By Bill Ward
Published in The Boerne Star on July 23, 2004
Everyone knows the official State Flower of Texas. The bluebonnet, of course. It’s almost as much a symbol of Texas as the Lone Star. The bluebonnet as painted by M. J. Laughlin in 1979 is the appropriate symbol of the Native Plant Society of Texas.
But which bluebonnet? There are seven species of Lupinus that grow naturally in Texas. At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Texas proposed the bluebonnet (Lupinus subcarnosus) as the state flower. Some Texas congressmen were not certain what they meant by “bluebonnet”. In those days this plant also was known by other common names such as buffalo clover, el conejo, and wolf flower.
The 1901 Legislature officially designated this species of bluebonnet the “State flower of Texas.” The resolution for this selection easily passed the Senate, but there was stiff competition in the House. Representative John Nance Garner, later two-term US Vice President under Franklin Roosevelt, pleaded in favor of the prickly pear cactus flower. From then on, he was stuck with the nickname “Cactus Jack.” A congressman from Mills proposed the cotton flower, the “white rose of commerce”.
Not to be deterred, the ladies of the Society of Colonial Dames exhibited in the House chamber a still life of bluebonnets and pink primroses in a brown vase. This painting easily swayed the vote, and the women got their way.
L. subcarnosus grows only in southeastern Texas, where the soil is sandy and acidic. The more robust Texas bluebonnet (L. texensis) thrives in the calcareous soils of Central Texas. For many years some bluebonnet lovers fretted that the more widespread Texas bluebonnet was not the official state flower. In 1971 the Texas Legislature passed a resolution that the State Flower would include L. texensis and any other species of bluebonnet that might be found in Texas.
Cactus Jack Garner may not have had his way with the State Flower, but he’d be glad to is the prickly pear cactus, officially adopted in 1995. Apparently, a particular species was not chosen; therefore, presumably any of the many species of Opuntia commonly called prickly pear are included. The web site of the Texas Library and Archives Commission has a page for prickly pear cactus as the State Plant, but the accompanying photo shows a species of the genus Echinocereus. Pretty bloom, but not prickly pear.
In its questionable wisdom, the 1997 Legislature made crepe myrtle the official State Shrub. Crepe myrtle (also crape myrtle) is a native of southeastern Asia to Australia, not Texas. The species designated by the Legislature is common crepe myrtle, Lagerstroemia indica, named by Charles Linnaeus in 1759. Не chose the species name because he thought the plant came from India. Actually, it came from southern China. Our State Shrub is Chinese.
The State Pepper is not a native either. It is jalapeño, officially named by the 1995 Legislature. Someone must have thought better of that, because two years later the Legislature added chiltepín (Capsicum annum) as the State Native Pepper.
The pecan has been a favorite Texas native throughout the state’s history. The first native-born governor, James Hogg, requested a pecan be planted at his grave. An act of the 1919 Texas Legislature made pecan (Carya illinoinensis) the State Tree.
Sideoats grama (Boutelona curtipendula) has been the official State Grass since 1971. It is a native grass that can be found in this area.
The State Stone also is a native plant. It is petrified palmwood. Palms have been a part of the native flora in Texas for hundreds of millions of years. Occasionally during the ancient past, logs and stumps were buried within sedimentary layers which contained silica-saturated groundwater. In this environment, the cellulose might be replaced with microcrystalline quartz, thus producing petrified wood.
