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

Not Yet Rated

Monday - October 12, 2009

From: Sapulpa, OK
Region: Southwest
Topic: Trees
Title: Native alternative for Japanese Red Maple in Oklahoma
Answered by: Nan Hampton

QUESTION:

Mr. Smarty Plants, I am looking for a native alternative to a Japanese Red Maple. I would like a small tree that I can put in my front garden that will not pose a security risk my being overgrown and too large. We thought the Japanese Red Maple would be nice, because it is a smaller and more contained tree, but I do not want to introduce a non-native plant. PLEASE HELP!

ANSWER:

Mr. Smarty Plants can offer several attractive small native trees for Oklahoma as an alternative to Japanese maple. Here are a few of them:

Cotinus obovatus (American smoketree)

Rhus lanceolata (prairie sumac)

Cercis canadensis (eastern redbud)

Chionanthus virginicus (white fringetree)

Cornus drummondii (roughleaf dogwood)

Cornus florida (flowering dogwood)

Morus rubra (red mulberry)

Prunus mexicana (Mexican plum)

Viburnum rufidulum (rusty blackhaw)

You can do a COMBINATION SEARCH in our Native Plant Database to see other possibilities by choosing Oklahoma from the Select State or Province category and 'Tree' from the Habit (general appearance) category.