Featherplume, Dalea formosa, is an interesting woody shrub found in the dry, rocky country of the southwestern United States. It can grow between 3 and 6 feet tall. It thrives in limestone rich soils.

The flowers of Featherplume are produced in clusters of 2 to 10 at the tips of branches. Each flower has five petals; the uppermost is a wide, banner petal usually in yellow; it is flanked by two pink wing petals and two keel petals that enclose the single stigma of its pistil and 9 or 10 stamens. In the above image, left of center, you can see a fully opened flower with its keel projecting towards the camera. The yellow banner and the 2 pink wings are visible too.

In the third image, you can see an older flower that shows several orange tipped stamens projecting from the keel.

The last image is a closeup of the compound leaves of this shrub that are pinnately compound and have 5 to 9 tiny leaflets.

Featherplume is a member of the Legume or Pea family (Fabaceae). It gets its common name from the five feathery sepals that surround the base of each flower. They can be seen in the second and third images as the feathery silver structures.

When in bloom, these remarkable plants enliven the countryside with their colorful yellow and pink flowers. Nectar feeders, especially bees, benefit from them, and they are browsed by deer and rabbits.

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The tree pictured is Cercis candensis, the Eastern Redbud.
In early spring when it is still cold enough for frosts, you will find these hot pink flowers on leafless, or nearly so, shrubby, greyish, smooth-barked trees. These trees favor stream sides or wooded bottom lands and produce seed pods in the fall that are fed upon by numerous bird species. This is a woody member of the Fabaceae or pea and bean family, and it is found throughout central and eastern Texas. Redbuds stick out like sore thumbs in woodlands where everything is leafless and gray. The burst of hot pink color lets everyone know that Spring is here.

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The Desert Willow, Chilopsis linearis, is a flowering tree that is found in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California and into Northern Mexico. It grows naturally along arid washes and arroyos, and is sold commercially in West Texas and elsewhere as an ornamental landscape plant.
The photo above shows the beautiful purple and white bell-shaped flower produced by these trees. As you can see from the Common Roadside Skipper, these plants provide nectar feeders access to needed food. Desert Willow flowers during May and June but will bloom in other months after a good rain. This picture was taken in late July.

The fruit is a capsule reminiscent of a been pod but these trees are not in Leguminosae also known as Fabaceae (peas and beans), but rather, they are in the family Bignoniaceae which includes the catalpa trees, trumpet-creepers, and cross vines.

The beautiful green narrow willow-like leaves are what give this plant its name.

On young trees, the bark is smooth like young willows and becomes thicker and more fissured with age.

Birds eat the seeds of these plants and bees make good honey from their nectar.

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