Anita’s Blog: Vines add vertical interest while attracting birds and butterflies

Several years ago, I dedicated a partially dead mesquite tree as a natural trellis for a native climbing milk-weed (Funastrum cynanchoides).

The vine traveled up the trunk and reached the highest branches by the second spring. Lovely globes of pink-edged white blooms peppered the vine in summer. Flowers turned into dangling, short fleshy tear-drops, like green Christmas ornaments.

The seed pods eventually split open, loosening their helicopter-like seed-transporting fluff. Luckily, winds blew seeds toward the resaca. Climbing milkweed leaves are important to monarch and queen caterpillars; however, one vine will feed plenty. Limiting this plant in your garden is wise unless you want the vines taking over — take care which way the wind blows.

A native Berlandier trumpet (Acleisanthes obtusa) one year made its way to the base of the vine tree and quietly intertwined itself with the milkweed.1 of 3  

Berlandier trumpet, also called vine four o’clock, has clumps of small white trumpet-like blooms with pink filaments and anthers that make the petals look like they’re splashed with pink polka-dots. The flowers bloom through all seasons — at night — opening late afternoon and closing by morning — great targets for pollinating by night-flying moths.

One of my favorite vines is common balloon vine (Cardiospermum halicacabum). It’s an introduced spe-cies, believed to be native to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It’s especially fun this time of year be-cause the balloons turn cinnamon-colored and look like fall-festive lanterns dangling in the garden. In the wild, this vine will wend its way over shrubs and other plants, but can be trained to a trellis in a garden.

I planted common balloon vine to cover part of a chain-link fence. Tiny white flowers bloom during all sea-sons which provide nectar for winter-lingering butterflies.

The fruit is tissue-paper-thin when dry. Each pod contains two or three round, one-eighth inch diameter black, white-tipped seeds. Many pods will be empty. If you look closely at the skin, you’ll find a hole where insects have entered to eat the tasty fare. Seeds that make it safely to the ground are excellent food for Bob-white quail.

Anita Westervelt is a local Texas Master Naturalist.