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Dot Lang's  Flower Notes for east Wise County, Texas
Work in Progress ~ Larger pics. may not be available yet
Asteraceae  ~  Aster Family 
Yellow to Orange
|White | yellow/orange  |  red/pink  | blue/purple  |
Yellow-Orange: 18 .
cells this color are non-native
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Tetraneuris scaposa (DC)Hook 7 Four-nerve daisy Winter, spring, summer, fall .*
Found in clay, chalky, rocky, to good soil. Six to 10 inches tall (25cm). seeds well on it's own. Annual,  flowers mainly in the spring. sporadically thru the summer and fall. Ray petals are persistent on the flower head. (previously id'd as T. linearifolia but needed to change id to match scientific description).

close-up from the back side

Close-up from the back side
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Dracopis amplexicaulis Clasping-Leaf Coneflower Spring, summer, Fall (depends on rains) .*
So sad this spring 2015, 3 lake floods appear to have wiped this one away from my lower field for this season.   Hope the birds bring back this seed.
Doing quite well for spring 2016.  Apparently the older seed survived despite 3 long flood periods a year ago.
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Seed head and seeds

field of Clasping Leaf Coneflowers gone to seed.  end of July 2014

 Engelmannia peristenia 1 Engelmann's Daisy .Perennial *

Not often I see this bountiful a plant.
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Grindelia  species .Saw-Leaf Daisy Late Spring into summer, perennial  .   *
About 2 to 3 ft tall with spiney looking flower buds. Starts blooming late spring into summer.  Learned more about this one.  The leaves are not as large nor as wide as the Grindelia species below
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Leaves
Grindelia species  Saw-Leaf Daisy annual, 
mid to late summer
Found in Abilene, not on my place.

phylaries

Large leaves
  I had the one above confused with this one. Note the phylary shape and large leaves. 

Both species have the saw tooth like edges on their leaves but the leaves are a different shape plus the buds are a different shape.

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well branched.


 
 

Lindheimera texana 1,2, 7 .Texas Yellow Star
Lindheimer's Daisy
Spring *
This is an intereesting plant to study because all phases of the flower head are a learning experience for the Asteraceae family. 
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The 3 phases of the flower showing. from flower to seeds forming to seeds ready to disperse; each phase looking like it's own flower.

Seeds forming.  They are the dark areas around the center.

Seed "flower"

Side view of Seed "flower"


 

 Packera tampicana .Cut-Leaf Groundsel spring, Fall *

Flower heads and buds.

Plant
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Leaves
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Pyrrhopappus pauciflorus1 Texas Dandelion, Smallflower, Desert-Chicory  spring *
Weedy in lawns but a pretty yellow color.
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Thelesperma filifolium Thelesperma, Greenthread Mid to late  spring *
. Common along the sides of roads and center dividers.
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Gaillardia pulchella Blanket Flower Spring, Annual, *
.  Color variation from the normal red with yellow tips.
Can be kept growing thru the summer if seed heads removed and watered occasionally.  Seeds easily.
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Helianthus maximiliani Maximilian Sunflower Late summer, fall
A perennial, with each flower  on a short stalk on 1 plant stem. Leaves narrow and long.  I call it a "Tower of Flowers"
These photos were taken about 1 1/2 miles from my place on similar land.

 Spring growth

Clump, spring growth
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fall flowering
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Silphium laciniatum7 Compassplant, rosinweed July blooms
Finally spotted one of these plants this year (July 2015).  What is odd that it's growing with a nice patch of the Maximillian sunflowers which (as you can see above) has the same "tower of flowers" style.  Both species have a similar rough texture to their leaves, though entirely different shape not to mention, a different aster genus.
It's very close relative is the  White Rosinweed.
This one is about  1 1/2 miles from my fields in similar soils.

Leaves are like the White Rosinweed leaves

Seeds from yellow Rosinweed
The seeds:  Picked seeds from both the yellow and white rosinweeds.
The yellow seeds are on the left, the white are on the right
The yellow seeds just fell off the seed heads as I tried to pick the head off the plant.  couldn't get the base of the head to come but the seeds and disk flowers just fell into my hand.  The white seed heads were different, easy to pick the seed head off the plant but the seeds were tougher to remove.  It's a rather prickly seed head.

seeds from White Rosinweed
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Helianthus annuus Common Sunflower late spring, Summer *
small black seeds,  annual, tall, up to 10 feet.  First one bloomed in 2014, now have several growing in back field.
During trips in the summer of 2015, spotted these sunflowers in every state we went through, from New Mexico to Wisconsin. 

seed head
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Ratibida columnifera (Nutt.) Mexican Hat

Leaves
Found on shoulder of our road about 1 1/2miles.  Rather sickly looking batch.

Various colors of petals
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Rudbeckia species Cone Flower, Brown-eyed Susan
probably Rudbeckia maxima but need to do more research.
Found on Caddo Wildflower preserve
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Gutierrezia dracunculoides, 7
Amphiachyris dracunculoides
Common Broomweed *
Has other scientific names, all equally hard to remember how to spell.
Amphiachyris dracunculoides, Brachyris dracunculoides,  Xanthocephalum dracunculoides.  Not good in cattle pastures.
Starts blooming in summer, thru fall.
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Lactuca serriola 7 Prickly Lettuce spring, summer *

Weedy, invasive in disturbed grounds.
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Lactuca saligna 10 Willowleaf lettuce *
Blooms in June/July. Very narrow, smooth edged leaves,  arrow shaped, hastate,  with the sessil basal lobes wrapping around stem as in picture below left.  Same type leaves from base of plant  on up the stem.  Much smaller, linear leaves form on the floral stem growing from the axil of the hastate leaves. 
Ray petals are a light, creamy yellow but the back side of those petals is a pale lavender, showing well above sepals after the flower has  faded away for the day.  Buds open singlely up the stem.   and have younger buds ready to take their place.  Flowers are open in early morning but start closing up by mid-morning. 
Noiced June 2015 flowered mid July.
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Heterotheca canescens 3 Hoary False Goldenaster,
Gray Gold Aster
Summer / Fall
Perennial
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Perennial and I just found it this year(2014) in my front yard.  Patch is about 2 feet x 2 feet and it's blooming well this fall .  Never noticed it in the past, possibly because of it's location and may have been hidden by taller grass in the past.  The stems are brittle so wouldn't take too well to being walked on.  Have not seen it in other fields in the area so this one is a loner.  will try to propagate this plant as it appears to be a good plant to grow elsewhere in yard.
spring 2017, cleared it of grasses and other plants I didn't want to propagate.  It has spread out to about 6 ft. diameter
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Solidago species? Goldenrod Fall blooming
Clasping leaves.
Another I found this year(2015), again, about a mile and a half from my place in the same area as the Maximilian plants. 
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Solidago species Goldenrod Fall blooming
Found Sept. 2016, about 10 miles east of us, still in Wise County
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Helenium elegans,10,7 Pretty Sneeze weed
Found summer 2016 at my favorite nearby corner
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Ambrosia trifida var. texana Schele 7, 10 Blood Ragweed annual
Blooms Sept.; Tall to 10 ft.+; stems bleed red sap; flowers, yellow,
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Sonchus asper Spiny sowthistle 
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Tragopogon dubius Goatsbeard, Western Salsify Biennial
Non-native, large seedheads look like giant dandelion seedheads. Semi- invasive in disturbed soils.  Easy to control if you need to.
Plant is grey/green.  Just cut the flowers as they appear, or pull the plant before it seeds.
Flowers just last one day so not a good cut flower.  Seed heads are very large, and spread easily by the wind.

Seedling

Seed head
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Taraxacum officianale Common Dandelion year around
Non-native, very weedy in lawns. Reseeds well.
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Senecio vulgaris Common Groundsel mostly early spring
Not the prettiest of flowers or plants, weedy and invasive. At least it's a small plant.
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As id'd from:
 1 Wild Flowers of Texas book by Geyata Ajilvsgi,
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 group on facebook

Wildflower Bibliography & Link page
 
 

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