Texas Mountain Laurel, (Sophora secundiflora), also known as the Mescal Bean Tree, is originally a native of the Texas Hill Country on the edge of the Trans-Pecos desert.
The plant generally grows 6 to 12 feet high, although some specimens have attained 50 feet in their native range.
In gardens, mountain laurel can be awesomely beautuful, with its purple, grape-scented flowers, glossy, evergreen leaves, and multiple trunks. It blooms in late winter and early spring.
The plant will do well either in sun or in light shade. Its native area, the small, dry plateau of Central Texas known as the Texas Hill Country, has alkaline soils, so mountain laurel certainly does well in high pH soils, in the 8.0 top 9.0 range. It can tolerate other types of soil as well and should develop spectacularly in any area with USDA cold hardiness zone 7B to 10b with well-drained soils. Since this is a goodly portion of the southwestern U.S. and Mexico, it has a wide range.
The seedpods are light-colored, pomegranate-shaped. Inside are bright red seeds.
Starting from Seed
The seeds have been called mescal beans, and have been used to make beads, jewelry and religious artifacts like rosaries. If they are planted in June or July, when they still relatively soft, they should sprout readily. Later, they have an extremely hard coating, and should be nicked or abraded before being planted. The seeds are highly poisonous, as are all parts of the plant.
Texas mountain laurel is not available at all nurseries, but they certainly can be found. Be very careful, though.
Although it is a very hardy tree once established, it does not like transplanting. If you do purchase one, be very, very careful with the root ball, planting it as intact as possible. Instead of taking it out of the container, cut the container off the root ball by using a sharp knife or pruning shears. Then plant into a prepared hole. There’s no need to amend the soil.
Since it does sprout readily from well-prepared seeds, it’s perhaps wiser simply to plant the seeds in specific, pre-selected areas.
The tree is extremely drought-tolerant and thus, has minimum water requirements once established.
In addition to use in gardens, Texas mountain laurel can be used in reclaiming marginal land, parking lots, highway medians and tree-pits.
It’s not invasive, and adds dimension and beauty to unsightly areas.
There are two other synonymous scientific names for Texas Mountain Laurel: Broussonetia secundiflora and Calia secundiflora.
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Planting Drought-Tolerant Trees
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