I was out in mid-April this year and photographed this perfect example of Erodium texanum also known as the Texas Stork’s Bill. If you know geraniums, you will notice how similar the the leaves of Texas Stork’s Bill are to them. In fact, both Stork’s Bills that occur in Texas are in the Geranium family (Geraniaceae). Read more about the Texas Stork’s Bill here, here, and here.

Here are some other examples of Texas Stork’s Bill that I photographed several years ago. Notice the large purple flowers and the geranium-like leaves.

In all of these photos of Texas Stork’s Bill, you have a few individuals in proximity to one another and all of these produced flowers in March and April.

This image shows the Red Stem Stork’s Bill, Erodium cicutarium, a cousin of Texas Stork’s Bill from Eurasia. Here you can see the lobes cut into the palmately compound leaves and the multi-flowered umbel. Notice in the background there are many, many other individuals of this species covering the ground in view.

Both species of stork’s bill get their name from the way their seed pods grow to resemble the head and long beak of a stork. Notice here, along the stems you can see how strongly hairy these plants are when compared to the almost invisible fuzziness of Texas Stork’s Bill and geraniums.

This image was taken on the 20th of February, you can see a tiny Red Stem Stork’s Bill in flower. (the knife blade is 1 inch wide at the edge of the picture) This species was introduced in the US in the seventeen hundreds, most likely because it is edible (Webb, Robert H.; Steiger, John W.; Newman, Evelyn B. 1988. The response of vegetation to disturbance in Death Valley National Monument, California. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1793. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey. 69 p.)(USGS). It reproduces prolifically and has become a competitor to cool season farm crops. It has invaded all 50 of the United States and all of Canada. Remarkable plant.

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Sandbells (Nama hispidum, family: Hydrophyllaceae) are wildflowers I generally see around April and May in my part West Texas. They are easily confused with Dakota Mock Vervain. I generally find these tough little plants growing in open areas with sandy soils. The first image shows an example of this species growing through the tarmac on the edge of a country road.

The second image shows how Sandbells tend to spread outward from a center where the roots extend into the soil. In both these images you can see the tendency for the outer margins of the leaves to cup downward. This and the fact that the leaves are not subdivided into many tiny leaflets helps distinguish this plant from Dakota Mock Vervain which may also be in bloom in the vicinity.

Note the 5 lobed, lavender, tubular flowers visible in this image. You can also see the ends of the pistils in white in the center, and the yellow center color. Notice how the margins of the leaves have robust almost spiny hairs along the margins. All of these characters are useful for distinguishing Sandbells from Dakota Mock Vervain. You can see Dakota Mock Vervain on this website, here, here, and here.

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Leavenworth’s Eryngo, Eryngium leavenworthii, is a very distinctive member of the carrot family (Apiaceae) which includes the popular culinary herbs: celery, parsley, anise, caraway, coriander, cumin and dill. Eryngo appears in Texas prairies from mid-summer to early fall. The grasslands are dried out and drab brown at this time and the metallic purple color of the Eryngo leaves provide a colorful addition to an otherwise sunburned landscape.

Eryngo is native wildflower found only these states: Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin. They like limestone rich soils and are able to get by on very little water. Their prickly leaves and flowers make people misidentify these plants as thistle. In fact, false thistle is a common name that some folks use for these plants.

Eryngo provide nectar for honeybees, beeflies, butterflies and other insects during the late summer when most wildflowers have come and gone. Notice the honeybee in the above image and compare it to the beefly in the image below. Beeflies lack a stinger and obtain protection from predators by resembling the honeybee which can sting. This is an example of what biologists call protective mimicry.

The beefly pictured here feeds on nectar like the bees. The females of the species follow solitary bees to their burrows and will lay their eggs in the burrow. The beefly larvae hatch and feed on the solitary bee larva while they grow and develop into new beeflies. This is an example of nest parasitism.

I like to call this last image, Endurance. The seed that became this plant germinated in some pretty tough ground and still managed to grow and flower.  Leavenworth’s Eryngo is a pretty amazing plant wherever you find them with their prickly pineapple-shaped flower heads and their iridescent purple leaves popping up at one of the driest times of the year in Texas. Not bad for the purple pineapple of the prairie.

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Pictured here is an example of Lygodesmia texana, the Skeleton Plant.
This is a strange looking plant because of the green flower stems which lack any leaves.

This member of the Asteraceae family blooms from April till August in Texas and can be seen in New Mexico and Oklahoma, too. Notice the branching pattern of the stems and the single flower bud or bloom at the end of each branch. These plants can be 10 to 15 inches tall which makes them taller than most of the grassland vegetation nearby.

Here is a bloom just opening. Skeleton plants generally have only one bloom open at a time for just a single morning. Another interesting characteristic of this species.

In this image, notice the five teeth at the end of the “flower petals” or ligules as they are properly called. Each ligule is connected to a single floret which combine to make the compound flower that you see.

Skeleton plants that I have seen are usually this beautiful lavender color. They can also produce a pale bluish flower and I have seen them in white only once. Their complex flowers produce nectar that feeds many kinds of butterflies and other insects. I find their leafless stems and bold flowers a beautiful example of the wide variety found in the the Daisy family.

You can learn more about this wildflower at the Lady Bird Johnson Wild Flower Center website.

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One of my favorite wild flowers is the Basket Flower, Centaurea americana. It grows in many places across Texas. I love the delicate petals of this flower and their shades of lavender. Basket flowers are members of the Asteraceae family and their flowers are really compound flowers where each petal is associated with a single tiny flower within the composite flower head. They get their name from the phyllaries or bracts that surround the base of the flower head to form a cup of interwoven spines that resemble a basket. They bloom from May till August each year.

The butterfly nectaring on the Basket Flower is an Orange Skipperling, Copaeodes aurantiaca in the family Hesperiidae, the skipper butterflies. Skippers like moist areas along the margins of rivers and streams. This stand of Basket Flowers was beside a bridge over a small stream in West Texas at the edge of the caprock.

In the last image, you can see the proboscis of the skipperling probing the flowerlets for nectar. I am literally amazed at how these tiny creatures unfurl these structures and guide them into the multitude of tiny flowers on a plant like the Basket Flower. This kind of behavior goes on all around us largely unnoticed or appreciated by our species. These images remind me what a complex world we live in and give me a sense of wonder about something as simple as a butterfly and a flower.

For more information on these two species, you can visit the Butterflies and Moths website and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

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Pictured here are examples of Purple Coneflower, Echinacea sanguinea.
The flowers are made up of many tiny florets like other members of the sunflower family (Asteraceae).

The disk flowers form a large, spiny mound in the center that looks like a pincushion and Echinacea is a latin term that reflects this.
These wildflowers only occur in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana. They like moist, sandy, acidic soils and lots of sun.

Many species of butterflies and other insects come to feed upon the nectar of the Purple Coneflower. Pictured here is an American Lady butterfly who has seen better days but is still able to fly despite the damage.

Bumble Bees and other native bees are fed by these wildflowers.

Here is a Green Skipper butterfly fueling up before it moves to another nearby flower.

Purple Coneflowers bloom from April to July and are the natural source of the medicinal herb Echinacea. These wildflowers can be grown in the garden, and because they are perennials you don’t have to replant each year. These individuals were photographed in West Texas.

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Dakota Mock Vervain, Glandularia bipinnatifida, is a small flowered member of the Verbena family (Verbenaceae). These perennials are native wildflowers found in the plains of the United States. Their lavender flowers can be seen from May through August. The bipinnatifida portion of their scientific name refers to the way their hairy leaves are subdivided in to lobes that resemble bipinnately compound leaves. The leaves are not compound but lobed so they appear so.

Mock in their common name refers to the fact that they are closely related to the true vervains but are genetically different. Their numerous flowers are produced on a spike and are tiny, 5-petaled, lavender flowers which feed a large number of insects and butterflies. They grow between 6 and 12 inches tall and I have usually found this species growing in groups of various sizes. Also, most of the members of this species I have photographed are less than ten inches tall.

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Purple Wood Sorrel, also known as Oxalis drummondii is a beautiful addition to any flower bed or garden spot that needs a perennial native plant to serve as groundcover.

It will grow in areas with full sun or partial shade. The individuals pictured here were grown in a front flower bed that was shaded by mature live oaks. These pictures were taken in April and these plants tended to bloom until fall. Some sources say they tend to bloom only in the fall but it has to do with how much light they get.

Purple Wood Sorrel are easy to grow, mine thrived on a rich sandy soil that was partially shaded and watered by rainfall primarily.

I loved the small pink flowers with the darker pink stripes and the leaves made me think I had shamrocks the first time I saw these. These tough, colorful plants thrived in that corner of the flower bed by my front door and provided years of greenery and beautiful flowers for not much work.

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Fendler’s Penstemon, Penstemon fendleri is a beautiful, tall plant found in West Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Western Kansas and extends down into Central Mexico. The plant pictured here was about 24 inches tall but they can grow taller. Their gray green smooth leaves cup themselves around the flower stalk opposite one another making a very distinctive look for these plants. About midway down the stem of this specimen, you can see flowers growing within this protected space. The flower stems arise from the leaf axil, which is where the leaf attaches to the main stem.

In this image you can see a closer view of the trumpet shaped flowers made of 5 fused petals. The lavender color of these petals is a helpful character for identifying members of this species. By looking into the flower in the center of this image, you can see the dark, reddish-purple stripes inside the flower. You can also see the yellow structure that looks like a tongue in the center of the flower. Somebody, a long time ago, thought this structure resembled a bearded tongue and the genus Penstemon contains plants that have this characteristic.

Fendler’s Penstemon, a member of the Scrophulariaceae or Figwort family, likes dry prairies and lower elevations of the mountains where the soils are rich in limestone. Their small, trumpet shaped lavender flowers with a dark purple accent stripes and the “bearded tongue” make this plant easily identified. The gray green leaves cupping the stem sporting purple flowers from their “cradle” is unmistakable. They are a unique, colorful addition to the wildflowers of West Texas.

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Here we have an Orange Yellow Sulfur butterfly nectaring on the wildflower Dakota Vervain. Colias urytheme is a highly variable butterfly in terms of its markings. However, the large orange spots on the upper wings and the black margins are sufficient to classify this specimen. This one lacks a large silver eyespot on the hindwing, but this is not enough to discount the identification.

This member of the Pieridae family (White & Sulphur butterflies) is found all over the United States and migrates into most of Canada. In this image, you can see the proboscis being rolled up as the butterfly prepares to move to another location.

In the last image, you can see the full wingspread as this butterfly lands on another Dakota Vervain flower head. Orange Yellow Sulfurs like open grassland habitats and feed on nectar from a large variety of wildflowers, and crops like alfalfa. This image shows a little blurriness on the left wing due to its motion. The breeze was blowing that day and caused this subject to move at inopportune times.

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