. Several fossils, as well as several Texas native plants, are named in honor of Roemer.
While staying in New Braunfels, Roemer met Ferdinand Lindheimer, who took the young geologist under his wing and taught him a great deal about Texas flora. Roemer and Lindheimer collected together and separately. By the time he left Texas, Roemer had made a large collection of Texas plants.
