Bad flower. Very bad.

The lovely yellow flower decorating the roadsides this spring has been getting a lot of press recently.

“It’s so pretty,” you might say.  What’s not to like about masses of 3-foot tall plants, gently waving little yellow blooms all along the roadside?

Turns out this flower embodies the old saying:  “Beauty is only skin deep.” Or in this case, bloom deep. And it has a name to match its unpleasant nature: bastard cabbage (Rapistrum rugosum).

My friends, this invasive species is CROWDING OUT BLUEBONNETS (and other native plants).That will not do.

According to TexasInvasives.org, bastard cabbage is native to southern Europe, northern Africa and western Asia.  It spreads here through grass seed mixes and mulches.

Once here, it settles right in. Its seeds germinate early in the fall, and then form a “blanket of leafy rosettes,” which keeps sunlight from reaching seedlings of other natives, including bluebonnets. A monoculture can develop. The site says these grow 1 to 5 feet tall, bloom spring into summer, and put down  “robust” taproots.

According to Invasive Plant Atlas of the United States, bastard cabbage is found in multiple states, but is invasive only in Texas.

We noticed masses of yellow when returning from the coast a few weeks ago, and I saw lots near Blanco this week. In fact, fellow blogger Sheryl Smith Rogers wrote last week about attacking the bastard cabbage at Blanco State Park.

Field outside of Blanco.

But is it here? In Hays County?  YES!

We have seen it along FM 150 between Wimberley and Kyle.  There are a few isolated plants toward Wimberley and in my neighborhood; it is much thicker toward the east.

What can we do, what can we do? According to Texas Invasives, the best method of eradication is to yank the puppies up, and get those taproots. That should be easy. Not. 

The Wildflower Research Center is working on an organic way of dealing with this problem. Heavily seeded Indian blanket might be able to compete with the bastard cabbage, according to a KXAN Austin news report.

My husband has been a bastard cabbage warrior in his walks this week, yanking it up when he sees it along his path. Join him! If you see it on or near your property, show no mercy.

And if you want, mutter or shout, “Take that, you bastard cabbage!”

Favorite spot in the garden:

My first favorite:  At the corner of my porch, the anacacho orchid tree (Bauhinia lunarioides) is simply stunning, covered in white blooms, with bees buzzing busily all around.  This is a very good little tree for Hays County. Just gouge out a hole in a rock somewhere, and stick it in. You will be rewarded.

Another favorite place is all the open, rocky areas on our property, where the stork’s bills (Erodium texanum) are having a banner year. Its name refers to the look of its seed pods. These have another charming name:  “fillaree.” Like buttercups, these open late in the day, and close in the morning.

Butterfly brigades

You all know about the no-good, very bad year – 2011.  Pitiful amounts of rain resulted in very few blooms. Very few blooms meant no food for traveling butterflies.

Over the winter months, however, we have had rain, and lots of it. The trees, grasses and wildflowers are rejoicing, and putting on a great show of life. And like old friends we haven’t seen in awhile, butterflies have come a-visiting.

Red admiral. The picture isn't upside down, the butterfly is!

In particular, we have an army (battalion? squadron? platoon?) of red admirals (Vanessa atalanta). These are regular visitors here, but this year their numbers are impressive. As I walk or drive on the driveway, they rise up in waves. They flutter around everywhere we walk.

According to Greta Ajjilvsgi in Butterfly Gardening for the South, “the Red Admiral is one of the best known and most widespread butterflies.” Its larval food plants are nettles. It spends time on the ground at moist places (hence its presence on my driveway), and rests on vertical surfaces with its head down. It feeds on sap, fruit and animal droppings, along with various flowers.

Yesterday, I went out to snap pictures, thinking these fellows were sipping nectar from a large patch of prairie verbenas. They were, but really they were more interested in the blooms of the nearby Texas persimmons (which have a heavenly scent, by the way).

Butterfly Central!

Checkered skipper

Painted lady

In the process of documenting the red admiral invasion, I discovered other butterflies visiting, also:  painted ladies, (Vanessa cardui) Checkered skipper (Pyrgus communis), and other unidentified ones. Oddly enough, butterflies don’t hold still for my camera like flowers will.

Most interesting was an eye-catching moth, black with large white patches on its wings. I’ve never seen this critter here before, but (thanks to Peterson First Guides Butterflies and Moths) it is an eight-spotted forester  (Alypia octomaculata).  This moth is diurnal (instead of nocturnal like most moths), with two pale yellow patches on each forewing, and two white patches on each hind wing. It has “tufts of orange hair-like scales” on its legs and yellow shoulders (who knew moths had shoulders?). Quite a few of these are fluttering around the persimmons. Larval food sources are grapes and Virginia creeper, both of which grow here.

Butterflies make me happy. Sounds sappy and cutesy, I know, but I can’t help it. They make me smile.

Welcome home, old and new friends. My outlook is sunnier for your presence!