Native Plants
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Ask Mr. Smarty Plants
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
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Tuesday - November 26, 2013
From: College Station, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Soils
Title: Native plants suitable for clay soils in College Station, Texas
Answered by: Nan Hampton
QUESTION:
Where might I find a list of native plants suitable for clay soils in the College Station TX area?ANSWER:
On our Recommended Species page you can click on East Texas on the map to get a list of commercially available native plants for your area. On the Texas-East Recommended page you can use the NARROW YOUR SEARCH option in the sidebar to limit the list by the plants' general appearance (i.e., tree, vine, shrub, etc.), light requirement, soil moisture, etc. For instance, if you choose 'Shrub' under General Appearance, 'Part shade -' under Light Requirement and 'Dry -' under Soil Moisture, you will get a list of 10 plants. On each of these 10 species' pages under "Growing Conditions" you should find 'Soil Description'. From that list, if you look at 'Soil Description' on the Erythrina herbacea (Coralbean) page, you will see that it has 'clay' under its 'Soil Description'; but Ceanothus americanus (New jersey tea) does not show 'clay' on its 'Soil Description' list. By varying your criteria to fit your site, you should be able to locate a good number of plants that will grow well in clay soils.
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