Above is a beautiful example of Plains Zinnia (Zinnia grandiflora, family Asteraceae). Having never seen this species before, I spent about half a day with my field guides and internet resources trying to figure out the name of this plant.

Plains Zinnia can be easily confused with Wooly Paperflower (Psilostrophe tagetina) which has very similar flowers. Both species grow low to the ground in dry calcareous soils on sloped or flat ground. In this image of Plains Zinnia, note variable scalloping at the ends of the petals, and the 3-6 petals per flower.

Plains Zinnia differs from Woolly Paperflower in the arrangement of its leaves. In Plains Zinnia they are oppositely arranged whereas they are alternately arranged in Wooly Paperflower. This character is clearly visible in this image. Additionally, note the brownish red hue to the disk flowers. This is another way to distinguish Plains Zinnia from the paperflowers.

These plants are perennial and will reappear from the same root stock year after year making them colorful additions to native plant gardens.

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Engelmann’s Daisies flower throughout most of the year. They make beautiful flowers. You can read more about them in an earlier post.

They make fuzzy coarsely lobed leaves.

Depending on how dry conditions are they can struggle and still flower. Bugs of many kinds feed on these plants.

Here a Winecup and Engleman’s Daisy make an interesting study in color contrast.

Engelmann’s Daisies are often found mixed together with other wildflowers like Indian Blanket.

Still, their flowers have a unique character all their own and their mix of colors make for fine photographs.

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Roses are beautiful flowers for photography. They come in so many shapes and colors that you can find endless ways to put something new in your frame.

Roses are ephemeral, their blooms last a few days at most and they shed their petals to begin growing seeds in the part that some people call rose hips.

This is a yellow hybrid tea rose that is just starting to open. I like the various textures visible in the image. They add depth and dimension and serve to draw the eye to different portions of the image.

In this image, I enjoy the shapes and areas where light adds various shades of yellow to explore. The shapes of the petals are complex surfaces that invite inspection and delight the visual sense. Additionally, there are clues at the periphery and hidden between the petals to tell the viewer this is a rose and not some kind of abstract art.

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Pictured above is the perennial plant known as Yellow Spiny Daisy, Machaeranthera pinnatifida. It is one of the first flowers to bloom in early spring in West Texas. It grows low to the ground and spreads out from a deep taproot that may extend seven or more inches into the soil.

Apparently, Yellow Spiny Daisy is a member of a taxonomically complex group in the Aster family (Asteraceae); the field characteristics of this species can vary depending on your location. They occupy dry habitats in the Plains of the U. S. and Canada. Their range also includes the desert southwest of the U. S. (USDA)

Their compound flowers have between 30 and 150 or more disk florets and their ray florets range between 14 and 60. Disk florets and the petals of the ray florets of Yellow Spiny Daisy are yellow. In the image above,  you can see several flowerheads in various stages of development and the pinnatifid leaves.  The lobes of the leaves each have a white bristle at their tip from which their common name is derived. Because of the variety of this group, you may find different opinions on when they bloom. March through June is when I see these in flower around West Texas, but the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center says August through October.

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It is spring time in Texas and the wildflowers are coming up. Pictured above is an example of Tetraneuris scaposa, the Four-nerve Daisy. This member of the Aster family (Asteraceae) is an early spring splash of color in an awakening landscape.

Four-nerve Daisies are perennial plants and they bloom from March through October. You can find them growing in dry grassland areas all over Texas.

Here you see the grass-like leaves that form the base from which the flowerstalks grow. The reddish brown stems seen here are the flower stalks.

The final image shows two defining characters for these plants. Notice the three notches in the tips of the petals and the four dark “nerves” on the underside of the petals. In my experience with these plants, the nerves are not always distinct in younger plants and seem to become darker and more pronounced with age. What I have seen may also be variation in the expression of this characteristic. However, the multiple flowerstalks arising from a clump of silvery, greenish gray grass-like leaves to produce yellow centered flowers with 3-notched petals having 4 dark nerves on their undersides should be enough to call them Tetraneuris scaposa, the Four-nerve Daisy.

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I have seen these little yellow flowers appearing all over my lawn during March. I finally found time to photograph them! These flowers are about an inch in diameter, about half the length of a honey bee.

Oxalis dillenii are perennials which means they come back every year. I love their tiny, bright yellow flowers. The day was slightly overcast when I took these pictures. When the sun isn’t shining brightly enough, these little guys fold their leaves.

One of the characters that identifies this species is the way its flower stems bend at both ends to position its seed capsule so it can eject its seeds far from the parent plant when it explodes! Little missile launchers in the lawn! You can see a flower in the bottom foreground that has set seed and shows the double bend. The maturing seed pod at the center of the image is what the foreground flower will look like eventually.

When the sun goes down, O. dillenii rolls up its flowers, and folds its leaves. Amazing!

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Thelesperma filifolium is the wildflower pictured here. It is a common roadside flower in many parts of Texas. The flowers pictured here show central disk flowers and 8 rayflowers which form the notched yellow petals. As you might have guessed, this plant in another Asteraceae family member. Greenthread flowers feed lots of different kinds of insects including honeybees. If you look closely, a pollen covered honeybee is in the central flower above.

Notice the unopened flowers in this picture and the green spike-shaped sepals beneath the flower bud. This character along with the very narrow leaves help distinguish this species from all the other yellow daisies you will encounter.

In the second picture, you can see the nodding flower buds and the thread-like leaves for which this plant is named. Their flowers are large, measuring 1.5 inches or more in diameter. They are generally found in clusters where conditions are favorable and sometimes you can find a field full of them. Their butter yellow color and brown disks are a beautiful springtime treat.

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The pads produce white to gray, brownish, or reddish spines in clusters of 1 to 10 spines ranging in length from 1-3 inches. In addition, the base of each spine cluster is ringed by numerous hair spines or glochids. It is bad enough to get the longer spines stuck into your feet or hands but the hair spines are an additional insult that requires much more attention to detail to get them all removed.

Opuntia produce new pads along the edges of previous year’s pads so they appear as a cluster of pads that spread out along the ground from original plant. Prickly pear pads in contact with the grounda will form roots. Like cholla cactus, the pads of the prickly pear can form a new plant if they are removed from the parent plant by animal activity and are left in contact with the ground.

Prickly pear are named for their cylidrical fruit that are covered with hair spines or glochidia. The flowers of Opuntia generally can be seen in yellow, yellow and red, or a dull reddish pink color.

Ripe fruits are generally cherry red in color but they can be pink or pale green.

Some folks collect these and remove the glochidia before making them into jams or jellies. The young pads of Opuntia are also edible and are the nopalito seen in some grocery stores these days. All parts of the pads can have hair spines and care must be taken to remove these before consumption.

The post Brown Spine Prickly Pear-The Cactus Everybody in Texas Knows appeared first on GJM Nature Media.

Engelmannia peristenia, also known as Engelmann’s Daisy, is a long blooming member of the Sunflower family: Asteraceae. These yellow petaled and yellow centered flowers can be found through out most of Texas during February through November. They enjoy limestone loams and clays and grow all over Texas except the eastern most parts. They are found in grasslands, prairies  and can be eaten by livestock.

The 1-2 inch flowers are borne on stems as tall as 3 feet. The coarsely hairy leaves are deeply lobed and resemble odd-pinnately compound leaves. These leaves form a basal rosette from which the flower stalks rise. The upper leaves are smaller with entire margins or are coarsely toothed and lack the long petioles seen on the basal leaves.

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In my travels around West Texas, I drove by these plants 2 or three times before I took the time to stop and see them up close. It was either too dark, or I was not with camera, or I had others in the car and couldn’t stop. When I finally made it to the location, I was more than glad I did.

Diamond Petal Primroses are a biennial plant which means that it takes two years of growth and development before they flower. Most primroses that I have encountered in Texas grow low to the ground and spread out to cover large spaces with their leaves and ultimately flowers. Diamond Petal Primroses, Oenothera rhombipetala, grow straight up for 2 to 3 feet before they produce a spike of flowers. You can find these flowers in the plains states as far north as North Dakota, east as far as Minnesota, and west as far as New Mexico. They like grasslands, savannahs, and woodland edges. Sandy or sandy loam soils allow its deep taproot to help them find enough water to bloom May through September. These plants tolerate dry but will bloom more if they get enough rainfall.

The 2-3 inch diameter flowers have 4 petals that come to a blunt point, rhombipetala is latin for the shape of the petals. Most primroses I have seen tend to produce round looking cup or bell shaped flowers because the petals are large and overlap. A remarkable wildflower, and it’s a shame that you only get to see them every two years.

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