Amphiachyris dracunculoides, known as the Common Broomweed, is a member of the Asteraceae family and blooms from July through November in Texas and elsewhere. Whole pastures of this plant can be found throughout the West Texas region where I live currently and its presence is a symptom of overgrazed land. The first image shows a typical member of this species surrounded by other forbs but not much grass. By competing with the grasses for sunlight, minerals, and water, they can reduce the ranching productivity of the land. Sheep, goats, and deer will consume the young plants but cattle seem to find them distasteful. The plant is toxic to man because it produces compounds that can irritate the eyes and skin. Back in the days of hand-made brooms, the dried stems of this plant were collected and tied to broom handles for sweeping.

At the USDA website you can see a map of the states where this plant occurs which is mostly in the central United States.

The second image shows the numerous flowers produced by these plants. These photographs were taken in mid-October and many of the visible flowers in this photograph have been pollinated and are beginning to drop the petals of the ray florets.

In the third image near the center, you can observe the narrow grass-like leaves that lack petioles or leaf stalks. This condition is what botanists refer to as sessile.

In the final image, there is a closeup of a compound flower of this member of the daisy family. I chose this image as a caution to fledgling botanists about identifying plants from a single image. Because of the late stages of the flowers on this plant, many are missing one or two of the petals of their ray florets. The one in the center of the image has dropped 2 of the six petals seen in the younger flower. Members of this species can have from 6-10 ray florets with their associated petals.

Stanford, Ansley, and Ransom (2006) point out that the common broomweed provides protective habitat and a food source for bobwhite and scaled quail, leading to the conclusion that this plant is somewhat beneficial despite its noxious aspects and its tendency to compete with grasses on the range.

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Dandelions are one of the first flowers that children of my age learned to recognize. They are found growing in lawns and wild places all over the world. In the U.S., there are native dandelion species and Taraxacum officinale that was imported from Europe by immigrants who brought this plant for its food and medicinal value. Dandelion originated as a French term for this flower which means “Tooth of the Lion”.

In this image you can see the deeply lobed leaves characteristic of this plant and multiple flowerheads in various stages of their lifecycle. Dandelions belong to the Asteraceae or sunflower family and their flowers are really compound flowers. Note the seedhead in the lower left, each seed represents the product of a single flower.

Dandelions appear early in the spring and flower nearly the entire growing season. Kids, like me, used to pick them at the stage seen here and blow on them to cause the cypselae (seeds) to be carried by their silky parachutes (pappi) which can transport their seed several hundred yards from the parent plant.

In this image it is possible to see a cypsela taking to the air.

At whatever their developmental stage, dandelion flowers are are remarkably beautiful. They provide food for many nectar feeders and they can be consumed by deer and other herbivores. They are a weed to some folks, but they have value beyond being a nuisance in the lawn.

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When I first learned the name of this species, it was called the Missouri Evening Primrose, Oenotherea missouriensis. In the intervening 40 years, this plant has been reclassified to Oenothera macrocarpa and renamed Big Fruit Evening Primrose. Some refer to it as the Ozark Sundrop which I think is a prettier name than the other two choices. In the above image, you can see a typical example of the species in a limestone soil and grassy habitat. Also you can see some Greenthread flowers (Thelesperma filifolium) intermixed. Big Fruit Evening Primrose flowers can attain 4-5 inches diameters.

In the second image, you can see a partially open flower and part of an older flower that has begun to wilt. Note the difference in petal color. These flowers open for two consecutive nights and the intervening day as they are pollinated by Hawk Moths.(Moody-Weis and Heywood 2001)

In the third image, you can see a fully open flower. These are 4 to 5 inches in diameter and have a beautiful, butter yellow color. Notice the differences in length between the style of the pistil and the anthers. This helps to prevent self-fertilization. I used to think these flowers always had spiders leaving webs all over their anthers but Moody-Weis and Heywood, 2001 pointed out that this is a characteristic of these plants.

Besides their large flowers, one of the ways I tell these plants apart from the other primroses  in Texas is O. macrocarpa’s sepals get red spots on them and the other species do not. These plants can make beautiful additions to  locations in your native plant garden that receive full sun, subsist on local rainfall, and have limestone rich soil. They also feed numerous insects and especially native bees.

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The large pink and white flowers pictured here are Oenothera speciosa, also known as Pink Ladies. Some folks call them showy primroses or prairie primroses. Whatever common name you choose, these members of the Evening Primrose family (Onagraceae) are beautiful with their pink and white petals and yellow near the center of the flower.

Each flower has 4 broad petals and they are fragile and easily damaged. Within this species, petal color can range from rosy pink to nearly all white in color. Their alternately arranged leaves are 2 to 3 inches long and have coarsely toothed margins. Also, you will sometimes see that the leaves can be deeply lobed making them appear pinnately compound. This kind of leaf shape is called pinnatifid.

Primroses of all kinds have very distinctive long anthers on their stamens. The tops of their Pistils form a cross. These characters along with the 4 petaled flowers help make these prolific plants easy to identify.

In both images, you can also see a single bloom of Pyrrhopappus pauciflorus, the Small-flower Desert Chicory. Some folks call this member of the Daisy family (Asteraceae) the Texas Dandelion. The diameter of the flower pictured is between 1.5 and 2 inches which is much larger than your regular dandelion. Additionally, this species gets taller than regular dandelions. Unlike other Asteraceae, Texas Dandelions lack a button or disk flowers in the center of their blooms; instead, they only make the ray flowers, the ones with petals. As a result, Small-flower Desert Chicory look like larger versions of the familiar dandelion.

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