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Dot Lang's  Flower Notes for east Wise County, Texas
Dicot Class
Asteraceae  ~  Aster Family 
|White | yellow/orange  |  red/pink  | blue/purple  |
 
 Symphyotrichum divaricatum2
or S. subulatum
.Annual Aster Fall .
Annual Aster as common name implies. Ray flowers vary from white to light lavendar, pink, or purple.  Disk flowers are yellow.  Plant survives mowed in lawns where it blooms more compactly, to single, thinly stemmed plant reaching up to 3 feet tall with many branches,  sparsely flowered on each branch. Leaves appear to clasp the stems & branches.  Blooms in the fall for a couple of months.  Seen here flowering in a lawn.  Flowers are about the size of a nickel.

 Symphyotrichum ericoides1
(Aster ericoides)
.Heath Aster Fall .
Ray Flowers are white with yellow center disk flowers.  Blooms appearing to cover each stem.  Each flower half the size of a dime or smaller. Blooms in fall.  Plant is a perennial and can be nice in a fall garden.  Grows 1 to 3 feet tall with several branches from the base. 
note the small leaves reminding one of heath plants

 Silphium albiflorum3,1,7 .White-flowered Rosinweed Late Spring .
Ray flowers white, disk flowers white, about 3 inches across. Blooms mid to late spring, perennial.  Deeply lobed, large leaf blades, stiff and rough to the touch. Plant about 1 foot tall with a floral stem that is about 2 ft. tall. 
I had several floral stalks this year(2013). During winter winds, the stalks twisted off  at the base and I found them scattered over my 3 acres with those thick, large leaves and some seed heads still intact.  I suspect that is how these plants are able to spread, by the prairie winds, with the dead leaves acting as sails.

Side view of floral head.


opening floral head


seed heads

seeds from 2015 season.
compare with seeds from the yellow rosinweed

 
Marshallia caespitosa var. Caespitosa1, 4  .White Barbara's Buttons Spring .
Disk Flowers only, whiteSpring blooming perennial which dies back to the ground by mid summer leaving just dry floral stalks to mark where it had been.  Plant with narrow grass like leaves, about 4 to 6 inch tall, with flower head stalks about 12 to 16 inches tall, one terminal, flower head per stalk.  Plant growth starts in mid to late winter.  Would make a nice looking border plant for the winter and spring.  Floral  stems can be used in dried flower arrangements (if your cats don't eat them!).  Seed well in the wild.  Seem to like open ground.

Seed head.

 
Hymenopappus 
scabiousaeus7
.Old Plainsman, Woolly White Spring .
early stage of growth with floral head just starting to show Bracts, white, petal-like, disk flowers, white to rose colored,  multiple floral heads forming clusters at end of central stem . Spring blooming biennial.  Leaves & stems blue-green with very bipinnate leaves from top to bottom..  2 to 4 ft. tall. Single main stem with branching near the top. Some specimens may vary from that. Seems suited for a grassland species. NOTE:  had to change id on this plant as it keyed out to H. scabiosaeus due to the individual  flowers on each head.  See picture below
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...Baccharis neglecta, Tarrant county, shrub flowering in summer. white flowers. pretty.
Diaperia verna
Evax verna
Spring
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Diaperia prolifera
Evax prolifera
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Brickellia eupatorioides 3, 2, 7 False Bonset Fall, Perennial
aster as seen in fields nearby, fall 2014.  Only saw it in seed so do not know it's color. Awns appears white compared to the Hairy Golden Aster chafe which has a golden cast.  Might mean that the flowers are white? YES! to this plant.
Seed heads are clustered at the top of each stem. 
2015 - spotted while blooming.  id'd now:
found in neighboring field, 1/2 mile south of us. 2014, 2015.  lots more plants this year than last year.  Perennial according to sources.  About 1 to 1 1/2 feet tall.  Blooming in September to October.
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Parthenium hysterophorus False Ragweed Annual, 
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Not a nice weed but cute flowers, can cause skin irritations.  Found blooming in November, blooms summer throgh fall. Figured it was labeled a weed so took the chance and searched google for it's id.   Came up in first row of pics of  "white flowered weed"

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Ambrosia psilostachya Western Ragweed Perennial
runners; less than 1 yard tall; mine about knee high, 18"  "Used as a medicinal tea by Indians" mm; leaves pinnatifid; spreads by runners.
Very Aromatic.  Creamy white tiny flowers.  Leaves are silvery; floral 
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Amborsia 
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Conyza canadensis
Erigeron (Conyza) canadensis
Horseweed, Marestail September
Annual, weed, small white flowers
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blues, purples, pinks
 

Symphyotrichum drummondii1 . Texas Aster Fall .
.looking for an example of this in white. White to  lavender ray flowers, yellow disk flowers aging to purple. Leaves large, ovate,1 to few stems with more branching in the upper stem.  Flowers on short stalks, appearing to cover upper branches of stems.  found near creek, shady areas.

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Dysphania ambrosioides
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Vernonia baldwinii
summer, fall
Ironweed summer, fall
summer, up to 5 feet tall, perennial, rhizomatus.
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Centaurea americana
or Plectocephalus americanus
Basket Flower Annual; mid May thru June.
A Thornless "thistle." Any where from 2 to 6 feet tall.  Lovely cut flower.
When ready to seed, the slick black seeds "slip" out of the thick pappus hairs with enough force to send them several feet away from the plant.  Wind helps them release from the seed head.
Makes a good cut flower and good garden plant. Moisture will help prolong blooming period otherwise plant dries up after it has gone to seed..

pappas hairs all gone leaving the "basket" behind.  Makes an interesting dried "flower"
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Cichorium intybus Chicory
blue flowers; found growing in median on State Hwy 114 between T.M.S and USHwy 377 near Roanoke.
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Liatris Mucronata
fall
GayFeather

Liatris with black Swallowtail.
Good food for butterflies.  Blooms in my area from mid September into November.
Field of Indian Blanket seed heads and blooming Liatris.
field of Indian Blanket seed heads and blooming Liatris

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When the plant goes to seed, the stem looks like a bottle brush

Seeds still enclosed in bract

Seed with remnants of flower petals still attached
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Cirsium texanum Texas Thistle
My favorite of the thistles as this one makes a good cut-flower  with long stems and few prickly leaves.  It's an annual so if you don't want them in the yard in the future, harvest the flowers frequently.  Song Birds love the seeds though.  If you see a dead seed head with small tufts of seeds sitting above the main seed fluff, a bird has probably been there harvesting the seeds. Kind of forms a ball when in flower
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Cirsium undulatum Wavy leaf thistle
short with grey leaves; has rhizomes so spreads.
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Red
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As id'd from:
 1 Wild Flowers of Texas book by Geyata Ajilvsgi, revised ed. 2003
2 Lady Bird Johnson WildFlower Center website,
3 Kansas State Wildflowers website.
4 100 Texas Wildflowers by Dorothy Baird Mattiza for the Native Plant Society of Texas, 1993
5 Native Plant Society of Texas
6 Texas Wildflowers by Leo Meier & Jan Reid
7 Shiner & Mahler's Illustrated Flora of North Central Texas by Diggs, Lipscomb & O'Kennon, 1999
8  Google searches used to help verify and find more info
USDA website Plant Database
10 Texas Flora on facebook

Wildflower Bibliography & Link page
 
 


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