Native Plants

Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?

A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.

Help us grow by giving to the Plant Database Fund or by becoming a member

Did you know you can access the Native Plant Information Network with your web-enabled smartphone?

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.

Search Smarty Plants

See a list of all Smarty Plants questions

Please forgive us, but Mr. Smarty Plants has been overwhelmed by a flood of mail and must take a break for awhile to catch up. We hope to be accepting new questions again soon. Thank you!

Need help with plant identification, visit the plant identification page.

rate this answer

1 rating

Tuesday - July 21, 2009

From: Leander, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: User Comments
Title: Sorting for Fabaceae family for Central Texas
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

I can't seem to get the database to sort for: CenTX Fabacae Dry Part shade Perennials All habits Please tell me how

ANSWER:

We are not sure what you are referring to with the "CenTX" or "Fabacae." There is a family of plants referred to as "Fabaceae", pea family. If that is what you want, we can help you out. The database will not sort on the selection of Central Texas in the Recommended Species section, because that is not going to include all the members of that family that we have in our database. So, here is how you do it:

1. Go to our Native Plant Database

2. On the drop-down menu for "Family" at top of page, scroll down to "Fabaceae", click on that and then click on "Go." This will give you a list of 397 members of the Fabaceae family that are in our database.

3. In the right-hand column, select "Texas", "Perennials", part shade under "Light Requirements" and dry under "Soil Moisture."

4. Click on "Narrow Your Search" rectangle at bottom of column.

5. You will get a list of 39 perennial members of the Fabaceae family that are native to Texas.

Still want Central Texas members of that family?

1. Go to our Recommended Species:

2. Select Central Texas on the map.

3. Leave it on "all habits," and all the other specifications the same as before.

4. Click on "Narrow Your Search"

5. You'll get 65 results, they will NOT be sorted by family

5. Now, here's the rub: in the Recommended Species, you cannot search on a particular family. You can compare the two lists, Texas and Central Texas, and find the ones on the Texas list that are also on the Central Texas list. For instance: The "Texas" list, sorted by Fabaceae, has 39 perennial members on it. The Central Texas list has 65 perennials for dry, part shade on it. Scan the "Central Texas" list for plants on the "Texas" list. We found only three but we weren't looking real hard. These were Bauhinia lunarioides (Texasplume), Sophora secundiflora (Texas mountain-laurel), Styphnolobium affine (Eve's necklacepod).

So, you can see there is not a single sort that will give you the information you need, but you can find it by spending a little more time, and comparing the lists. You might want to print them out to do that.

From the Image Gallery

Kisses
Oenothera suffulta

Texas mountain laurel
Sophora secundiflora

Eve's necklace
Styphnolobium affine