orange hawkweed

Here is Hieracium aurantiacum of the family asteraceae:

This flower was taken in Wisconsin near the small town of Honey Rock.  H. aurantiacum is an invasive species of the more terrible kind.  It is one of those plants that crowds out the native flora.  The folks over at wikipedia think that the USDA is wrong in naming this flower.  Wikipedia calls H. aurantiacum by the name Pilosella aurantiaca, oddly, though, most of the sources from the Wikipedia article reference H. aurantiacum.  I suspect this point would be lost on the editors of that page. 

Back to the plant at hand.  This plant was photographed on June 21, 2009, my mom's birthday!  I believe she had just turned 39 again.  In North America this is considered a noxious plant due to its propensity to suppress native flora and the difficult in eliminating the plant once it finds a foothold. 

weedy dwarfdandelion

The following plant may be identified incorrectly: Krigia caespitosa of the family asteraceae:

This plant is a bit difficult to nail down.  Granted I'm strictly using visual comparison to identify the plant on this page, which by itself leave all my efforts suspect.  However, this genus seems to offer special difficulty; even to the professionals. 

Regardless the label that we've assigned the linage of this specific plant, the above photo was taken between Flora, MS and Yazoo on Hwy 49 in March of '07 and this particular plant is a good example of the head flower arrangement. 

woodland lettuce

This is Lactuca floridana in the family asteraceae:

Found at the Mississippi Petrified Forest, one of the best attractions of the state, on August 21, 2008 while my sister and I walked the nature trail.  L. floridana is native the the US and Canada.  This specimen was tall, about 8 feet (~2.4 metres) and growing in the middle of a pine forest.  In the shadow of the trees the flower appeared to be floating.

This is another flower that my sister Meredith had to wait for me to photograph.

rabbit-foot clover

This plant is Trifolium arvense in the fabaceae family:

I found this specimen on a blustery day in May of 2009.  Quite a few covering the side of the road on hwy 49 between Indianola and Yazoo.  The constant wind made photographing this little plant rather difficult.

T. arvense an invasive species that has prospered on the N. American continent making its way up both coastlines into Canada.  Its flower blooms in a head arrangement.

camphorweed

This is an example of Pluchea camphorata in the family asteraceae:

Though one may argue that it is Pluchea odorata, however the leaves of this plant have significant serrations and are broader than the examples of  P. odorata I've seen online.  Furthermore, the common name for P. odorata is sweetscent and this flower had no distinct odor.  One thing that is lacking in current online references is a discussion of the genus of plant species and means to distinguish them during field observation (if any exists).  It may be that they are in fact the same plant and variations in soil condition or climate induce the different characteristics observed, who knows? 

Regardless the label man has applied, this plant is an example of the head arrangement and as far as this specimen is concerned, it was engaged in its reproductive cycle on Sept. 8 of 2009 when I captured it with my CCD, yearning as plants only a plant can, for a pollinator to come along and propagate its kind.

chicory

here is a flower, cichorium intybus of the family asteraceae, that is from West Virginia:

this was taken while driving home from visiting my brother Duff in Pittsburgh. this particular example of c. intybus was captured on July 23rd 2007. it is an example of the head flower arrangement. this is probably the bluest flower i've come across to date.

spoonleaf purple everlasting

here is gamochaeta purpurea of the family asteraceae:

whose flowers are arranged in a head. this is a rather plain looking plant from a distance, one whose flowers are not so noticeable, even from up close. however, given a bit of time and some contemplation, this flower begins to be beautiful.