Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
I found this stunning white flower at Estero Llano Grande State Park and had to know what it was. Turns out it is the Mexican Olive, also called Anacahuita, a native South Texas tree with white blooms shaped like little trumpets and yellow throats that pull in hummingbirds and butterflies all season long. It is not actually related to the true olive, and the fruit is not really edible for humans, but birds and deer eat it readily once it ripens. The tree survives on deep roots that reach water other plants cannot find, which is why it keeps blooming through the driest months in the Rio Grande Valley. It grows across brushland, roadsides, and thornscrub throughout South Texas. In a region where water is the scarcest resource there is, the Mexican Olive is proof that native plants know how to survive.
I found this stunning white flower at Estero Llano Grande State Park and had to know what it was. Turns out it is the Mexican Olive, also called Anacahuita, a native South Texas tree with white blooms shaped like little trumpets and yellow throats that pull in hummingbirds and butterflies all season long. It is not actually related to the true olive, and the fruit is not really edible for humans, but birds and deer eat it readily once it ripens. The tree survives on deep roots that reach water other plants cannot find, which is why it keeps blooming through the driest months in the Rio Grande Valley. It grows across brushland, roadsides, and thornscrub throughout South Texas. In a region where water is the scarcest resource there is, the Mexican Olive is proof that native plants know how to survive.
