Oxalis dillenii or O. stricta

Common name: Yellow wood sorrel
Family: Oxalidaceae - wood sorrel family
Size: up to 40 cm tall
Description: Upright or sprawling`

 Flower:

• Up to 2.5 cm across
• 5 yellow petals
• 5 green sepals

Inflorescence

Axillary pedunculate Umbel of 2-9 florets

Flower stalk longer than leaves stalk

Pedicel erect in flower

Leaves and stem:

• Alternate, trifoliate leaves
• Long-stalked
• Leaflets obcordate mostly sessileLeaves close get it gets dark
• Stems solitary, usually much-branched at base and forming clumps

More information:

The whole plant is edible.  Leaves are high in vitamin C, but should not be eaten in excessive quantities.

This species and O. stricta are very difficult to distinguish. For more information click here and here.

Melampodium leucanthum

Common name: Plains black-foot, Rock daisy, Blackfoot Daisy
Family: Asteraceae - sunflower family
Size: Up to 60 cm tall
Description: Low, bushy, mounds

Flower head:

• 7-13 white rays, toothed at the tips
• Yellow disk flowers

Inflorescence:

• Up to 3.8 cm across
• Heads are solitary and terminal on slender stalk
• Stalks numerous

Stems and leaves:

• Lanceolate, linear-oblong or linear up to 5 cm long
• Opposite
• Entire or slightly lobed
• Stems 1 to few, much branched 

Nothoscordum bivalve

Common name: False garlic, crowpoison
Family: Amaryllidaceae 
Subfamily: Allioideae
Size: up to 40 cm long

Flower:

• 6 white tepals, with prominent midvein
• greenish center
• filaments adnate to tepals
• Anthers yellow

Inflorescence:

• 3-6 florets in a cluster 
• 2 bracts at the base

Stem and leaves:

• 1 to 4 narrow leaves up to 30 cm long
• Blades linear  grass-like
• Stems and leaves arise from an underground bulb
• Stems are hollow

More information:

This wildflower has no garlic odor

Nothos means "false"

Scordum means garlic

For more information click here

Taraxacum officinale

Common name: Common Dandelion
Family: Asteraceae -Aster family
Size: to 50 cm or more.

Inflorescence:

• Head solitary at the end of hollow stalk.
• Yellow ray florets- spread outward from the center
•  No disk florets

• Inner bracts- linear or linear-lanceolate, forms a cylindrical tube around the ovaries
• Outer bract- linear lanceolate, curved downward

Stems:

• Very short, underground

Leaves:

• stem produces a rosette of leaves at the base
• up to 40 cm long
• lobes leaves, broader toward its outer tip
• lobes are triangular
• prominent central vein
• may be hairy

• Hollow stalk contains milky juice.

 For a picture of its fruit and seed, click here

More information:

Edible parts:

Young leaves for tea

Flower produce wine

Medicinal use:

 For the treatment of inflammation

Erigeron modestus

Common name: Plains fleabane, Prairie fleabane
Family name: Asteraceae - Aster family
Size: to 40 cm


This wildflower has 3 growth forms:
1. Early spring- flower on long leafless stalk with lobed leaves
2.Later-becomes much branched lower leaves die, new small leaves appear along upper branches.
3.Fall- branches spread on the ground.

Flowers:

•  head to 2cm across, solitary on long leafless stalks.
• ray flowers 30-70 white or lilac
• disk flowers numerous, yellow

• scale-like phyllaries about the same size
• very hairy

Stems and leaves:

• hairy stems,
• Deciduous
• cluster of broader leaves at the base
• blades oblanceolate to spatulate to 7.5 cm long

For more pictures click here

Lithospermum incisum

Common names: Fringed puccon, Yellow gromwell

Family: Boranginaceae   Forget-me-not family

Size: up to 30 cm tall.
Description: Upright, hairy

Flowers:

• Tubular shaped flowers in a raceme, to 4 cm long tube
• Corolla bright yellow to 1.5 cm wide mostly sterile
• 5  triangular sepals with irregular fringed lobes
• small  leafy stack at base

Leaves:

• alternate
• deciduous
• simple
• linear oblong or oblanceolate
• 2-6 cm long
• stalkless

Stem:

• erect
• unbranched

Fruit:

• egg-shaped nutlet

More information:

'Litho' means stone

spermum means seed

Incisum means deeply cut, describes the fringed edges of the petals

Edible parts:

leaves

root (to make tea)

Medicinal uses:

root chewed for colds

powered leaves  rubbed on body for paralyzed limbs

tea for stomach aches and kidney problems

For more information go here 

Allium drummondii

Flowers: 

• Tepals (sepals and petals) 6 pale pink to dark rose, cup-shaped
• 2 cm across long
• Stamens 6 
• Filaments pink to white, expanded at the base, adnate (fused) to the base of the tepals.

Inflorescence:

• loose cluster of florets, unequally stalked
• 10-12 florets
• Flowers with stalks4 cm long

Leaves:

• Basal, linear to 40 cm long
• 3 or 4  leaves per bulb
• Folding at the base

Stems:

•  From a bulb (not shown).
• Aerial stems to 40 cm tall, erect, hollow , single to multiple from the base
• garlic/onion odor

Other information:

Family: Liliaceae
Common names: wild onion, wild garlic, drummond wild onion
Size: Up to 30 cm tall
Description: Upright to sprawling, bulbs covered with meshlike netting
Habitat:Various soils, likes full sun and shade

Edible parts: flowers, leaves, roots

 For more information click here and here

              

Introduction

Hello! 

     Welcome to my blog. I created this blog to teach you how to identify wildflowers, its characteristics and distribution in Austin Texas. You can also expect definitions of plant parts, plant ID experiences, videos, internet resources and uses of wildflowers.

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