Meadow Aster

Pretty in Purple, Another Red River County Wildflower: The Meadow Aster

Red River Chapter

Texas Master Naturalist

Common Name: Meadow Aster
Scientific Name: Aster pratensis

The purple and gold blooms of the Meadow Aster brings a vivid yet subtle note to our late summer-early fall landscape.

The stiffly upright, slender, hairy periennial grows to 20 to 32 inches high from a woody base.

Meadow aster usually grows on sandy or sandy loam soils in prairies, meadows, open woodlands, and woodland borders.

Red River Wildflowers!

Introducing:
Common Name: Spider Lily
Scientific Name: Hymenocallis Eulae

This stately lily is springing up and blooming in moist, low areas of northeast Texas. It springs forth from a large onion-like bulb. The four to six flowers bloom in a cluster a'top a stalk that may reach 40 inches. The stem may be solitary or several in a clump or colony. The flowers are often as wide as seven inches.

The spider lily gets its name from the greek words kellos meaning "beautiful" and hymen meaning "membrane".

The genus is easily recognized by the membrane (hymen) which joins all the stamens, forming a cup or crown, and the narrow, "spidery", divisions of the perianth.

Texas Master Naturalist Display - July 1, 2008

Beautiful Sunflowers!

Common Name: Sunflowers
Scientific Name: Helianthus (species unknown)

These large sunflower blooms are from volunteer plants that came up aroud a bird-feeding station. These are of an unknown cultivating species. However, these plants were developed from native species by plant scientists.

Western North America is the home of the sunflowers which carpet many fields and adorn roadsides with gold. There are twenty to thirty species.

All native sunflowers have long (or occasionally reddish) rays and yellow or brown-purple disks.

Texas Master Naturalist
Red River Chapter

Texas Master Naturalist Display

Red River County Wildflower!

Common Name: Giant Coneflower
Scientific Name: Rudbeckia grandiflora

These tall, stately coneflowers are blooming in area prairies and pinelands.

A colony of the five-foot tall coneflowers are blooming alongside the west side of Highway 37 about 3 1/2 miles norht of Clarksville. The stately blooming plants also usually bloom alongside FM 1159, and other Red River County locations and southward to the Lake Caddo area.

Bouquet of Flowers compliments of the Red River Chapter, Texas Master Naturalist Program

Spring Wildflowers!

Common name: Brown-eyed Susan (the gold daisy with the brown center)
Scientific name: Rudbeckia hirta

Common name: Philadelphia fleabane (small white daisy with yellow center)
Scientific name: Erigeron philadelphi cus

Common name: Queen Ann's Lace
Scientific name: Daucus carota

Common name: Spiderwort (bloom 3-petaled blue or occasionally magenta.
Closes in PM)

Common name: Sensitive briar (bloom pink ball-shaped bloom)