Hardiness zones
Sunset 8-16, 18-24
USDA 9 - 11

Landscape Use: Accent, large informal hedge, background screen, spectacular small patio tree

Form & Character: Clean, medium to large woody evergreen shrub or small multiple-trunk tree.

Growth Habit: Shrubby, slow to moderate to 10 to 25', multiple trunks.

Foliage/texture: Pinnately compound dark green foliage, , pinnately compound w/ 3 to 5 pairs of leaflets to 2" long, silky hairy beneath, infrequently gray and tomentose, attractive chocolate brown trunk; medium coarse texture.

Flowers & fruits: Flowers are intoxicatingly fragrant, blue-violet, rarely white in color borne on 2" to 6" terminal racemes, flowers fade to light purple or white as they age; attract carpenter bees. Flower buds are initiated in August and remain latent until the following late February/early March; fruits are a brownish gray, constricted pod with loose extremely hard red seeds that mature in early fall, seeds are poisonous containing the alkaloid cytisine; fruits are relatively indehiscent with very hard pod coats.

Seasonal color: In Phoenix, flowers appear in late February and early March.

Temperature: Summer heat-loving, summer maritime climates decrease vigor.

Light: Full sun, NO shade.

Soil: Well drained soil is a requirement for sustainalble performance.

Watering: Established plants need summer irrigation about once every 3 to 4 weeks.

Pruning: The extent and type of pruning depends on landscape use. Little to no pruning is necessary if it is used as a background plant. Merely elevate the crown base if it is used as a multiple trunk tree. Beware that Texas mountain laurel is VERY SLOW to recover if severely pruned. In any case, please don't shear this wonderful plant. If it is to be an informal hedge, make sure to prune by heading back lightly individual stems and branches only in late April to early May.

Hey plant freaks, check out this very cool gray-leaf variant! Some are trying to market this wonder as a cultivar called 'Silver Peso'.

Propagation: Seed, double acid scarify, is difficult, but is the only commercially viable. Air layering has been tried with limited success.

Disease and pests: Texas root rot in formerly agricultural soils with a pathological history if drainage is poor. Green leaf variant can be fed upon by caterpillars of the Pyralid moth in late summer and fall. The key is to not over fertilize plants in an attempt to speed growth. Severe infestations may be treated with treatments of Bacillus thuringiensis, a bacterial biological control agent that only kills the pest. The gray leaf variant of Texas mountain laurel appears to be mostly immune to caterpillar attack.

Additional comments: Texas mountain laurel is quite slow growing and difficult to field dig and transplant. For landscape use, it is best to transplant larger 5 or 15 gallon nursery container stock. In the end though this is a truly beautiful, large shrub to small tree for many mesic or desert urban landscapes. American natives used fruit pods for necklace jewelry in the Red Bean Dance.