Native Plants

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Tuesday - February 19, 2008

From: Brenham, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Shade Tolerant
Title: Plants for shady area in Brenham, TX
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

I have an area which receives shade all day, but gets a lot of sun just before sunset. What sorts of plants would do well?

ANSWER:

Since it gets the sunlight in late afternoon, it is no doubt at an angle, and not as drying as sun at high noon. Therefore, you would probably be looking for plants that succeed on 2 hours or less sunlight every day. There are other factors, too, of course, including soil moisture. In our Native Plant Database, we selected some possibilities. All these are natives of North America, which is the focus of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, and all are either native to Texas or naturally distributed in Texas. The lists were selected on Texas (location), habit (herb, shrub or tree), perennial (duration), 2 hours or less sun a day and dry soil. You can go to the Native Plant Database page and, using the "Combination Search," change the conditions and select choices of your own.

Herb

Coreopsis lanceolata (lanceleaf tickseed)

Ionactis linariifolius (flaxleaf whitetop aster)

Penstemon digitalis (talus slope penstemon)

Ruellia nudiflora (violet wild petunia)

Shrub

Rhus glabra (smooth sumac)

Salvia regla (mountain sage)

Rosa setigera (climbing rose)

Symphoricarpos orbiculatus (coralberry)

Tree

Cornus drummondii (roughleaf dogwood)