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Native Plants in Dallas, TX

The Dallas area was once part of a Texas prairie extending south to San Antonio. Native plants include prairie grasses, coneflowers, milkweed and gayfeather. The Black Prairie ended abruptly to the west of Dallas in a strip of forest, the Eastern Cross Timbers. To the east, prairie merged into palmetto swamp. Plants native to Dallas's diverse habitats can be seen at the Molly Hollar Wildscape, within the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan district at Arlington. The Wildscape encompasses the last remaining portion of the Eastern Cross Timbers.

Prairie Grasses
- Dallas's native grasses include buffalo, blue-stem, Indian and Mexican feather grasses. Buffalo grass is particularly robust and drought resistant. Lindheimer's muhly is a tall, clump-forming grass native to the area. It bears feathered white flowers.
Eye-catching Color
- Native milkweed is the food plant for Monarch butterflies.
  
  Vivid reds are provided by flame acanthus, coral honeysuckle and native salvias including big red sage and cedar sage. Hummingbirds hover around the big red sage. Splashes of bright yellow come from goldenrod, goldeneye daisy, velvetleaf senna, yellow bells, sundrops and sunflowers. Native lantanas combine orange, cerise and gold. Milkweed's vivid orange blooms provide nectar for the migratory Monarch butterflies. Look out for the pink of Dallas's native roses, the swamp rose and the climbing prairie rose. Native asters and mistflowers spread gentler pinks and mauves, attracting bees and butterflies. Unusual purple berries identify the American beauty berry, while the possumhaw bears red berries in winter.
Trees
- Native trees of Dallas include red buckeye (horse chestnut), black willow, live oak, red oak, Mexican plum, rough leaf dogwood, pecan and the Texas Hercules club. The Eastern Cross Timbers contained mainly post oak and black-jack trees. Pecans and hibiscus were common around the edges of the slough to the east, while acacias were found in the drier prairie margins.
Drought-Resistant Plants
- Gayfeather (liatris) is drought tolerant prairie species native to Dallas.
  
  In Texas, the prairie was hot and frequently dry, giving rise to drought-resistant plant species including cactuses and succulents. Examples native to the Dallas area include yuccas, agaves, and acacia trees. Four-nerve daisy is a yellow native daisy and highly drought-resistant. Cenizo (figwort) is a shrub with very low moisture requirements, bearing purple blooms. Gayfeather (liatris) also needs little moisture. The flowers of the heat- and drought-tolerant passion vine feed butterflies, while the passion fruit provides food for small mammals and birds.
Palmetto Swamp
- Palmettos are native just east of the city.
  
  Dallas once included 600 acres of swamp containing the native Texas palmetto. Today the city protects the remaining 120 acres and a further "buffer zone" adjacent to the Southside waste water treatment facility. Further stretches of native palmetto swamp -- the biggest north of Austin -- are protected at the Palmetto Alligator Slough at Seagoville, just east of the city. Native plants from the slough include cats tail rushes, horsetail, cinnamon fern, dwarf palmetto, jewelweed and sundew. Buttonbush bears distinctive white, ball-shaped flowers and is a feature of Dallas's swamps.

Nature