{"id":3528,"date":"2026-01-25T11:57:48","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T17:57:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/?p=3528"},"modified":"2026-02-03T23:20:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T05:20:22","slug":"pollinator-plant-spotlight-mexican-buckeye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/?p=3528","title":{"rendered":"Pollinator Plant Spotlight – Mexican Buckeye"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mexican Buckeye (Ungnadia speciosa<\/em>) is a Texas-native, deciduous ornamental shrub or small tree (8\u201312 ft, up to 30 ft) with distinctive 3-lobed,, reddish-brown seed capsules containing poisonous, black, shiny seeds. It features fragrant spring whiteish-pink flowers, yellow fall color, and high drought tolerance, thriving in limestone soils, full sun, or partial shade.<\/p>\n

It blooms profusely with fragrant pink blossoms in spring like a peach or redbud tree, and bees produce honey from the floral nectar.<\/p>\n

If planting saplings into your fields or yard in North Texas where we have a heavy clay soil – amendments to the soil will be appreciated by your plant – to assist drainage.\u00a0 (They evolved in limestone soils – which tend to drain much better than our Blackland Prairie clay soils)<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Care:<\/p>\n

Hardiness:\u00a0 Zones 7-9<\/strong>
\nPlant Form: Shrub or Tree<\/strong>
\nPlant Family: Sapindaceae
\n<\/strong>Lifespan: Perrenial<\/strong>
\nExposure:\u00a0 Full sun \/ Partial Sun.\u00a0 Blooms are best in full sun<\/strong>
\nSeason of Interest:\u00a0 Spring (Early \/ Mid \/ Late) ; Summer (Early \/ Mid \/ Late) ; Fall<\/strong>
\nHeight:\u00a0 8′ – 30′ (2m – 9m)<\/strong>
\nSpread: 12′ – 20′ (4m – 6m)<\/strong>
\nMaintenance: Low<\/strong>
\nWater Needs: Low (water deeply 1x-2x weekly til roots adjust to your soil)<\/strong>
\nTolerance: Drought<\/strong>
\nSoil Type:\u00a0 Clay, Loam, Sand<\/strong>
\nSoil pH:\u00a0 Alkaline, Neutral<\/strong>
\nSoil Drainage:\u00a0 Well Drained<\/strong>
\nCharacteristics:\u00a0 Fragrant, Showy Whiteish-Pink flowers,\u00a0<\/strong>
\nNative:\u00a0 US Southwest, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma; Mexico\u00a0<\/strong>
\nAttracts:\u00a0 Bees, Butterflies, Birds<\/strong>
\n*****<\/p>\n

Seeds germinate and the radical and cotyledon emerge in approximately 3-7 days (My experience was closer to 3 days – with the seeds being in damp sand in a shallow container sitting on a 20-watt seed warming mat).\u00a0 \u00a0After germination – at approximately 7 days – I placed each emerged seedling into a deep tree-pot for the root systems to develop fully.<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From iNaturalist:<\/p>\n

Ungnadia speciosa<\/i> is a deciduous shrub or small tree (< 25\u00a0ft) that is often multi-trunked. The leaves (5\u201312 inches or 13\u201330 centimetres) are alternate and pinnately compound with 5 to 9 leaflets. The leaflets are long (3\u20135 inches or 7.6\u201312.7 centimetres), narrow, and pointed with slight serrations.<\/p>\n

Fact Sources:
\nLadybird Johnson Wildflower Center<\/a>
\nNative Plant Society of Texas<\/a>
\niNaturalist<\/a>
\nGardenia.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Mexican Buckeye (Ungnadia speciosa) is a Texas-native, deciduous ornamental shrub or small tree (8\u201312 ft, up to 30 ft) with distinctive 3-lobed,, reddish-brown seed capsules containing poisonous, black, shiny seeds. It features fragrant spring whiteish-pink flowers, yellow fall color, and high drought tolerance, thriving in limestone soils, full sun, or partial shade.<\/p>\n

It blooms […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[847,96,98,1039,83,99,101,13,15,47,58,877,11,1081,1037,1038,903],"tags":[1077,942,1082,1080,1079],"class_list":["post-3528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ag-valuation","category-bee-yard","category-beekeeping","category-birds-and-the-bees","category-bohemian-life","category-bohemian-utopia","category-garden","category-gardening","category-harmony-hollow-apiaries","category-homesteading","category-nature","category-newsletter","category-permaculture","category-plant-spotlight","category-plants-and-gardens","category-pollinators","category-projects","tag-mexican-buckeye","tag-newsletter","tag-plant-spotlight","tag-pollinator-plants","tag-texas-buckeye","odd"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/mexicanbuckeye-768x432-1.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2ze45-UU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3528"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3530,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3528\/revisions\/3530"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bohemianutopia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}