Texas Gardening: Texas Native Plant Pictures ( Trees ), 1 by KayeTX

KayeTX wrote:
Sand-Paper Tree, Anacua, Knock-Away Tree
Ehretia anacua Boraginaceae (Borage family)

Anacua is an ornamental native tree found in south Texas, north to Travis County, and in Mexico. It is hardy to 10 degrees F. It is well adapted to Houston, and can be grown as far north as Dallas but will suffer from die back in hard winters. Anacua most often grows in calcareous soil but will thrive in arid, sandy soil. Very drought tolerant and generally not subject to disease.

Anacua can be up to 50 feet or more, but more often a moderate sized tree of 15-40 feet, often multi-trunked or with suckers clustering around the main stocky trunk. Mature trees have an interesting, gnarled, and stocky appearance with a dense, rounded crown. Anacua forms dense thickets in its natural habitat of alluvial woods, which is where I found it. Their extensive root system provides erosion control on stream beds and hillsides. Anacua’s moderate size works well for small front and side yards, and commercial plantings with limited space. Its only disadvantage is that the abundant berries can cause messy litter on walks, drives, and patios.

Thick furrowed bark separates into thin gray or reddish scales. Dark green oval-shaped pinnate, somewhat toothed leaves have a sandpapery feel. Provides heavy shade year around, with old leaf drop occurring in the Spring. Grass does not typically grow underneath them, but found many species of wildflowers growing underneath them in the woods

Anacua has two main flowering periods: April/May and again August/ September. Fragrant star flowers are held in large showy white clusters at the ends of branches. Ripened fruit of orange-red drupes, ¼-1/4 inches wide, appear about six weeks later, and are quite showy against the contrasting dark foliage. Birds are very fond of the fruit, which is edible to humans as well.

http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/68610/index.html
http://wildflower.utexas.edu/gallery/species.php?id_plant=EH...

The flowers do not last long on the trees and as you can see I actually missed the flowers this year. I am hoping for another short burst with that last rain. You can also see some of the branches have been burned back by that three day run of real cold weather we had here in the hill country.