Gulf Marshes and Prairies
The Gulf Marshes, covering approximately 500,000 acres, are on a narrow strip of lowlands adjacent to the coast and the barrier islands (e.g., Padre Island), which extend from Mexico to Louisiana. The Gulf Prairies, about 9 million acres, include the nearly flat plain extending 30 to 80 miles inland from the Gulf Marshes. The Gulf Marshes are a low, wet, marshy coastal area, commonly covered with saline water, and range from sea level to a few feet in elevation. The Gulf Prairies are nearly level and virtually undissected plains having slow surface drainage and elevations from sea level to 250 feet. Soils of the Gulf Marshes are dark, poorly drained sandy loams and clays, and light neutral sands, typically showing little textural change with depth. The loamy and clayey soils are commonly saline and sodic. Prairie soils are dark, neutral to slightly acid clay loams and clays in the northeastern parts. Further south in the subhumid Coastal Bend, the soils are less acidic. A narrow band of light acid sands and darker loamy to clayey soils stretches along the coast. Inland from the dark clayey soils is a narrow belt of lighter acid fine sandy loam soils with gray to brown, and red mottled subsoils. Soils of the river bottomlands and broad deltaic plains are reddish brown to dark gray, slightly acid to calcareous, loamy to clayey alluvial.Printer Friendly: Species List | List with Images | List with QR Tags to Mobile
scientific name | common name(s) | image gallery |
Abronia fragrans | Fragrant Sand-verbena Snowball Sand Verbena Sweet Sand-verbena Prairie Snowball Sand Verbena Heart's Delight | |
Acer floridanum | Southern Sugar Maple Florida Maple Caddo Maple Rock Maple | |
Achillea millefolium | Common Yarrow Western Yarrow Yarrow Milfoil | |
Acer negundo | Box Elder Box Elder Maple Ash-leaved Maple Ashleaf Maple Red River Maple Fresno De Guajuco | |
Acer rubrum var. drummondii | Drummond's Maple Drummond Red Maple Swamp Maple | |
Adiantum capillus-veneris | Southern Maidenhair Fern Common Maidenhair Fern Maidenhair Fern Venus Hair Fern | |
Aesculus pavia var. flavescens | Texas Yellow Buckeye Yellow Woolly Buckeye Pale Buckeye Plateau Yellow Buckeye | |
Aesculus pavia var. pavia | Scarlet Buckeye Red Buckeye Southern Buckeye Firecracker Plant | |
Allium canadense var. canadense | Meadow Garlic Wild Onion Canada Onion | |
Allium canadense var. mobilense | Meadow Garlic Wild Onion | |
Allium coryi | Yellowflower Onion Yellow-flowered Onion | |
Allium drummondii | Drummond's Onion Wild Garlic Drummond Wild Onion | |
Alophia drummondii | Propeller Flower Purple Pleat-leaf Pinewoods Lily Prairie Iris Pleatleaf Iris | |
Aloysia gratissima | Whitebrush Bee-brush White-brush Common Bee-brush Beebrush Privet Lippia | |
Ampelopsis cordata | Heartleaf Peppervine Heart-leaf Ampelopsis | |
Amorpha fruticosa | Indigo Bush False Indigo Bush False Indigo Desert False Indigo | |
Amsonia illustris | Ozark Bluestar Showy Blue-star Missouri Blue Star Swamp Bluestar | |
Amblyolepis setigera | Huisache Daisy Butterfly Daisy Honey Daisy | |
Amyris texana | Texas Torchwood Chapotillo | |
Andropogon gerardii | Big Bluestem Tall Bluestem Turkeyfoot | |
Andropogon glomeratus | Bushy Bluestem Brushy Bluestem | |
Andropogon ternarius | Splitbeard Bluestem Split Bluestem | |
Andropogon virginicus | Broomsedge Broomsedge Bluestem Yellowsedge Bluestem Whiskey Grass Popotillo Pajon | |
Aphanostephus skirrhobasis | Lazy Daisy Arkansas Lazy Daisy Arkansas Doze-daisy | |
Argemone mexicana | Mexican Prickly Poppy Mexican Prickly Poppy Yellow Prickly Poppy | |
Aristolochia serpentaria | Virginia Snakeroot Virginia Dutchmanspipe | |
Aristolochia tomentosa | Woolly Dutchman's Pipe Common Dutchman's Pipe | |
Asimina parviflora | Smallflower Pawpaw Small-flower Pawpaw Dwarf Pawpaw | |
Asplenium platyneuron | Ebony Spleenwort | |
Asimina triloba | Pawpaw Common Pawpaw Custard Apple Indian Banana Wild Banana | |
Athyrium filix-femina ssp. asplenioides | Southern Lady Fern | |
Avicennia germinans | Black Mangrove | |
Baccharis halimifolia | Groundseltree Sea-myrtle Consumptionweed Eastern Baccharis Groundsel Groundsel Bush Salt Marsh-elder Salt Bush Florida Groundsel Bush | |
Batis maritima | Turtleweed Seaside Saltwort | |
Baccharis neglecta | False Willow Jara Dulce Poverty Weed Roosevelt Weed | |
Berlandiera pumila | Soft Greeneyes | |
Bothriochloa barbinodis | Pinhole Bluestem Cane Bluestem Cane Beardgrass Feather Bluestem Plains Beardgrass | |
Bouteloua curtipendula | Sideoats Grama Banderilla Banderita Navajita | |
Bouteloua dactyloides | Buffalograss Buffalo Grass | |
Borrichia frutescens | Bushy Seaside Tansy Ox-eye Daisy Sea Daisy Sea Ox-eye | |
Bouteloua hirsuta | Hairy Grama | |
Bouteloua rigidiseta | Texas Grama | |
Calylophus berlandieri ssp. pinifolius | Berlandier's Sundrops Square-bud Primrose Sundrops Square-bud Day-primrose | |
Castela erecta ssp. texana | Texan Goatbush Goat-bush Allthorn Goatbush Amargoso | |
Calylophus hartwegii | Hartweg's Sundrops Western Primrose | |
Carya illinoinensis | Pecan | |
Castilleja indivisa | Texas Indian Paintbrush Entireleaf Indian Paintbrush Texas Paintbrush Indian Paintbrush Scarlet Paintbrush | |
Callirhoe involucrata | Winecup Purple Poppy Mallow | |
Callisia micrantha | Cherisse Little-flower Roseling Southern Coastal Roseling Little-flower Spiderwort | |
Carya ovata | Shagbark Hickory Carolina Hickory Scalybark Hickory Upland Hickory Shellbark Hickory | |
Castanea pumila | Allegheny Chinquapin Allegheny Chinkapin Chinquapin Chinkapin | |
Campsis radicans | Trumpet Creeper Trumpet Vine Common Trumpet Creeper Cow Vine Foxglove Vine Hellvine Devil's Shoestring | |
Carya texana | Black Hickory Buckley Hickory Pignut Hickory | |
Ceanothus americanus | New Jersey Tea Redroot | |
Centaurea americana | American Basket-flower American Star-thistle Basket-flower Star Thistle Shaving Brush Basket Flower | |
Cercis canadensis var. canadensis | Eastern Redbud | |
Celtis ehrenbergiana | Desert Hackberry Spiny Hackberry Shiny Hackberry Granjeno Huasteco | |
Celtis laevigata | Sugar Hackberry Texas Sugarberry Sugarberry Southern Hackberry Lowland Hackberry Hackberry Palo Blanco | |
Cephalanthus occidentalis | Common Buttonbush Buttonbush Button Willow Honey Bells Honeybells Honey Balls Honeyballs Button-bush | |
Chamaecrista fasciculata | Partridge Pea Sleepingplant Sensitive Plant | |
Chasmanthium latifolium | Inland Sea Oats Indian Wood Oats Wild Oats River Oats Flathead Oats Upland Oats Upland Sea Oats | |
Chromolaena odorata | Blue Mistflower Fragrant Mistflower Blue Boneset Fragrant Boneset Jack In The Bush Crucita Siam Weed Common Flossflower Christmas Bush Devilweed | |
Chloris virgata | Feather Fingergrass Showy Chloris | |
Cirsium texanum | Texas Thistle | |
Clematis crispa | Swamp Leatherflower Curly Clematis Blue-jasmine Curlflower Curly Virgin's Bower Marsh Clematis | |
Cladium mariscus ssp. jamaicense | Jamaica Swamp Sawgrass Jamaican Saw-grass Saw-grass | |
Clematis pitcheri | Purple Leatherflower Purple Clematis Leatherflower Bluebill Bellflower Clematis Pitcher's Clematis | |
Cocculus carolinus | Carolina Snailseed Carolina Coralbead Carolina Moonseed Red Berried Moonseed Carolina Red Berried Moonseed | |
Cornus drummondii | Roughleaf Dogwood Drummond's Dogwood Rough-leaf Dogwood | |
Cooperia drummondii | Evening Rain Lily Evening Star Rain Lily | |
Cooperia pedunculata | Hill Country Rain Lily Prairie Lily Rain Lily Flor De Mayo | |
Coreopsis tinctoria | Plains Coreopsis Golden Tickseed Goldenwave Calliopsis | |
Crinum americanum | American Crinum Lily Seven Sisters Swamp Lily Southern Swamp Lily String Lily Crinum Lily | |
Crataegus viridis | Green Hawthorn Southern Hawthorn | |
Cyrilla racemiflora | Titi Swamp Titi Black Titi White Titi Red Titi Leatherwood Swamp Cyrilla American Cyrilla Burnwood Bark Palo Colorado | |
Datura wrightii | Jimsonweed Sacred Thorn-apple Thorn-apple Angel Trumpet Sacred Datura Western Jimson Weed | |
Delphinium carolinianum ssp. vimineum | Carolina Larkspur Prairie Larkspur | |
Desmanthus illinoensis | Illinois Bundleflower Bundleflower Prairie Bundle Flower Prickleweed Illinois Desmanthus Prairie Mimosa | |
Digitaria californica | Arizona Cottontop California Cottontop California Crab Grass Cottontop | |
Diospyros virginiana | Common Persimmon Eastern Persimmon Possumwood Date Plum Winter Plum Jove's Fruit | |
Dracopis amplexicaulis | Clasping Coneflower Clasping-leaf Coneflower | |
Echeandia chandleri | Chandler's Craglily Lila De Los Llanos | |
Echinacea pallida | Pale Purple Coneflower Pale Coneflower | |
Echinacea purpurea | Eastern Purple Coneflower Purple Coneflower | |
Elymus canadensis | Canada Wild Rye Canadian Wildrye Prairie Wildrye Nodding Wildrye | |
Elionurus tripsacoides | Pan American Balsamscale Balsamscale | |
Eriogonum annuum | Annual Buckwheat Annual Wild Buckwheat Umbrella Plant | |
Erythrina herbacea | Coralbean Cherokee Bean Red Cardinal | |
Eryngium leavenworthii | Leavenworth's Eryngo Eryngo False Purple Thistle | |
Eriogonum multiflorum | Wild Buckwheat Heart-sepal Buckwheat Heart-sepal Wild Buckwheat | |
Eriochloa sericea | Texas Cupgrass | |
Eragrostis spectabilis | Purple Lovegrass Purple Love Grass Purple Plains Lovegrass Tumblegrass Petticoat Climber | |
Eryngium yuccifolium | Rattlesnake Master Button Eryngo Button Snakeroot Beargrass Bear's Grass | |
Euphorbia cyathophora | Wild Poinsettia Poinsettia Fire On The Mountain | |
Euphorbia marginata | Snow On The Mountain Snow-on-the-mountain | |
Eupatorium serotinum | White Boneset Lateflowering Thoroughwort Late Boneset Late-flowering Boneset | |
Fraxinus americana | White Ash American Ash Cane Ash Smallseed White Ash Biltmore White Ash Biltmore Ash | |
Fraxinus pennsylvanica | Green Ash Red Ash Swamp Ash River Ash Water Ash Darlington Ash | |
Gaillardia pulchella | Indian Blanket Firewheel Girasol Rojo | |
Gaillardia suavis | Pincushion Daisy Fragrant Gaillardia Rayless Gaillardia Perfumeballs | |
scientific name | common name(s) | image gallery |