A different buckeye

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There’s more than one kind of delicate tree in central Texas that answers to the name buckeye. (Really, just yell “Here, buckeye!” and see the trees come running.) You’ve already had a look at red buckeye, which is in the genus Aesculus in the Hippocastanaceae (or horse-chestnut family); now here’s Mexican buckeye, Ungnadia speciosa, from the Sapindaceae (or soapberry family). I found this tree flowering along the northernmost stretch of Spicewood Springs Rd. on March 18.

In yesterday’s post I said that its photograph of a flowering huisache would be the last for this year, and that’s true if you count pictures in which the huisache is recognizable. Truth to tell, today’s photograph also shows huisache flowers, but only as indistinct round patches of yellow-orange beyond the Mexican buckeye.

© 2013 Steven Schwartzman