Texas Mountain Laurel (Sophora secundiflora)



TEXAS MOUNTAIN LAUREL

 During the Borrego Springs garden tour this year, several of us admired a lush green tree in one of the landscapes.  It had a beautiful purple flower with a sweet "grape" smell.  Since first seeing it, I've noticed others around our neighborhood as border shrubs and trees.


Turns out it was a Texas Mountain Laurel, one of the most lush evergreen desert trees with healthy, green foliage and blue-purple dangling blossoms.  I learned it is a tough species native to the Southwest U.S. and northern Mexico.  The Texas Mountain Laurel dwells in low, hot locations but also likes the mid mountain elevations, showing a wide range of adaptability.

In the spring, beautiful, highly fragrant hanging flower clusters blossom (they remind me of wisteria).  Blooms are followed by red/orange beans or seeds (poisonous) snuggled into hard pods.

The plant requires extreme summer heat to be a truly vigorous addition to your landscape, so this is a great tree for our Borrego Springs climate!  It will develop a wide-spreading canopy with lots of low branches and a solid mass of foliage.  Gorgeous!  Relatively slow growing, it tolerates pruning to shape or limit its size.  

Growth will be encouraged by frequent deep watering during the summer months. Try it as a background plant, screen, hedge or specimen where its beautiful flowers can be enjoyed at close range.



BEES WILL SWARM THE SHORT-LIVED BLOOMS

  

DRIED POD WITH RED BEANS