During the winter of 2018, the clean-up of invasive species from the cemetery grounds has fertile provided ground and sunlight for newly emerging native plants. As each season unfolds, new species have been identified. Take a look at our iNaturalist page to view the species ID’d to date. Access is free.

When visiting the property, please consider contributing your observations on our iNaturalist page. If you can’t identify a plant, that’s ok, just upload 3 photos of the plant and someone on the platform will ID the plant for you.

Here are the directions on how to compose your photos to upload onto our iNaturalist page. You can access your camera when you’re in the free iNaturalist app:

Flower (if any)
A close up of the leaves and where they connect to the stem
The whole plant itself, to include your hand in the photograph for size reference.

Native Plant Society of Texas Plant lists by region

These plant lists were originally developed for the Native Landscape Certification Program (NLCP) for use in the classes taught in that program.

To get a list of native landscape plants that will work in a certain location, click here. First find your location on one of the area maps. Click on a map to see a larger version. Then download the list corresponding to that area.

To best use these lists pay close attention to the “native region” column on the list. The abbreviations in this column are defined in the footnotes on each list and are correlated to the Level IV eco-regions shown on the maps. In some cases your location may appear on more than one map. In that event you may use any of the lists associated with your area. Lists were created for use in classes for particular events and are not meant to be exhaustive lists of suitable plants for a location.

Any questions, email us at FerrisWildLife@gmail.com

Notes from Bob Richie’s foraging tour to the Ferris Cemetery

May 13th, 2023

Wood Sorrel leaves - Native Americans traditionally used Wood Sorrel for medicinal purposes. The leaves would be chewed to alleviate nausea, mouth sores, and sore throats or brewed into a tea to combat fevers, scurvy, and urinary infections

Milkweed – snap piece off and use milk sap as a wart remover

Beautyberry – can make jelly from berries, mosquito repellent by rubbing crushed leaves onto skin

Texas Red Bud – edible blooms and seed pods when young and green

Turks cap – flowers are edible

Golden Ground Seal – roots can be used to make a tea for migraines

Wood Sorrel – nutritious in salads

Horse herb – is edible but tastes bad!

Echinacea -root is great as a cold remedy.

Mullen – first year you can make a tea; second year you can soak the flowers from the stalks in coconut oil for 3 to 4 weeks and use a drop for swimmer’s ear or mouth ulcers.

Hackberry – tiny new leaves are nutritious to eat and seeds are a good source of protein

Plantain – young leaves have tons of vitamins, poultice from the leaves can be used to soothe poison ivy; seeds are good to eat for constipation and the tea made from the leaves is good for diarrhea

Chittamwood – was used as chewing gum

Green Briars (or cat’s claw) – tendrils are edible

Menarda- good for colds, congestion. Use dried flowers to make a steam and a tea

Live oak galls were used to make ink