Remarkable Plants of Texas by Matt Turner

In Remarkable Plants of Texas, Matt Turner brings together three very different origin stories of the Indian blanket.

Without a doubt one of the highlights of our trip to San Antonio and the Festival of Flowers was meeting author Matt Turner, whose Remarkable Plants of Texas came out in January from the University of Texas Press. Turner, who has a PhD in comparative literature (English and Spanish), is the son of Dr B. L. Turner, Prof. Emeritus of Botany, UT Austin.

Unlike many botanical books of comparable size, Remarkable Plants of Texas is neither picture book nor reference. Instead, the author brings to his work his interest in narrative to animate the cultural history of a wide selection of native Texas plants. He incorporates biography, archaeology, folklore, and contemporary science to present his multi-dimensional portraits. Among the many plants included are the Texas mountain laurel, ocotillo, horsemint, jimsonweed (Datura), and about 60 others. The book has answered many questions for me that I wasn't even sure how to ask before.

One passage that particularly moves me is that in which Turner brings together three Indian-blanket legends from disparate sources. In one, an "Indian girl becomes lost in the woods and, with night coming on, asks the Great Spirit to cover her with the beautiful orange and red good luck blanket that her mother had woven for her warrior father." In the morning, she discovers she is clothed in a mantle of Indian-blanket flowers. Another he recounts is far less romantic. It describes the red of the Indian blanket as the blood stains of the native peoples. Turner brings together elements from histories of many different peoples of Texas without favoring any group in particular. His writing well reflects the complex makeup of our state while at the same time maintaining his own style of narrative continuity.

There are many more compelling stories in Remarkable Plants of Texas, from all regions of Texas. Turner describes some of the others in this worthwhile Austin-PBS interview.


After I met him at the festival, the author graciously helped me identify two plants from my previous blog posts [1, 2]. The type of berry pictured below appears in his book as the fruit of the silverleaf nightshade:

He explains that despite its toxic properties, it was in the past used to curdle milk to create asadero cheese.

He also helped me with this yellow beauty:

His father, B. L. Turner, wrote his Master's thesis on this group. It is Neptunia lutea, called “yellow puff.”

Even if he hadn't been friendly and helpful, I would highly recommend Remarkable Plants of Texas to gardeners and those interested in history and Texana. I hope this publication is the first of many by this gifted author.

Remarkable Plants of Texas
by Matt Warnock Turner
University of Texas Press, 2009