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Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?

A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.

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Ask Mr. Smarty Plants

Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

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Please forgive us, but Mr. Smarty Plants has been overwhelmed by a flood of mail and must take a break for awhile to catch up. We hope to be accepting new questions again soon. Thank you!

Need help with plant identification, visit the plant identification page.

 
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Thursday - December 06, 2007

From: Lubbock, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Plant Identification
Title: Plant identification
Answered by: Barbara Medford

QUESTION:

I had a coworker bring back a branch of tree from San Antonio and the end of the branch fans out into a drapery type structure about a foot long with bud looking things all over it, almost fungally looking. I would like to know what it is. Leaf is pinnately compound, similar to mountain laurel leaf. I do not know how else to describe it. Thanks.

ANSWER:

Mr. Smarty Plants loves to identify plants, but no matter how good the verbal description is, we need something to look at. Can you take a picture and send it in and one of our ID experts will take a look? There are instructions for sending in pictures on the bottom right hand side of the opening page to "Ask Mr. Smarty Plants."
 

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