Wild Flowers, Calhoun County,Texas

Yucca, probably Yucca treculeana Carrière  

Even today, Don Quixote's Lace (Yucca treculeana Carrière)  can be found in Calhoun County where this picture was probably taken around the turn of the century.  Writing about the time this picture was taken, Charles Sprague Sargent notes that the start of its native eastern range was "on the shores of Matagorda Bay..." (The Silva of North America,  1896, p. 10). This bay is the southern border of the Olivia Texas area where many of the Paulson photos were taken.

This wild flower was exported in the 19th century and grown in gardens both in Europe and back home in Texas.  In his 1896  book, The Silva of North America,  Sargent tells us that Yucca treculeana had

"long ornamented the gardens of southern Europe, growing to a large size, and flowering profusely as it does in the gardens of Austin and other Texas cities, which it often enlivens in early spring with enormous abundant and splendid clusters of brilliant flowers." (Sargent, p. 10.)

The plant blooms from December to April. So, while we can not know the date of this picture - we can know generally the time of year during which it was taken. We also can not know whether these particular plants were growing wild, or had been replanted to ornament the yard of some settler. House yards in this collection of pictures show both yards with purposeful plantings and house yards where no flower gardens appear to be present.

As a side note: - note that the building in the background has the more uncommon horizontal siding. Most of the buildings seen in these photos have board and batten siding.  Of the identified buildings previously shown in the picture series,  only the store and the Lind house have had horizontal siding.

Identifiers:

Negative #: paulson014.jpg (400 dpi; downsized from 1200 tif file)

Place: probably Olivia Area, Calhoun County, Texas

Time: 1894 - 1912

Plant: Yucca, probably Yucca treculeana Carrière

Sources:

The Silva of North America: A description of the trees which grow naturally in North America exclusive of Mexico.  by Charles Sprague Sargent.  Vol X Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1896. (Yucca, p. 10)

Yucca treculeana Carrière plant profile,  USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Plant Database.

More extensive information about this plant and its use can be found at  the University of Texas at Austin's "Texas beyond history" site. "Spanish Dagger" (Their pictures are not nearly as pretty as this one.)