It was golden hour on the back deck of the South Padre Island Birding, Nature Center and Alligator Sanctuary as I stood with binoculars focused on a beautiful black and yellow hooded warbler as it sipped from Songbird Alley’s gently flowing water feature. I was surrounded by gifted birders, many of whom had traveled long distances to see and photograph the fall migrants, but I kept finding myself distracted by the brilliantly beautiful yellow blossoms of the Esperanza shrub a few feet away. A veritable DFW International of the insect world was going on over there, with dozens of nectar-seeking pollinators perpetually taking off and landing as they made their forays inside the yellow blooms.
Tecoma stans, widely known in Texas as Esperanza, and in other parts of its native range as yellow bells or yellow trumpet flower, isn’t quite a native to the Lower Rio Grande Valley — but almost! It is indigenous to the Rio Grande River basin of southwest Texas, a few hundred miles northwest of us in the Trans-Pecos region. It is also native to the southern-most regions of New Mexico and Arizona, down through Mexico to northwestern South America and even over to southern Florida and the Caribbean. A plant with such a broad range is often comprised of several subspecies as it adapts to different climate and soil conditions, which is true of Esperanza. The subspecies found in the American Southwest is shorter, but also much hardier against cold and drought than its relatives in tropical climes. There are also several cultivated varieties and hybrids of wild Esperanza, and we see many of these blooming prolifically in the lower
RGV. Esperanza in full bloom is breathtakingly beautiful, and it’s actually blooming most of the time, from springtime all the way into winter. It’s no wonder why people introduced it here!
Human eyes aren’t the only ones bedazzled by Esperanza’s large, showy blossoms. Bees, butterflies, hummingbirds and other pollinators are attracted to its flowers and utilize its nectar as a primary food source. Even when its blooming period ends for the winter, its green-bean-shaped seed pods continue to provide nourishment to wintering songbirds and small mammals.
Humans have also long used Esperanza in a variety of ways. According to a Texas A&M web page posted in 2009, “Tecoma stans was long known and used by the Indian and Mexican peoples of the Southwest and Mexico for bowmaking, bee fodder and medicines,” and that in Mexico, a beer was prepared from its roots. Its domesticated varieties have become extremely popular for xeric landscaping and pollinator gardens as they thrive in full sun, miserably high temperatures, and little rainfall. Once again, no wonder Tecoma stans was introduced to the Valley!
Esperanza’s status as a native plant of Texas, but not a native plant to the LRGV, brings up an interesting and sometimes technically confusing question — “What exactly makes a plant a native?” A common follow-up inquiry is, “And why does it matter?”
Stay tuned to the PI SPI Press Native Plant News to hear more!