More Washington Parish Natives: Fruit-Producers, Vines, and Herbaceous Plants

(June 2026)

I wrote about trees and shrubs native to Washington Parish for the last edition of this magazine. Here, I’m continuing with some native fruits, vines, and herbaceous (non-woody) plants.

Fruit-producing plants are one of my favorite parts of horticulture, so it’s no surprise that I like to talk about native ones. Common persimmon (Diospyros virginiana) trees have female and male flowers on separate plants, for the most part, and only female-flowered plants produce fruit. A fact to which I and many others can attest, the fruit is only good to eat once fully ripe. Before that, the high tannin levels make them very astringent. Once ripe, though, I think they’re quite good. Deer like them, too.

A couple of apple relatives native to Washington Parish are southern crabapple (Malus angustifolia) and western mayhaw or riverflat hawthorn (Crataegus opaca).

Muscadine (Vitis rotundifolia) is probably the best-known native grape. (This includes what people often call scuppernongs.) Others indigenous to Washington Parish include summer grape (V. aestivalis) and graybark or winter sweet grape (V. cinerea).

Of the blueberry relatives found in the wild in Washington Parish, my favorite is Elliott’s blueberry (Vaccinium elliottii), which I grew up calling huckleberry. This one produces small, sweet fruits in the spring if a late freeze doesn’t damage the flowers. Another common one is variously called sparkleberry, farkleberry, tree huckleberry, and winter honeysuckle (V. arboreum). It has a more upright, tree-like habit and fruits in late summer and fall. The fruit is edible but gritty and seedy. Darrow’s blueberry (V. darrowii) and deerberry (V. stamineum) are also found locally.

Native blackberry or dewberry and strawberry species include sawtooth blackberry (Rubus argutus), southern dewberry (R. trivialis), and Virginia strawberry (Fragaria virginiana). This strawberry plant has white flowers, like most cultivated strawberries, while those on the common non-native mock strawberry (Potentilla indica) are yellow.

Not all native plants are things most people consider desirable. The much-maligned Virginia buttonweed (Diodia virginiana) – usually considered a weed in lawns – is native. A couple of others that people often think of as weeds are dollarweed (Hydrocotyle umbellata) and Carolina ponysfoot (Dichondra carolinensis).

Eastern poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans), Atlantic poison oak (T. pubescens), and poison sumac (T. vernix) are all native, as are some of the plants that people often confuse with poison ivy, including Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia), peppervine (Nekemias arborea), and trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans).

A lot of the plants discussed so far have been woodies, but there are many cool native herbaceous plants, too. Southern blue flag iris (Iris virginica) is not a “Louisiana iris,” but it’s one of the most common irises in this area. Of the species in the Louisiana iris group, the one you’re most likely to find in the wild in Washington Parish is giant blue iris (Iris giganticaerulea). Both of these irises typically have a purple to blue flower with yellow in the middles of the sepals, but southern blue flag iris has a midrib that can be observed or felt on the leaves, while giant blue iris and other Louisiana irises do not have a noticeable midrib.

Many native wildflowers are in the aster family. Some asters found in Washington Parish include eastern silver aster (Symphyotrichum concolor), Drummond’s aster (S. drummondii), rice button aster (S. dumosum), calico aster (S. lateriflorum), late purple aster (S. patens), willowleaf aster (S. praealtum), and Stokes’ aster (Stokesia laevis). Also in this family are the delightful black-eyed susan (Rudbeckia hirta) and its cutleaf coneflower or green-headed coneflower (R. laciniata) cousin. Eastern purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) is not especially common in Louisiana, but Washington is one of the parishes where it’s been found. Multiple species of goldenrod (Solidago spp.) are also natives.

We haven’t touched on native grasses yet, but there are many. I’ll wrap this up with one of my favorites: pink or gulf muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris). While the flowers of most grasses are not particularly showy, those of this plant provide a lovely [typically] pink scene in the fall.

I could go on for days learning and writing about plants native to Washington Parish. Maybe you’ll notice some of them next time you’re driving down the road or taking a walk.

Contact Mary Helen Ferguson.

branches with orange fruits