I’m looking to have a mostly-native yard, and definitely want to remove invasive, so am likely to rip out what appears to be bamboo. Photo 1 looks like bamboo to me but not certain. In photo 2 I have a pretty large prickly pear, but my dog is definitely not smart enough to avoid this thing, so wondering if there’s some way for me to give it to somebody else? In photo two 13 I have that plastic turfing material throughout the backyard. Wondering the pros and cons of removing it since it prevents water from penetrating the soil (I’m in northwest so Edward plateau / blackland prairie area).
Thanks in advance for any help!
by bfizzledizzle
12 Comments
11 lantana
1,4,3 could be inland oats.
6 golden bamboo
12 red yucca possibly
9 Mexican feathergrass
16 foxtail fern
20 looks like Mexican olive tree
19 looks like Nadina. I would def try to get rid of that.
Disclaimer: I can barely tie my shoes in the morning so take this with a salt lick.
* 1, 3, 4 could be inland sea oats but there are some invasive lookalikes (e.g. Japanese stiltgrass but I dunno).
* 2 looks like cow’s tongue prickly pear (Opuntia engelmannii var. linguiformis). Yes you can chop it up and propagate or even dig it up and give it away, they’re pretty hardy.
* 5 and 10 are bamboo muhly – not really bamboo but gorgeous swaying tops.
* 6 is some sort of bamboo, maybe golden.
* 7 and 14 may be a bulb plant or a sedge, I’m bad at these.
* 8 could be a dormant muhly grass.
* 9 is Mexican feathergrass.
* 11 is a lantana.
* 12 may be red yucca.
* 15 may be a red cordyline? No idea.
* 16 is a foxtail fern (surrounded by stickyweed sprouts – pull those)
* 17 may be flax lily
* 18 sedge? Fountaingrass?
* 19 looks like nandina
Re: landscape fabric. I’ve read/heard that it is intended to be *temporary* (not more that 1-2 seasons). I pulled mine up after we moved in and my plants have thrived.
The bamboo looks exactly like my Golden Goddess clumping bamboo.
Chat gpt helps me identify all my plants!
The inland sea oats in the first photo is native, as is the red yucca in photo 12; I suspect the grass in photo 18 is probably native as well, but I can’t say for sure because I can’t identify it (it just has that look); the Mexican feather grass in photo 9 is *technically* native to Texas, although not to the Edwards Plateau or Blackland Prairies, and the bamboo muhly is native to North America, but not Texas
The rest of these are exotic (including the lantana) but few of them are actually invasive — the bamboo, nandina, and the ligustrum in the last photo are the main offenders, but they don’t look like they’re about to make a break for it or anything
Best of luck with your native plant journey