By Gail Dugelby. Texas’ native buckeyes unleash their exotic hybrid flowers along Salado Creek for a festival of red, pink and yellow. We’re not seeing many wildflowers this year due to the persistent drought. But there’s one or two plants who didn’t get the memo — and they’re in full bloom right now.
It’s a unique natural phenomenon that happens every March along San Antonio’s Salado Creek greenway trail, creating a spectrum of fascinating color combinations.
The two species are both native buckeyes that share many features, including palm-like leaves and, most noticeably, large seed pods with a characteristic white spot or “buckeye.”
Texas buckeye is a lovely small tree that boasts showy butter-yellow flower clusters in early spring. Red buckeye is more of a large shrub with striking deep red flower clusters in spring. Its bell-shaped flowers are tubular with long filaments and several flowers bloom at once on their six- to 10-inch stems.
The big difference between the two is that they have such different geographic ranges. Red buckeye is found from the easternmost part of the Edwards Plateau, all the way from East Texas to North Carolina and as far north as Illinois. Yellow-flowering Texas buckeye occurs in only a few central Texas counties, along the western Edwards Plateau.
One of few places where the two species overlap is along the Salado Creek greenway trail between Walker Ranch Park and Hardberger Park, a wondrous walk where you can see them mix and mingle.
On a spring day in March, you can observe they get along quite well, combining into a variety of flowering hybrids in many combinations of yellow and red. You’ll spy pale butter-yellow outer petals with cherry red streaks inside, and pinkish-red buds popping open with bright yellow petals and red stamens. The color possibilities seem infinite. (Strawberry lemonade comes to mind.)
Both buckeye varieties drop their leaves with the extreme heat of summer and remain bare until the next year. This means that from mid-summer to late February, you may not even notice they’re there.
But when they burst into life every March along the Salado Creek greenway trail, the month-long show is worthy of a stroll to see these exclusive hybrids in their array of candy store hues. Depending on winter rain, blooms can be plentiful or lighter. But the buckeyes will bloom and they’re well worth the visit.
Rather than wax on about all the quaint combinations, let’s explore some examples from a recent spring day!
Gail Dugelby is a SAWS conservation consultant with deep roots in San Antonio and the Hill Country. She spent her youth climbing trees, playing in the Guadalupe River, and exploring the outdoors. This drives her passion for nature and our diverse environment, especially our most precious natural resource — water. Given the choice, she would be outside all the time.
