Can you help me identify this wildflower?

I came across a wildflower at the Trinity River Audubon Center that I cannot identify.  I thought I would draw on the collective expertise of the folks who read this blog.  If you have any idea what this plant is, please let me know in the comment section.  Many thanks in advance.

Trinity River Audubon Center, 6500 Great Trinity Forest Boulevard, Dallas, TX 75217, USA
street address:	6500 Great Trinity Forest Boulevard
ZIP/postal code:	75217
neighborhood:	Trinity River Audubon Center
city:	Dallas
state/province:	TX
country:	USA
latitude, longitude:	32.7124233, -96.7088488 32.7124233 -96.7088488 N32° 42.7454', W096° 42.5309' (precision: feature/building)

http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/geocode


It is obviously a composite flower with a raised disk.





 

This is a very large image of the entire plant showing the stems and leaves.  Notice the keels on the stems.  The plant stands about a meter high.
 

Let me know what you think and many thanks in advance.


M. Gans
Eastfield College
Mesquite, TX

 

Trinity River Audubon Center - June 28, 2013

It was supposed to be 104 today so I got out early, arriving at Trinity River Audubon Center at 7:30.  Luckily, it was a cloudy morning and by the time I left at 11:00 am it was only 89 degrees.  It was plenty hot, but the clouds saved me.

While clouds are good for staying cool, they are not so good for my point and shoot camera, but I still got so decent images of lots of flowers and insects.

First, lets take a look at some plants.

This is a plant that I saw everywhere this spring - Queen Anne's Lace (Daucus carota).  This is a very prominent roadside wildflower in North Texas and it is not uncommon to see entire fields of Queen Anne's Lace.  It is an alien species to our area. (1)

Next is the Partridge Pea (Cassia fasciculata).  According to Southwest and Texas Wildflowers, this should be in bloom from June through October. (1)

The image above shows the pea pods and red center of the flowers that help to identify it.  The leaves are supposed to be sensitive and fold up when touched, but I didn't test this (or at least notice it) in the field.

 

 Large stands of partridge peas at TRAC.

 This image shows some unopened buds as well as some drops of water resulting from a process called guttation - the forcing of water out of the plant due to root pressure.  This usually occurs early in the morning when the soil is damp.

In this image you can see the leaves of the partridge pea.  They are pinnately compound.

 



 Here is our old friend Coreopsis tinctora. 

 A close up of Coreopsis with a dried seed pod.

Today Coreopsis has a little surprise for me - a red and black beetle munching away on pollen and nicely camouflaged on the center of the flower. 

This where I wish the sun had been out.  My little point and shoot camera took a very slow exposure making the beetle a little out of focus.  Dang!

 

 Here is another look at a wildflower we have seen here before, Firewheel (Gaillardia pulchella) (1)

The pom-poms are flowers that have been pollinated are are setting seed.

 

 Helianthus annuus - The Kansas Sunflower. 

Woolly Hibiscus (Hibiscus lasiocarpos)  Absolutely beautiful.  I had to thrash my way through lots of brush to get to this plant. 

 



Here you can see the deep red in the throat of the flower and several unopened flower buds.


 A small jumping spider on one of the Hibiscus flower buds.



I believe this to be an Ivyleaf Morning Glory (Ipomoea hederacea) due to the variable leaves - some heart-shaped and others trilobed on the same vine.  (1)

 Here you can see the two different types of leaves. 

 

This is Oenothera speciosa, also known as Pink Lady.  These really enjoyed the unusually wet spring that we had this year and are at the end of their season. (1)

 

 

Next is a plant that I see everywhere at TRAC.  The insects love it and I have been watching it grow, waiting for it to bloom.  I am pretty sure that it is ragweed so I probably shouldn't be so excited for it to bloom.  I noticed that the snout beetles I had found before are all over this plant and copulating like crazy, sometimes 3 or more piled on top of each other.  (In my field notebook the notation reads, "SEX, SEX, SEX!")

 

I also noticed some interesting damage on the stems of the plants and was wondering if these snout beetles were burrowing into the stems and laying eggs. 

 

 

I decided to take some of the damaged stems back to the lab and made another interesting observation. 

 

These plants produce a dark red pigment when cut.

 



And you get to see my pocket knife.  The red on my finger is plant pigment, not blood.

 



 

One last plant is the Texas Thistle (Cirsium undulatum).  Notice the shiny flowerhead bracts that are long and narrow.

 Here you can see a leaf-footed bug on a Texas Thistle that has gone to seed.

Here is another hemipteran that decided to land on me instead of a plant. I guess he wanted his picture taken.

I I I II a
Ia Ialso found this very pretty hemipteran nymph nicely camouflaged on a leaf.  Notice it doesn't yet have wings.

This little guy is Graphocephala coccinea. (2) I remember this bug from when I was a youngster.  When I found one I couldn't believe the colors.

I I_also ran into a turtle taking advantage of the trails at TRAC. 

Because of the weather forecast of excessive heat I had considered skipping this trip to TRAC but am delighted that I didn't because it turned out to be a great day.

 

References:

 

(1) Niehaus, Theodore F. A Field Guide to Southwestern and Texas Wildflowers. Illus. Charles L. Ripper and Virginia Savage. Boston: Houghton, 1984. Print.

(2) Borror, Donald J., and Richard E. White. A Field Guide to Insects: America north of Mexico. Boston: Houghton, 1970. Print.

If you have any questions or comments about this blog please do not hesitate to contact me at Eastfield College in Mesquite, TX.

All images are under a  Creative Commons License and you are free to use them anyway you like with attribution to Eastfield College.  They may not be sold.


 

Trinity River Audubon Center - June 21, 2013

I am out at the Trinity River Audubon Center on the first day of summer 2013 and it is a beautiful day.  Mid to upper 80's and sunny.  The only bad thing is that I forgot all of my insect collecting jars.  Thanks goodness I had my camera.

 

I went out to specifically find more snout beetles to see if they also have the "bacteria" I found on the 14th.  I can see the damage they have done to the plants, but can't find a single one. 

 

Found many Argiope - usually clustered close together - within 1 to 1.5 meters.  Female body size is about 2-3 cm.  They have lots of growing to do before mating.

 

Found one Argiope web with a hole in it and no spider.  Probably snatched up by a bird.

 

This is the back of the web.  Notice how the stablimenta hide the spider.

 

 

 It is early in the day and I came across this dragonfly sunning in a small clearing.  Body and wings oriented directly at the sun.  He let me get very close.  They are such good fliers that it must have known I was no treat to him.



I found one of my favorite spiders - a jumping spider.  She had just captured a homopteran that was as big as she was.  These spiders have excellent vision and, as I moved around the plant, the spider kept moving to keep facing me.

Notice that you can see the retreat this Salticid has built.

 

Of course, I just had to get as close as possible.  The poor little spider became so alarmed that it dropped its prey and hid.  I found it again and it faced and threatened me by shaking its fuzzy pedipalps - the two shortest "arms" near the face.

Here is the sad part.  Fire ants are constantly scouting everywhere for prey.  While the spider was hiding and then trying to scare me off, an ant found the dead hopper.  Soon it had recruited several of its sisters to help begin dragging the hopper off. 

 

I backed off to watch and see what would happen.  The spider watched the lost prey from a distance, but wouldn't approach it because of the ants.  Sorry about that.  Last time I checked the ants had the hopper about half way down the plant. 

 

The spider, threatened by me and having lost its prey to fire ants decided to hide out in its retreat. 

 

While I am sorry I caused the spider to lose its prey, it should have no trouble making it up.  The homopterans, or hoppers, are everywhere.

 

 

 

 These are beautiful animals.  Notice the stripe on the top insect continues through the eye.

 

One more very interesting, and rather large insect I found is this wheel insect.  About 3.5 cm (1.4 inches) from head to tail. 

Now for some of the plants at TRAC today.

 

The Texas Skeleton Plant (Lygodesmia texana)  Note that it has not disk flowers, only ray flowers.

 

 

Black-eyed Susan (Rudebeckia hirta)

 

 



 

 

Firewheel (Gaillardia pulchella)

Wright's Vervain (Verbena wrightii)

 On the back of a leaf I found a cluster of insect eggs.

 

 

 I took them back to the lab to see what I could find with the scanning electron microscope.

 

[100x]

 

 [350x]

The top of the egg has a definite pattern to it.

 

 [1,000 x]

 

 [1,200x]

There are tiny air holes in the top of the egg. The distance between marks on the scale is 4.0 microns making the holes about 1 micro in size.

 

 

It was a pretty good first day of summer at the Trinity River Audubon Center.  Even though my current focus is on spiders and insects, it is impossible to pass up the flowers. 

 

M. Gans

 

All images are under the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial license.  As long as you give credit to Eastfield College, Mesquite, TX, you may use, alter, transmit, or copy any of these images.  They may not be sold.