Powdery Alligator-flag
Thalia dealbatanative · Central Texas
Powdery Alligator-flag is a perennial wildflower native to Central Texas that grows 3–8 ft tall and 2 ft wide. It wants full sun or part shade and high water. Blooms purple in May–Oct. Good for butterflies.
Wet ground only. A wetland plant: it needs standing water or saturated soil — a pond edge, creek bank or rain garden, not a dry upland bed.
Will it grow in your yard?
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The facts
6 sources- Type
- Perennial wildflower
- Sun
- Full sun to part shade (3–6 hrs of direct sun)
- Water
- High
- Height
- 3–8 ft
- Spread
- 2 ft
- Bloom
- May–Oct · purple
- Foliage
- Deciduous or dies back in winter
- Soil
- Recorded on moist, mud, poor drainage, saline, shallow
- Wildlife
- Supports butterflies
Where it grows
Recorded in these EPA Level IV ecoregions in the Austin and Hill Country launch area:
Southern Post Oak SavannaFloodplains and Low Terraces
151 occurrence records in Central Texas (GBIF).
Can you buy it?
Also grows here — hard to find. Native and recorded growing in Central Texas, but not on the grower stock lists we read. Sourcing varies: some are stocked widely, others you will have to hunt for.