Spoon-leaf Bouchea (Bouchea spathulata)

   

Chihuahuan Desert Gardens, Centennial Museum, University of Texas at El Paso. Photograph by Wynn Anderson.

• Common English Names: Spoon-leaf Boucha, Texas Bouchea
• Common Spanish Names:
• Scientific Name: Bouchea spathulata (Boo-SHEE-uh spath-you-LAY-tuh)
• Family: Verbenaceae ( Family)
• Geographic Range: Rare in Brewster Co., Texas, and scattered in northern Mexico.
• Plant Form: Shrub, 3 ft X 3 ft
• Remarks: Low, leafy, densely-branching shrub with stout woody stems and thick fleshy spatulate leaves in thick, sometimes whorled clusters. Conspicuous 1½ inch long, tubular, pale lavender to rosy purple flowers held in dense terminal spikes with prominent leafy bracts. Succession of blooms, summer to fall, with moisture. Full sun, low water, well draining soil. Moderately hardy. 

Last Update: 29 May 2004