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Assuming you have the right place for it, the Mexican Buckeye (Ungnadia speciosa) is a great landscape tree. It provides excellent color in the fall with its leaves turning a bright yellow, making a wonderful contrast when placed next to a Big Tooth Maple or a Red Oak.
All photos by Delmar Cain
Mexican Buckeye is a native of the Edwards Plateau and its range extends west to the trans-Pecos and southern New Mexico and south into Northern Mexico.
Although it is usually found as an understory tree along the creeks or on canyon walls in central Texas, its range indicates that it may be just the kind of plant that will continue to thrive, even if our climate warms and becomes dryer.
Also known as buckeye and false buckeye, Mexican buckeye is not a true buckeye as the latter common name indicates. It is a spring-flowering small tree or tall shrub in the soapberry family.
A comparison of similarity of the leaves of the Western Soapberry tree with the leaves of the Mexican Buckeye reveals as much. But its three-lobed seedpod, containing three large dark brown to reddish seeds, is similar to the large seedpods of some trees or shrubs in the buckeye family. That might be the reason for its common name.
The true value of the Mexican Buckeye is its drought tolerance and its ornamental appearance. Its fragrant pink to light purple blooms appear early in the spring and can rival, on a healthy tree, the blooms of the redbud tree, another early bloomer. I am not the only one to note the similarity, because both the Mexican Buckeye and the Redbud are host plants for the Henry’s Elfin butterfly. Other bees and butterflies find it attractive as well.
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**ARCHIVED POST AUTHOR: delmar
