In late October, the American wisteria in Sequel is blooming. Most people would call this off-season, a plant confused by a hot summer. But Wisteria frutescens, a Texas native, keeps its own calendar: it flowers in spring and then sporadically through summer and fall. This isn't confusion. It's remontance, a plant reblooming on its own terms.
Look closely and the flower is a closed door. Its pollen waits inside hinged keel petals, opened by bees heavy enough to press them, carpenter bees and bumblebees. Its leaves feed skipper caterpillars, and like all legumes, its roots partner with bacteria that pull nitrogen from the air into the soil. So I let the wisteria speak for itself.
