Part 10

Texas Coreopsis (_Coreopsis nuecensis_) was first described from plants found on the lower part of the Nueces River. It is quite widespread on the southern coastal prairie from March to May. It may be distinguished from other annual species of coreopsis by the circle of reddish-brown marks near the base of the yellow rays. The leaves are mostly basal and long-stalked.

Golden Wave. Drummond’s Coreopsis (_Coreopsis drummondii_) has showy, long-stalked heads, about 2 in. broad. They are borne on widely branched plants about a foot high. The leaves are divided into broad segments, and both leaves and stems have scattered soft hairs. It is very abundant on sandy coastal prairies in April and May and is well known in cultivation.

Calliopsis. Prairie Coreopsis (_Coreopsis cardaminefolia_) is a late-blooming annual plant, the flowers appearing in North Texas about the middle of June. It ranges from Kansas to Mexico and Louisiana. This plant greatly resembles the golden coreopsis (_Coreopsis tinctoria_), which is abundant on the coastal prairies in March and April. “Coreopsis” is derived from the Greek, meaning “bug-like,” and refers to the seed. The plants are often called tickseeds.

False Coreopsis. Fine-Leaved Thelesperma (_Thelesperma trifidum_) is sometimes erroneously called black-eyed Susan. It closely resembles the coreopsis when the flowers are in the bud stage. The flowers may readily be distinguished from those of the coreopsis because the ray flowers are not marked with a brown spot at the base and are divided into three equal lobes at the tip. The ray flowers of the coreopsis are commonly divided into four lobes, the two lateral being shorter than the two middle lobes. The leaves are finely divided into long, narrow segments.

This is one of the most widely distributed plants on the prairies from Mexico to Colorado, South Dakota, and Missouri. The yellow of Central Texas landscapes in late April and May is due to thelesperma. Scattered plants continue to bloom through the summer and fall. The plants grow 1-2 feet high and become widely branched. The disk flowers are a reddish-brown.

Plains Paper-Flower (_Psilostrophe villosa_) is another western plant which has foliage covered with a dense white woolly coat of hairs. This hairy coat is a plant device for enabling it to withstand dry growth conditions. There are only three or four ray flowers which are much broader than long and are conspicuously three-lobed. The heads are densely clustered on short branches at the top of the stems, which are from six inches to two feet high.

Near El Paso is found the lovely western paper-flower or Cooper’s psilostrophe (_Psilostrophe cooperi_). It grows in spreading clumps about two feet broad and bears long-stalked heads over an inch wide. As the flowers are bright yellow and remain lovely for months, they are often gathered for winter bouquets. Eventually they become white and papery. _Psilostrophe tagetinae_ has somewhat larger flowers than the plains paper-flower and is probably the most abundant paper-flower in the state. When cattle graze upon it for several weeks, they suffer a slow poisoning. The marigold is a close relative, both the African and French marigolds being derived from Mexican plants introduced into cultivation about 1573.

Actinella Daisy. Four-Nerved Daisy (_Tetraneuris linearis_) grows with small tufts of narrow leaves from a woody perennial root. The heads, which are borne on stalks 2-8 inches long, close at night. The plants often bloom throughout the year in Central and South Texas. They grow on rocky limestone hillsides in Texas and New Mexico. The broad, four-nerved ray flowers form a close border around the conic disk, which is covered with small yellow tubular flowers. The veins of the outer flowers, which give rise to the scientific name, are sometimes purplish.

Silver-Leaf Daisy (_Bahia dealbata_) is common in the western part of the state into Arizona and Mexico. It grows 1-2 feet high from a woody perennial root and often blooms throughout the year. The long-stalked heads are a little over an inch broad with 9-12 yellow ray flowers. On the silvery-gray stem the few leaves are commonly opposite, broad and short-stalked, with a pair of lateral lobes near the base.

Huisache Daisy (_Amblyolepis setigera_) is so called because it often forms a carpet of gold under huisache (pronounced _wee satch_), mesquite, or other chaparral bushes in Southwest-central Texas from March to June. It is also called honey or butterfly daisy and clasping-leaved bitterweed. It has the strong scent common to the bitterweed, but is fragrant in drying. The plants are often loosely branched, growing 6-12 inches high, and the yellow heads are about 1½ inches broad.

Sneezeweed. Fine-Leaved Bitterweed (_Helenium tenuifolium_) is often found in pastures which have been over-grazed. It has a strong-scented foliage which gives milk a bitter flavor. The ball-shaped mound of disk-flowers (reminding one of camomile) and the few drooping ray flowers, which have a broad 3-toothed edge and a narrow base, are characteristic of the group. The seeds are small and are said to cause sneezing when they are thrown into the air. The bitterweed blooms from May to October and ranges from Texas to Virginia.

Indian Blanket. Firewheel. Beautiful Gaillardia (_Gaillardia pulchella_) is the pride of Texas prairies. The landscape becomes a vivid red and yellow in April, May, and early June when the firewheels are in bloom. It is a highly-prized cultivated plant, and many varieties have been developed. There are several species of gaillardias and many of them are native to Texas. The beautiful one is the most widespread, ranging from Texas to Louisiana, Nebraska, Arizona, and Mexico. The gaillardias are named for a French botanist, Gaillard.

The heads are usually two or three inches across and are long-stalked. Each head has 10-20 broad ray flowers which are sometimes all red but usually are marked with a brilliant yellow across the three lobes. The upper leaves are lance-shaped, and the lower are oblong and marked with a few teeth or lobes. It is an annual plant which is widely branched and grows one to one and a half feet high.

Tiny Tim. Spreading Thyme-Leaf (_Thymophylla polychaeta_) is found on sandy prairies from South Texas to Mexico and New Mexico. There are several thyme-leaf species in the state. They may be recognized by their scented foliage and the cup-like base of the flower heads, the bracts of the head being marked with large yellow or orange glands. There is something appealing about the tiny Tim, as the name would indicate. The branching stems with their lacy green leaves form rosettes which are dotted with the yellow daisy-like flowers.

Dwarf Thyme-Leaf. Tiny Tim (_Thymophylla pentachaeta_) clings to cliffs and rocky hillsides. It is a perennial plant with short stems four to six inches high. The leaves are short and needle-like and are borne in dense clusters around the stem. The flower heads are about half an inch broad. Tiny Tim ranges from Texas to Arizona and Mexico.

Dog Fennel. Mayweed. Dog’s Camomile (_Anthemis cotulla_) is a strong-scented herb widely scattered in America, naturalized from Europe. It is very abundant in sandy soil in the eastern part of the state. The plants are widely branched and bear numerous heads about an inch broad. The rays are broad and wide and the disk flowers are yellow. It begins to bloom in Texas in March, but the plants are at their best in May and June. It is close kin to the European camomile, which is used medicinally, a soothing tea being made from the dried ball-shaped heads of yellow flowers.

Closely related to camomile and yarrow are the artemisias, which include many species known as dusty miller, wormwood, sage-brush, and purple sage. The silvery wormwood or thread-leaved sage-brush (_Artemisia filifolius_) is very abundant in the sandy areas of West Texas and throughout the Rocky Mountain States and Mexico. It blooms from July to October.

Yarrow. Woods Milfoil (_Achillea millefolium_) was named in honor of Achilles, to whom is attributed the discovery of its healing properties. It is supposed to stop bleeding, relieve spasms, produce sweating, and act as a tonic. The woods milfoil is widely distributed in woods in the United States, Europe, and Asia. It makes a nice garden plant, for the lacy fern-like leaves remain green all winter. The stems grow one to two feet high and are topped by the flat flower-cluster. The ray flowers are white or sometimes pale pink or lavender, and the disk flowers are pale yellow.

Plains Yarrow. Woolly Milfoil (_Achillea lanulosa_) grows in moist places on the plains from Texas to Canada, Mexico, and California. It is very much like the woods yarrow but differs in that it has fewer gray-green leaves and round-topped flower clusters. Its blooming season is a little later than that of the woods yarrow, which blooms in April and May.

Texas Squaw-Weed. Clasping-Leaved Groundsel (_Senecio ampullaceus_) is an annual plant which grows so abundantly on the sandy prairies of Texas that it forms a carpet of gold for miles and miles. It is one of the earliest spring flowers to bloom in such showy profusion. The plants commonly grow 1½-2 feet high, being branched above and forming flat-topped flower-clusters which are often a foot broad. When quite young, the plants are densely white-woolly but become smooth and shining with age. The irregularly toothed leaves are 3-6 inches long and have a broad clasping base. The groundsel belongs to one of our largest groups of plants, some 1200 species being widely distributed over the earth.

Fine-leaved or woolly groundsel (_Senecio filifolius_) has woolly leaves divided into narrow segments. The large heads are often in bloom throughout the year in West Texas and New Mexico.

American Star Thistle. Basket Flower (_Centaurea americana_) is often called spineless thistle because the leaves do not bear spines as do the leaves of its close relative, the purple thistle. It is also known as powder puffs, sweet sultan, and “cardo del valle.” It is a hardy annual which is widely cultivated. Basket flower is the name under which it is known in cultivation—a name which refers to the stiff, straw-colored bracts of the flower head. These bracts are not spiny but are divided at the tip into finger-like projections.

Before the flowers are fully opened, the heads resemble a shaving-brush, and this is a common name frequently applied to this and other thistles. All the flowers are tubular and divided into five long narrow lobes. In one variety the fully-opened flower cluster has an outer border of numerous lavender flowers with cream-colored flowers in the center. There is another variety which has outer flowers a deep rose or reddish purple and center flowers pale pink or rose; sometimes there is little difference in shade between the inner and outer flowers.

The stems are usually branched and grow about two feet high. They are marked with wing-like ridges and are covered with the overlapping, ascending leaves. In Texas the flowers begin to bloom in May and continue into June, being at their best the first week in June. After the flowering season, the foliage becomes yellow and dried, and the old stalks remain conspicuous in the fields for several months. The star thistle is found on plains from Missouri to Louisiana, Mexico, and Arizona. The variety which has reddish-purple flowers is very abundant in the vicinity of Waco and Fort Worth.

The scientific name meaning “of the Centaurs” refers to the use by the Centaurs of certain species for healing. The cornflower or bachelor’s button (_Centaurea cyanus_) is a well-known garden annual.

Wavy-Leaved Thistle (_Carduus undulatus_) is the common prairie thistle and is particularly abundant in the vicinity of Fort Worth. It grows only 1-2 feet high, and the upper leaf-surfaces are yellow-green. The heads are nearly twice as large as those of the purple thistle, and the flowers are a lovely lavender color. It ranges from Southern Canada to Texas and Arizona and blooms in Texas from April to June.

Purple Thistle (_Carduus austrinus_) is the common thistle in the south-central part of the state. It is a tall, much branched plant, 3-4 feet high, with long-stalked heads of purple flowers. The stems are white-woolly, and the leaves are white-felty beneath and dark-green above, wavy-margined, lobed or divided, the segments being tipped with spines. The heads are about 1½ inches high and broad. The numerous light purple flowers are all tubular with narrow lobes. The thistles belong to a large group, its most renowned representative being the Scotch thistle.

Nodding Thistle. Silver Puffs. Sunbonnet Babies (_Thrysanthema nutans_) lacks the spines of the true thistles, but other characters show that this interesting little plant is closely related to the thistle group. The leaves form a basal rosette from which grows the slender, leafless flowering stalk bearing the nodding flower head. The lyre-shaped leaves are wavy-margined, dark-green above and white-felty below, 2-4 inches long. The stalk is sometimes 15 inches long but is commonly about 8 inches high. The creamy-white flowers are rather inconspicuous, but as the seeds mature, the soft white bristles spread into a showy whorl. The plants are found in scattered places in rich soil from Central Texas to Mexico.

Closely kin to the nodding thistle is the desert holly (_Perezia nana_), which has salmon-pink flowers and holly-like leaves. It is a low plant seeking the shelter of creosote bush, yucca, and other shrubs in West Texas.

CHICORY FAMILY (Cichoriaceae)

Plants with milky juice; all flowers strap-shaped, in dense heads, surrounded by involucral bracts; corolla 5-lobed; stamens 5; ovary inferior.

Purple Dandelion. Flowering Straw (_Lygodesmia texana_) can nearly always be found in the prairie sections of the state from spring to fall, but the lovely flowers seldom make a showy display along the roadsides. Only one head blooms at a time on the slender forking stems, and that remains open only in the mornings. The heads are made up of 8-12 pale purple strap-shaped corollas, with the lavender styles conspicuously erect in the center. The tip of the corolla is divided into five minute lobes. The stems are almost leafless but have a cluster of short-lobed, narrow gray-green leaves at the base.

Small-Flowered Straw (_Ptiloria pauciflora_) is a white-flowered chicory with low spreading stems. It is abundant in West Texas and New Mexico.

Many-Stemmed False Dandelion (_Sitilias multicaulis_) has lemon-yellow flower heads which closely resemble those of the true dandelion, but the plants grow much taller and are often widely branched. From early spring through June, the false dandelion is very abundant on the coastal and western prairies. The heads are made up of several rows of strap-shaped corollas. The fruits are narrow and have attached a spreading tuft of bristles which makes the head in fruit look like a puff ball of lace. This tuft is a parachute device for scattering the seeds far and wide.

White Dandelion (_Pinaropappus roseus_) has flower heads very much like those of the yellow dandelions, but the flowers vary in color from white to pale pink, and the heads are larger. It is very abundant in March and April in Southwest-Central Texas.

Several garden plants belong to the chicory family, among them being lettuce, salsify, and chicory. The orange hawkweed is often cultivated for ornament.

FINDING LISTS

The following lists are given to assist the reader in identifying plants. Several special groupings are first given according to conditions and habit of growth. If the plant sought does not qualify for these lists, then the longer seasonal and color lists should be consulted. Several wide-spread plants which the author had to omit because of lack of space have been mentioned in the lists; these may be recognized by the absence of a page reference. Several related species, not mentioned in the text and which may be recognized as close relatives of those illustrated although they may differ in color and season of growth, have been included in the lists.

Opposite each name is given the number of the page on which the plant is described and a symbol which designates the place of growth. The section of the state is not given in the lists, as prairie plants are much the same throughout the state as are the plants in the sandy soil of post oak woods. However, climatic conditions of moisture and temperature limit the range of many plants, and the text should be consulted for the distributional range.

The time of flowering in Central Texas has been taken as the basis for listing the plants according to seasonal distribution. Quite frequently the season in North Texas will be a month later than that of Central Texas, and in South Texas it will be a month earlier. Hence it may be necessary to consult the lists for adjoining seasons if the desired plant is not found in the first list to be checked. Some plants, especially many herbaceous perennials on the western plains, have flowering seasons in both spring and fall; others bloom throughout the warmer months after heavy rains. If a plant cannot be located in the fall list, the spring list should be consulted.

The month of April shows the greatest profusion of flowers in nearly all parts of the state. At some of the wild flower exhibits held at the University of Texas, nearly 500 species from Central and Southeast Texas have been shown at one time. Therefore the reader is warned not to expect to find every flower he picks up among the 257 illustrations given in these pages.

The plants are listed in the following color groups: red and orange, pink and rose, blue, white, yellow, purple, and green. Under white flowers are grouped those delicately tinted with green, yellow, blue, pink, or lavender. Blue flowers are seldom a true blue but are usually a combination of blue and purple which may be interpreted by some people as blue and by others as purple. Hence if a plant considered as blue-flowered cannot be found in the blue list, then the purple list should be consulted.

FINDING LISTS

The reader may find the following distribution of pages and symbols helpful in identifying plants:

2-16 Mostly lily-like, succulent plants. 17-91 Petals of flowers usually not united. 92-151 Petals usually united into tubular, bell-shaped, funnelform, or salverform corollas. 152-193 Composites: many tubular flowers, often of two types, growing in a head-like cluster. P Prairies. Pc Coastal prairies. Ps Sandy prairies. Pb Blackland prairies. L Limestone hills. W Woods and thickets. Wo Post oak woods. Wp Pine woods. M Water or moist places. C Chaparral. T Trans-Pecos or mountainous region.

(See map p. xvi)

AIR PLANTS

Spanish moss Ball moss

WATER PLANTS

RED Iris, 15 PINK Pogonia, 16 Smartweed, 18 BLUE Iris, 15 Water lily, 24 Nama, 111 WHITE Arrowhead, 2 Spider lily, 12 Water lily, 24 Violet, 74 Water pimpernel, 93 Water pennywort Water mist-flower Bur-head YELLOW Spatterdock, 24 Water lily, 24 Buttercups, 27 Pitcher-plant, 39 Sedum, 40 Water primrose, 79 Bur-marigold Bladderwort Yellow-eyed grass PURPLE Water hyacinth, 6 Pickerel-weed, 6 Iris, 15 Bladderwort Mud-plantain

SHRUBS OR SMALL TREES

RED Buckeye, 68 Indigo plant, 54 Coral bean, 58 Flame acanthus, 139 Bouvardia, 144 Coral honeysuckle, 145 Mexican apple, 71 PINK Prairie rose, 42 Redbud, 47 Dalea, 55 Pavonia, 73 Mexican buckeye BLUE Texas mountain laurel, 51 WHITE[2] Yucca, 9 Rose, 41 Dewberry, 43 Mesquite, 45 Yaupon, 67 Dogwood, 85, 86 Tree-huckleberry, 92 Mexican persimmon, 94 French mulberry, 118 Honeysuckle, 146 Mist-flower, 153 False willow, 166 YELLOW Agarita, 30 Buckeye, 68 Huisache, 44 Retama, 50 Porophyllum Sea ox-eye Flourensia Gymnolomia Damiana Creosote bush Yellow elder, 138 PURPLE Texas mountain laurel, 52 Walking-stick cactus, 81 Cenizo, 131 Desert willow, 138 Dalea, 55 Eve’s necklace

EARLY SPRING

RED AND ORANGE-RED Buckeye, 68-W Poppy mallow, 72-P Copper mallow, 70-Pb PINK AND ROSE Mexican buckeye, L, T Redbud, 47-W, L Pink prairie star, 98-Ps, M Least bluet, 143-Ps BLUE Anemone, 25-W, P Mountain laurel, 52-L Small bluet, 143-Ps, M Lobelia, 151-Ps WHITE Anemone, 25-W, P Acacia, C Blackfoot daisy, 169-L, P Dwarf white aster, 163-W, Ps Spanish bayonet, 9-CT Peppergrass, 36-P Crow-poison, 8-P Whitlow-grass, 36-P Chickweed, Ps, W Violet, 74-M, Pc YELLOW Agarita, 30-LC Scrambled eggs, 35-P Huisache, 44-C Buckeye, 68-W, L Small squaw-weed, P Tansy mustard, 37-P Dwarf flax, 61-Ps Golden puccoon, 114-Pb Bladderpod, 37-P Four-nerved daisy, 181-P, L Big squaw-weed, 187-Ps Lindheimer’s daisy, 170-Pb Huisache daisy, 182-Ps PURPLE Anemone, 25-W, P Mountain laurel, 52-LC Ground plum, 56-Pb Purple wood-sorrel, 62-W Poppy mallow, 72-Pb Violet, 74-Wp, M Small bluet, 143-Ps Venus’ looking-glass, 150-P

SPRING