Found treasure!

At least to me, I've found treasure right in our Wildscape. 

We'd been letting this little plant grow in a back-yard bed. I thought it was cow-itch vine. James was skeptical about letting it stay. As it grew, it branched out like shrub, not a vine. Cordelia, a friend who came by for a garden tour yesterday, shook her head and said no, it definitely wasn't cow-itch. I agreed and peered closer at it. Then what the heck was it?

I took a photo and sent it to plant expert Jerry Stacy with our Highland Lakes chapter of the Texas Master Naturalists. "That's aromatic sumac," he replied. "It will be a pretty shrub that provides great bird food."

AWESOME!

According to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center's Plant Database, Rhus aromatica is larval host for the banded hairstreak (Satyrium calanus) and red-banded hairstreak (Calycopis cecrops).

"In spring, fragrant sumac flowers appear before the foliage," the account states. "This shrub turns fall colors of red, yellow and orange. The flower is a nectar source for adult butterflies. Fragrant sumac colonizes to form thickets and looks best when planted en mass or in drift-like plantings as it occurs in nature. It is fast growing, generally pest and disease-free, and drought-tolerant. Colonies are often single-sexed, formed from a single, suckering parent. Only female plants produce flowers and berries."

Oh, please be a female! Please please please!

Thanks, Jerry! I love finding treasures in our Wildscape.