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.

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Monday - June 21, 2010

From: Bastrop, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Poisonous Plants, Groundcovers
Title: Pet-friendly plants for ground cover in Bastrop TX
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

Any pet-friendly plants that can be used for ground-cover in Central Texas?

ANSWER:

Friendly to the plants or friendly to the pets? If you're talking friendly to pets, those pets being cats and/or dogs, we can probably find some for you and check websites with lists of poisonouse plants to make sure they are safe for those animals. If you have a pet giraffe, that's out of our line. If you're wanting plants which will be okay with constant dog traffic, puppy chewing and kitty bathroom use, that is a much tougher sell.

There are low-growing groundcovers native to Central Texas that will do what their name says, cover the ground. They won't necessarily be evergreen, most don't tolerate much foot traffic (or paw traffic) and some are considered as weeds, possibly by your neighbors. And without knowing if your area has sun or shade, what the soil is like and whether it can be irrigated also makes it difficult for us to pick the perfect plant. We don't think cats often eat plants outside, although they will chew on indoor plants, many of which are poisonous non-natives, so be aware of that.

We will check some databases for the groundcovers we find, but just the fact that a plant is not on a list won't guarantee that it does not have some toxic parts. There are several databases to consult for plant toxicity. The ASPCA has a list specific to dogs, Toxic and Non-toxic Plant List—Dogs. There are several others that we use, as well:

Toxic Plants of Texas

Poisonous Plants of North Carolina

Cornell University Plants Poisonous to Livestock

University of Pennsylvania Poisonous Plants

Canadian Poisonous Plants Information System

None of these plants we are going to list appeared on any of the above lists. Follow the plant links to each page in our Native Plant Database to find out what growing conditions that plant needs, such as light requirements, moisture, soil and how big it is expected to be.

Groundcovers for Central Texas:

Callirhoe involucrata (purple poppymallow)

Glandularia bipinnatifida var. bipinnatifida (Dakota mock vervain)

Oenothera speciosa (pinkladies)

Oenothera macrocarpa ssp. macrocarpa (bigfruit evening-primrose)

Phlox drummondii (annual phlox)

Salvia roemeriana (cedar sage)

Hydrocotyle umbellata (manyflower marshpennywort)

Phyla nodiflora (turkey tangle fogfruit)

Dichondra argentea (silver ponysfoot)

Dichondra carolinensis (Carolina ponysfoot)

Phlox divaricata (wild blue phlox)