• Many varieties of maples trees grow in East Texas.maple image by Alexey Klementiev from Fotolia.com
  
  Spread over an area of 268,581 square miles, Texas is the second largest state of the United States. According to the Handbook of Texas, the state has nine major natural regions, east Texas being one of them. The climate of east Texas is warm and humid. The region supports a wide range of plants which include tall trees such as oaks and maple trees, small shrubs such as azelia and abelia to groundcovers such as ferns, juniper and ajuga.
  
  

Florida Maple

• Florida maple is a deciduous tree that grows usually 20 to 30 feet tall. Some may however, reach as high as 50 to 60 feet. Florida maple is a native of North America and is alternately known as the Southern Sugar maple. Its oval to round crown shape makes the Florida maple a good choice for shade trees. It has 2 to 4 inches long, star-shaped leaves, which are normally green in color. However, they turn yellowish-orange during the fall season. These trees bear small, red color flowers that bloom during the spring season. Florida maples are susceptible to wilt disease and insects like borers, aphids and gall mites.
  
  

Scarlet Buckeye

• Scarlet buckeye or red buckeye is a deciduous tree that grows best in partial shade and moist, well-drained soil. It usually grows up to 10 to 15 feet in height. However, sometimes it can also reach as high as 30 inches. Scarlet buckeye has green leaves that do not have any special fall color. It consists of 6 inches long clusters of flowers, termed as panicles that bloom in spring.
  
  

Prickly Ash

• The prickly ash or Zanthoxylum americanum grows up to 20 feet tall. It has barbs covering its stalks and branches. Its compound leaves have 5 to 7 leaflets, each of which is about 1½ to 3 inches long. They have fine hair all over their surface when young that are shed as the leaves mature. The shrub bears greenish flowers in June after the leaves appear in clusters at the ends of the branches. Prickly ash is also known as the toothache tree as the natives of North America used its bark to relieve toothache.
  
  

Smallflower Paw Paw

• Smallflower paw paw, also known as the dwarf paw paw is a 6 to 8 feet tall perennial shrub. It bears dark-green simple leaves that are obovate in shape. The shrub bears purple colored flowers that have six petals. The flowers bloom singly in leaf axils before the leaves appear. Smallflower paw paw grows best in partial shade and fertile, loose and acidic soil.