In Texas, we have a special kind of fruit that sprouts this time of the year.

Where It Grows

You can find Texas Bag Fruit in many places. Of course, trees are the most likely place you'll find bag fruit. This type of bag fruit is easy to find because it also makes a very distinctive sound when it's ripe and ready to go. You can also find bag fruit in bushes and I was even able to photograph some bag fruit attached to a ground-level plant.

It's Hard To Pick

As you can imagine, most bag fruit tends to grow best near the top of trees so it's hard to pick. Some of it can also be very annoying with the aforementioned sound of flapping that it tends to have. It certainly doesn't help with the looks of your property to have a tree full of unpicked bag fruit.

What It Is

Texas bag fruit is the result of lightweight plastic bags being blown around in the wind until they catch on something. They frequently get caught on trees and there's not much you can do about it, you just have to wait until the wind sends the fruit on its way or shreds the bag to oblivion. Until the bag is destroyed, you're stuck with an unsightly and frequently noisy mess in your tree.

Is It Unavoidable?

I've visited states with "plastic bag bans".  Things aren't any different, you just end up paying more for plastic bags if you forget to bring a bag. Then there's the fact that in Texas I've seen full-on trampolines stuck in trees, so your chances of not having the occasional bag in your trees is about zero.