Mouse's eye is a shrub in the spurge family native to rocky, limestone hills of southern Texas, New Mexico and northern Mexico. It is a drought-tolerant, dioecious perennial that grows well in hot, sunny, well-drained sites.
Family
Euphorbiaceae (Spurge family)
Grows as
Shrub, Perennial
Light
Full sun
Water
Water deeply but infrequently, letting the soil dry out between waterings.
Soil
Fast-draining, gritty or limestone-based soil.
Temperature
18–40 °C; protect below about -5 °C
How easy
Moderate
Native range
S. Texas to N. Mexico
Climate
desert or dry shrubland
About
Bernardia myricifolia is a species of flowering plant in the spurge family known by the common name mouse's eye. It is also called mouse ear, or oreja de ratón in Spanish. It is native to Texas, New Mexico, and Mexico. It grows in shrub communities on rocky, limestone hills. This is a perennial shrub growing over three meters in maximum height. The small leaves are each up to three centimeters long, oval in shape, with scallop-shaped teeth along the edges. A dioecious species, male and female individuals produce different types of flowers. Staminate inflorescences are small clusters of male flowers, and pistillate inflorescences bear solitary female flowers. The fruit is a roughly rounded woolly capsule with three prominent chambers, each containing a seed.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Bernardia myricifolia by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.