Predominant: Texas Daisy, by far, EveningPrimrose (Kunths, pink), Verbena, Thistle (buds)

Thistle has captured my attention! I actually labled earlier pictures "WeedStickery.jpg" because I had no idea what this was, but a few have flowered and most have buds. There are three kinds of thistle on the ranch. Most is Texas Thistle, Cirsium texanum, and has uniform colored green stickery leaves and short steps branching from the very top with green buds. The leaves are thinner than the other varieties and maybe a bit thornier.

Sometimes the flowers are spectacular




Another variety, Silybum marianum, Milk Thistle, an introduced species from Eurasia, is less common, often is seen with large purple flowers (since it bloomed earlier) and has a lighter varigated irregular band in the leaves. It has pronounced green spikes just behind the flower, and seems to have longer stems between the flower and the leafy bottom.

The third variation consists of only one plant (so far) and it is very different in the bud. It is apparently a Nodding Thistle. This one is exciting to watch bloom! The center starts out red, has a white center just before blooming, then turns purple like other thistles. This specimen has the largest bud and bloom of any thistle I've found. Below is another view. Another name for this is Musk Thistle.

 There is also a yellow thistle, that is very common, called Sow Thistle, These bugs on it were identified as the larval stage of a spotless lady beetle, This link Perenial and Annual Sow Thistle describes 3 variants and would probably say this is the spiny annual sow thistle.

The common dandelion is really taraxacum erythrospermum and grows closer to the ground and everywhere.

I found this myself on wildflower.org, by browsing Central Texas Recommended plants, It's Spider Milkweed - the whitish and the greenish balls of buds.

Someone gave my wife a plant from Madagascar that grows similar thick-petaled velvety flowers that hang upside down. It has only been out of the greenhouse a while and the blooms disppeared - deer, I fear.

Oh my gosh, it's a madhouse out there! This morning I snapped pictures and saw about 3 little blue buds of some kind. It's 2pm and I just went back to get the Madagascar flower picture and I noticed some blue flowers elsewhere. Suddenly they seemed to be everywhere! I saw at least 2 dozen of these Nemastylis geminiflora, Prairie Celestials, that were just not there this morning, at least not open. The pic seems purplish, it was closer to blue when I saw it.

This one is definitely Celestial Lily.

I checked the bud pictures and one was blue and the other was the purplish color. There are also some other purple flowers, with yellow centers, that open only with bright sun. The rest of the day they close up and are mostly unnoticed. This same plant (differnt specimen) looks much bluer without the bright sun. It's either Sisyrinchium angustifolium or a slightly diferent species, but its Narrowleaf blue-eyed grass for sure. It's not a grass but a member of the Iris familly. See the previous post about my backyard 5 pictures below.

Cedar Elm roots sometimes sprout stems and leaves but they are various colors, not just light green, beautiful.