General Information

Habitat Requirements

The plant is best adapted to partially-shaded sites in shrubby savannas or the edges of brush thickets and arroyos, rather than either the dense shade of unbroken thickets, or open grassland. Typical associated plant species include trees, such as Texas ebony (Chloroleucon ebano), coma (Sideroxylon celastrinum) and anacua (Ehretia anacua), shrubs, such as Vasey’s adelia (Adelia vaseyi), elbowbush (Forestiera angustifolia), crucita (Chromolaena odorata), blue mist-flower (Tamaulipa azurea), and amantillo (Abutilon trisulcatum), herbaceous plants, such as pigeon-berry (Rivina humilis) and tropical sage (Salvia coccinea), and grasses, including four-flower trichloris (Trichloris pluriflora), long-spike silver bluestem (Bothriochloa laguroides subsp. torreyana) and Texas tridens (Tridens texanus).

Food Habits

Texas ayenia has been found in a variety of alluvial soil types, ranging from heavy clay to fine sandy loam.

Movement / Home Range

The known populations range from Soto la Marina, in east-central Tamaulipas, Mexico and 200 miles (320 kilometers) north to Cameron, Hidalgo and Willacy counties, Texas.

Reproductive Strategy

Clusters of two or three flowers are formed on short stems arising from the upper leaf axils. The flowers have five green sepals and five pale-green to cream colored, kidney-shaped petals. The fruit is a five-chambered capsule covered with recurved, velcro-like hairs. When mature, the capsules violently split into five segments containing up to one seed each. The seeds are dark grayish brown to black, warty, tear-drop shaped. The plant will flower throughout the year if there is sufficient rainfall.

Other

Texas ayenia is a small shrub, typically from 1 to 3 feet (30 to 92 centimeters) in height. The heart-shaped leaves have finely-toothed margins, and the lower leaf surfaces are densely covered with fine hairs that appear star-shaped under magnification. The older stems are reddish-brown, speckled with numerous white dots (lenticels).