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Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
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Plant · P-066
Texas Mountain Laurel
Dermatophyllum secundiflorum
Texas Mountain Laurel is a slow-growing, broadleaf evergreen shrub that holds its glossy leaves year-round and screens right down to the ground. From February through April it opens grape-scented, wisteria-like clusters of lavender-purple flowers that draw bees, butterflies and hummingbirds before almost anything else is blooming. Its seeds are brilliant scarlet and look like candy, but chewing or grinding them releases alkaloids toxic enough to drop grazing sheep and goats, so keep them away from children, pets and livestock. It thrives on hot, dry, rocky, alkaline ground where few other nitrogen fixers will grow.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 7–10
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Dry · Well-Drained · Moderate
Vertical layer
Shrub- Soil pH
- 6–8.5
- Plant type
- Evergreen Tree
- Mature height
- 10–15 ft
- Mature spread
- 8–12 ft
- Plant spacing
- 8–12 ft
- Root type
- Tap
- Spread pattern
- None
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The deeper layer
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- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
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- Byproduct
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Behind the record
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