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Echeandia texensis (Texas Shooting Star) - A winter deciduous grass-like clumping bulbous perennial that grows 1 to 2 feet tall by 2 to 3 feet wide with rosettes of narrow soft pale green strap-like leaves that emerge from swollen cormous roots in spring. In early fall appear the 3 to 4 feet tall branched spikes of delicate 1 inch wide nodding yellow lily flowers.
Plant in full to partial sun in most any type soil. It is known to tolerate extreme conditions ranging from seasonally wet to seasonally dry soils in winter or summer but seems to look its best in our mediterranean climate if given periodic irrigation in summer months. Cold hardy to 5 °F. Attractive to bees. This is an interesting and attractive fall accent plant for the garden or in a large container that looks a bit like a yellow flowering spider plant.
As the name of this plant implies it hails from Texas, where it grows in clay soils or on sand near the Gulf of Mexico border between Texas and Mexico at the mouth of the Rio Grande in the low lying hill area called Loma del Potrero Cercado. The genus was named for the 19th century Spanish botanist and pharmacist Pedro Gregorio Echeandia y Jimenez. Other common names include Texas Craglily, Texas Echeandia and Copper Spiders (a name perhaps coined by YuccaDo Nursery). Our thanks go out to horticulturist Glen Williams who first provided us with this plant from which our seedling plants have been grown and sold since 2020.
This information about Echeandia texensis displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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