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Huisache daisy colony
Botanist Bill Carr says that husiache daisies, Amblyolepis setigera, are a western species that reaches the eastern edge of its range in Travis County (which includes Austin), and that they’re uncommon here. I don’t think I’ve ever seen any huisache daisies within an hour or two of home. On April 9th I came across a pretty colony of them flowering in what was either far eastern Burnet County or far western Travis County. The few violet-colored flowers mixed in were prairie verbenas, Glandularia bipinnatifida. Speaking of which, in my neighborhood the previous morning I’d found one of those with spittlebug froth on it.
Did you know that the United States Congress has designated April 2021 “National Native Plant Month”? Here’s a letter about that from the Native Plant Society of Texas.
April 14, 2021
Senator Rob Portman
448 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510Senator Mazie Hirono
109 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510Re: April 2021 National Native Plant Month
Dear Senator Portman and Senator Hirono:
On behalf of the Native Plant Society of Texas and its 35 local chapters, I am writing to express our thanks for your joint resolution S. 109 designating April 2021 as National Native Plant Month. We are pleased to join all the other conservation organizations, including other state native plant societies, that supported your resolution that was approved unanimously by the Senate on March 26, 2021.
Your resolution stated that there are more than 17,000 native plant species in the United States which are beneficial and part of our natural heritage. Texas, which has over 5000 species of native plants and 11 different ecoregions, is one of the most biologically diverse states because of its size and geography. However, as your resolution clearly stated, there are challenges ahead due to habitat loss, degradation, and invasive species.
Our mission statement responds to the challenges with these words: “To promote research, conservation and utilization of native plants and plant habitats through education, outreach and example”. Through these efforts, we strive to protect the native plant heritage of Texas and preserve it for future generations. We are a non-profit organization, run by volunteers and funded by membership dues, individual and corporate contributions, and foundation grants.
Thank you for your authorship of the resolution designating April 2021 as “National Native Plant Month”. Our Executive Board will definitely inform all of our local chapters of your successful resolution and encourage them to incorporate your observations in their programs in April.
Respectfully submitted,
Clarence E. Reed
VP-Advocacy & Affiliations
Native Plant Society of Texas
© 2021 Steven Schwartzman
Prairie verbena flowers in winter
Glandularia bipinnatifida; January 6, 2021; far north Austin.
© 2021 Steven Schwartzman
Standing cypress out of season
From May through June is when we normally expect the bright red flowers of Ipomopsis rubra, known as standing cypress and Texas plume. Yet there it was flowering away on October 23rd at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. The purple in the background came from prairie verbena, Glandularia bipinnatifida, a species I see blooming here for much of the year.
And here’s a related quotation for today:
Life moves out of a red flare of dreams
Into a common light of common hours,
Until old age brings the red flare again.
—William Butler Yeats, The Land of Heart’s Desire, 1894.
© 2020 Steven Schwartzman
Just your run-of-the-mill fabulous Texas wildflowers
Meister Lane cul-de-sac on the Blackland Prairie along the border between Austin and Round Rock on May 26.
Red = firewheels (Gaillardia pulchella)
Yellow = sundrops (Oenothera berlandieri)
Yellow-green = prairie parsley (Polytaenia nuttallii)
Purple = prairie verbena (Glandularia bipinnatifida)
Pale violet = horsemints (Monarda citriodora)
© 2019 Steven Schwartzman
Eight years
On June 4, 2011, the first post in Portraits of Wildflowers went up. In commemoration, here’s one picture from each June in the first eight calendar years this series has been running. Clicking a photograph will take you back to the original post it appeared in so you can learn about or be reminded of the subject if you wish.
To inaugurate the June that began three days ago, after the eight pictures from yesteryear I’ve appended a picture of prairie verbena (Glandularia bipinnatifida) from June 1st of this year at the intersection of RM 2222 and Mount Bonnell Rd. The dreaminess of the portrait belies the noise and heat I experienced.
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
© 2019 Steven Schwartzman
A differently shaped and colored wildflower in December
In case you thought yesterday’s picture of bright yellow camphorweed barely counted for wildflowers in December because the flowering came only three days into the month, here’s a picture of a droplet-covered prairie verbena (Glandularia bipinnatifida) on the misty morning of December 18th at the Riata Trace Pond.
© 2018 Steven Schwartzman
Camphorweed by prairie verbena
From a year ago today on the west side of US 183A in Cedar Park, here’s a cheerful and rather abstract view of a camphorweed flower head, Heterotheca subaxillaris. The purple flowers out of focus in the background were prairie verbenas, Glandularia bipinnatifida.
As you can see from the USDA map, camphorweed grows in many parts of the United States. What the map doesn’t show is that the species also grows down through Mexico and Belize.
© 2018 Steven Schwartzman
Densely wildflowerful
I’ve linked a larger-than-usual version of this picture. Click to expand it and see more details.
You’ve heard that some of the places in central Texas that usually produce lots of springtime flowers have fallen short this year. Still, every spring offers at least a few good displays. Take this piece of prairie in Round Rock along Gattis School Rd. across from Rolling Ridge Dr. as I happily experienced it on April 16th. The bright yellow flowers are square-bud primroses, Calylophus berlandieri. The few yellow-orange flower heads with brown centers are greenthread, Thelesperma filifolium. The predominantly red flower heads are Gaillardia pulchella, known as firewheels and Indian blankets. The violet-colored flowers are prairie verbenas, Glandularia bipinnatifida.
© 2018 Steven Schwartzman
Texas bindweed flower and tendril
From April 13th in Great Hills Park, the picture above gives you a downward look at a Texas bindweed flower, Convolvulus equitans. Plants in the genus Convolvulus do indeed convolve, as confirmed by the photograph below, which shows a questing Texas bindweed tendril wrapping itself around some prairie verbena flowers, Glandularia bipinnatifida.
© 2017 Steven Schwartzman
Looking up to prairie verbena
Another wildflower I found on March 14 in the strip of land between Arboretum Blvd. and Loop 360 was the prairie verbena, Glandularia bipinnatifida.
© 2017 Steven Schwartzman
