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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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.

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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.

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Thursday - March 31, 2011

From: Round Rock, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Plant Identification
Title: Plant identification from Round Rock, TX
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

Although I do not believe the tree to be native I would like to identify it if possible. This tree was found in the Round Rock area. The blossom has five white (lite pink?) petals and a "spray" of pistle/staman. The picture was sent via iphone but is pretty clear. The thing that caught the attention of the "wanderer" was the fragrance, it smelled like grape candy. I know mountain laurel and wisteria smell that way but don't know about fruit trees. I am pretty sure it is a fruit tree of some kind. The closest thing I have found was a plum blosson. I would attach a picture but don't know how. Can you help?

ANSWER:

It does not appear that we are going to be able to help you. We left the question in our queue for a few days to see if any members of the Smarty Plants team recognized it from your description; apparently, no one did. Because of the large number of questions we get, we are no longer able to accept pictures for identification. Since the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center is dedicated to the growth, propagation and protection of plants native not only to North America but to the area in which those plants are natiive, we will have no information in our database that would help you. Go to our Plant Identification page, which has suggestions for other websites that might be able to help you, some accept pictures.

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Thursday - March 31, 2011

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