ASTERACEAE

Lindheimera texana

Common Name:  Texas Star, Yellow Texas Star, Lindheimer's Daisy

Go to BIO 406D homepage

Lindheimera texana habit.jpg (107821 bytes) Lindheimera texana flowercloseup.jpg (29758 bytes)
habit head closeup--how many ray flowers are present?
Lindheimera texana leaves2.jpg (59403 bytes) Lindheimera texana fruits.jpg (24967 bytes)
stem leaves fruits (achenes)--in Lindheimera, only the ray flowers produce seeds.  Thus, there is one fruit per ray flower, resulting in the five fruits you see here.  These fruits will fall to the ground (once all of the fruits on the plant have matured, the plant will die) and germinate in the Fall.  A basal rosette of leaves will be formed...
Lindheimera texana rosettes020702.jpg (131339 bytes)
...that look like this.  These leaves will grow slowly throughout the winter until the weather warms in February.  Then the plant will begin growing quickly and produce flowers.  A plant with this kind of life cycle is termed a winter annual.  We have many winter annual species in Texas, bluebonnets being our most famous.