Silphium says summer

A prominent summer wildflower along Bull Creek in my northwestern part of Austin is roughstem rosinweed, Silphium radula. It’s prominent not only because of its sunflower-like flower heads—in fact some folks mistake these for sunflowers—but also literally because this plant’s unbranched stems grow erect and can get taller than a person. Don’t you like the way the rays were developing asymmetrically as the flower head opened?

This photograph is from July 7th but I was still seeing these flowers a month later.

© 2014 Steven Schwartzman