Hi, this is my first post in awhile, had some issues with my password, but now I'm back online. Anyway, in the time I was cut off, I seem to have discovered that I have a green thumb of sorts. in late april, I bought a prickly pear cactus, all I've done is set it in my backyard, and the thing has quadrupled in size since. On top of that, I have a red tipped yucca, old lady pincushion, several more cacti, and succulents, and several dusty millers, plus, I have my first seedlings sprouting up. Some bell pepper seeds I'd dried out earlier. Anyway, I'm in north central texas, the texoma area, to be precise. If anyone else knows anymore about the native plants up here, please dont hesitate to let me know.
im in central texas, but i know next to nothing about the natives here. back at my parent's land in southeast texas, i know the natives and grow hardwood bonsai specimen to sell. there aren't many edible natives, aside from sassafrass, bitter blueberries, and blackberries. and you shouldn't have to 'buy' native plants. that kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it? go collect them for free.
Yeah, learned that the hard way, lol. The natives up here that I like are the cacti and succulent species. I just hope I wouldnt run into any problems, collecting plants off of public lands.
^i've never had a problem doing this. and if anybody stops to ask me what im doing, i just tell them im digging up a plant for my garden and ask them if they mind. i would say that most of the collecting i do is illegal but most people don't really care unless you're stealing from their yard or something.
n Texas, where he lives, laws permit landowners to harvest cacti from their property or give others permission to do so, and many who view the plants as nuisances are happy to be rid of them. If you see construction work beginning, you can and should ask the landscaper for permission to save the cacti before they do any excavation or bush hogging.
Black berries, Blue berries, Elder berries, Sassafrass should come handy to grow in Northern Central Texas
Wild grapes grow along the Brazos and Paluxy Rivers in central Texas. Local folks call them "mustangs".
Speaking of the southwest, might want to browse some of these sites for the indigenous varieties that have been otherwise pushed out of the area by landscapers and other homeowners who feel the insane need to have a lush green lawn in the middle of a freaking Desert. So yea', not too crazy to buy seeds of what should be local varieties, at least not when the variety in question has been pushed to near extinction by Developers,,, but of course if you do go hunting in the wild for locals it will at least give you a better view of what it's natural habitat is like a.k.a. how close it is to any groundwater sources or natural washes and so forth. http://www.nativeseeds.org/ is a site I've heard many good things from through a gardening site I frequent from folks in NM, Arizona, Texas etc. http://www.plantsofthesouthwest.com/ being another one with similar recommendations. As far as legalities concerning harvesting local wilds, the only time you're going to have an issue is if the species has been declared as endangered in which case, just go back when the seeds are ready to harvest and then only gather 10% and you should avoid most of the legal issues. :cheers2:
I wouldn't wild collect w/o permission. There's laws against that.... And then there are the cactus rustlers I've heard about... Those people have some bad karma coming their way... I'm not above wild collecting a seed pod or two when there are hundreds in that location, but there are a lot of people that will wipe out a patch of something... And with that kind of attitude, they tend to kill most of the plants they dug... You know, out in TX, there are turk's cap hibiscus n datura n lantanas that r native to that region... all of that stuff spreads, and fills a large space... Very colourful... Do you know about Ladybird Johnson's project? http://www.wildflower.org/ y'all got some purty wildflowers out there... check this site: http://www.texaswildflowerguide.com/
Prickly pear is edible. The fruit is edible and makes a great jelly, and the pads themselves are edible, and are common in south-of-the-boder cuisine. Go to a mexican market, and you will surely see piles of "nopales".
