Part 23

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 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