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Marcus, Joseph A.

Phlox drummondii

Phlox drummondii Hook.

Annual Phlox, Drummond Phlox, Pride-of-Texas, Texas Pride

Polemoniaceae (Phlox Family)

Synonym(s):

USDA Symbol: PHDR

USDA Native Status: L48 (N), CAN (I)

A much-branched, sticky-glandular plant with bright rose-red, pink, or white flowers in tight clusters at the ends of stems. Annual phlox or Drummonds Phlox is a showy annual. Usually 6-12 in. tall, this phlox can reach 20 in. in height. Its flowers, usually with a pale center, range in color from pink to red, white, peach, or lavender. The 1 in. blooms are in terminal clusters and are trumpet-shaped with a short, narrow tube. The leaves are soft, hairy and sticky. This southern flower of roadsides and fields escaped from cultivation. The species is named for Thomas Drummond, who sent seeds from Texas to England in 1835.

It is not commonly known that one of Texas’ most beautiful wildflowers has been prized in Europe as an “exotic” cultivated garden flower for nearly 150 years. In 1835, botanist Thomas Drummond collected the seeds of this annual wildflower in an area where a red-colored variety overlapped with a pink-flowered form. This collection of wild seed was sent first to Great Britain and later was distributed to nurserymen in several European countries. About 200 true breeding strains were developed from this single collection of seed, including red, pink, white, lavender, maroon, coral, pale pink, and the mixtures of these colors, with the central “eye” of the flower differing in color from the outer color of the petals.

The species name of this plant is named for Thomas Drummond, (ca. 1790-1835), naturalist, born in Scotland, around 1790. In 1830 he made a trip to America to collect specimens from the western and southern United States. In March, 1833, he arrived at Velasco, Texas to begin his collecting work in that area. He spent twenty-one months working the area between Galveston Island and the Edwards Plateau, especially along the Brazos, Colorado, and Guadalupe rivers. His collections were the first made in Texas that were extensively distributed among the museums and scientific institutions of the world. He collected 750 species of plants and 150 specimens of birds. Drummond had hoped to make a complete botanical survey of Texas, but he died in Havana, Cuba, in 1835, while making a collecting tour of that island.

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