Texas Native Plants #3 – A Little Learning Traditional Cache
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Texas Native Plants #3 – A Little Learning
A cache by [DELETED_USER]
Hidden
:
7/24/2006
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Easy drive-by cache with small flat items. Please replace exactly as found - takes a bit of doing.
Amid all the heavy traffic of the Hulen Mall shopping plaza, sits a tranquil island of calm and quiet, just a few yards from Hulen Street itself. Sit awhile in this garden and enjoy.
The Texas native plant to see here is a small tree with pop-it-beads for seedpods and feathery fronds for leaves. The beads may be bright green or black or somewhere between. This is Eve’s Necklace, a tough but slow growing Texas Native tree. If you sit on the bench, there is one around the corner to you to your right. It provides shade in the hot summer days, but allows sun to warm the bench in cold winter. Don’t let the delicate and dainty look of this little tree fool you; it is a tough Texas native.
Eve’s Necklace, Sophora affinis, is our North Central Texas member of the Sophora family, and sometimes just called Texas Sophora. Spring brings large drooping clusters of pink wisteria-like flowers. Further south, in the Hill Country, it’s cousin, Mountain Laurel, Sophora secundiflora, has similar form but showy purple flowers. Summer brings airy foliage and strings of beads that start out bright green and mature to tough leathery black necklaces. Each bump is a bean or seed that stays on the tree through the winter. Seeds are poisonous to humans.
There are many native plants in this garden to enjoy, with always something in bloom. Near the center circle path is a mailbox with information about the North Central Texas native plants – feel free to take one. The garden is maintained by the Tarrant County Master Gardeners, Crosstimbers Master Naturalists, and North Central Texas Native Plant Society of Texas.
The cache is an easy drive-by just off the parking lot. It’s a small flat box filled with small flat items for trade. Please replace it exactly as found -- take a bit of finger strength to do. Despite being right near heavy traffic, this location is usually very secluded and quiet.
Special "Thank You" to mglory for allowing this cache to replace the previous micro at this location.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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