Not sure about these. I was thinking prunus for the one with small black fruits, ilex for the red berry one, and no idea on the other. Any help?
The first one (small black fruits) really looks like Saskatoon berries to me - Amelanchier alnifolia, although what it's doing in Texas is anybody's guess. Other than this, perhaps pincherries? Or, I'm right out to lunch. The red-fruited one resembles Ilex cornuta - one of the smooth-margined cultivars, like "Carissa". Were the leaves waxy in texture? I can't tell from your photo. I have not the faintest clue on the other one, though. Neat seedpods.
None of these are cultivated. These were taken on a large, pretty remote park so, barring some exotic invasive species, all should be Texas native plants. The dark fruited one had pubescent leaves which I don't associate with prunus species but I know black sand cherry is native to this area. I thought ilex decidua on the holly.....But I've only recently started trying to identify all of the native plants I find and am admittedly an amateur.
Ilex decidua is fairly common in this area so that may account for the red fruited plant. http://ifatreefalls.wordpress.com/ HTH CHris
4.5.6. The leaves seem to be pinnate,the nuts remind me of Carya.see http://www.cas.vanderbilt.edu/bioimages/pages/carya-fruits.htm
I think David is right on 4,5,6. Mexican buckeye, ungnadia speciosa. I collected some seeds. It looks like it's attractive in spring, judging by the pictures I can find online. And Ron is right on the garrya. So I was just one for three at least I got the holly. Thanks for the help.
RE: The seeds should look exactly like a small Aesculus buckeye seed, blackish-brown with a pale 'eye'. yep. well pretty much. kind of an eggplant color. And now I know why they call them buckeyes. B/c the seed looks like a deer's eye. I can't believe it took me that long to make that connection....... And is ohio state university really named after a flowering shrub? I never made that connection either... here's a few pictures I found of the plant on the web. looks nice. Hope my seeds germinate. Some trees had many pods all at different stages of ripeness. I will wait and get a few more seeds just to be safe.
Yep, that's the derivation . . . not that I have any personal experience, never having looked at a deer's eye in isolation from a deer ;-) Named after Ohio Buckeye Aesculus glabra, which is a good-sized tree (up to 30-40m tall). Note that Aesculus and Ungnadia are fairly closely related, both in the family Sapindaceae (the former family Hippocastanaceae for Aesculus has been shown by genetic analysis to be an artificial construct). PS second pic in the last post above is a redbud, presumably Texas Redbud Cercis canadensis var. texensis (syn. C. texensis).
Really interesting to see this tree,Ungnadia speciosa. Found some good pictures here http://www.sbs.utexas.edu/bio406d/images/pics/sap/ungnadia_speciosa.htm
Thanks for correcting my sloppy image thievery. I removed the redbud picture. I'll also point out that luddite transposed the "n" and "a" in ungnadia. I point that out because I made the same mistake when trying to look it up..... BTW I also collected some seeds from cercis canadensis var. texensis. Only one of maybe two dozen plants I looked at had seed pods - and they were dried up containing only very small dried up seeds. Is that normal or are they unlikely to be viable.
If the seeds are smooth or convex they are likely viable. It they are concave or wrinkled they're non-viable. HTH Chris
Probably normal for the time of year. Viable seeds from last year's crop would have dispersed some time ago, and the new crop, if any, won't be anywhere near ripe yet.
