Trees
The Texas Madrone
By
Jun 20, 2005 - 12:19:00 PM

The Texas Madrone is a wonderful evergreen tree for those looking to plant an attractive native in hardiness zones 7 through 8. It makes a great shade tree planted in your yard or next to a deck or patio. You can expect your Texas Madrone to grow up to 40 feet tall, and spread out to around 25 feet. This tree has an interesting vase-shaped canopy that remains quite beautiful even in the winter.

The Texas Madrone’s scientific name is Arbutus texana, and it comes from the Ericaceae family. Like the Pacific Madrone, the Texas Madrone’s West Coast cousin, the Texas Madrone has an attractive peeling bark. The contrast of the new bark that forms over the old produces a wonderful mosaic of color. The color of the new bark ranges from white to dark red, with tan and peach colors also showing up occasionally.

In addition to the colorful bark, this specimen also has rich dark green leaves and tiny white flowers. The fruits of the Madrone also create a flash of color in the fall, varying in color from orange to bright red. Another advantage to this tree is that it has very few natural pests.

Plant your tree in full sun. Texas Madrone tolerates acidic and alkaline soils, but make sure to mix in plenty of organic material. Soils that are a bit sandy or loamy will work fine but make sure that your soil drains well. If you have soil high in clay, add organic material such as compost to loosen the soil and allow for improved drainage.

Once planted, the Texas Madrone typically grows at a rather moderate pace. As it grows, you will not need to worry much about pruning. Texas Madrones grow to be a strong trees highly resistant to storm damage. Most will start to produce multiple trunks, which is another attractive feature of the Texas Madrone. To get your tree to look even nicer, you can trim off the lower branches to accentuate the shape of the tree. As mentioned before, pruning is really not necessary unless you want to shape your tree.

If you’re looking for a really unique effect, you can plant the Texas Madrone in several rows along the entrance to your house. Just make sure you give it plenty of space. The Texas Madrone works great planted alongside the Crape Myrtle as they both have multiple trunks. The Crape Myrtle grows a bit smaller, so you can create an interesting visual effect using these two trees.

Check out this Texas Madrone Fact Sheet for more info.



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