Texas Gardening: Texas Native Plant Pictures by color ( Yellow ), 1 by htop

htop wrote:
Bighead pygmy cudweed, big-head evax, rabbit tobacco (Evax prolifera), Asteraceae Family, native, Winter/spring annual, blooms late March or April through July

Bighead pygmy cudweed, big-head evax, rabbit tobacco (Evax prolifera) is a winter/spring annual that is native to Arkansas, California, Colorado, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and a few other states. It can be found in pastures, prairies, and stream valleys preferring dry, clayey or rocky limestone soils.

It is between 1 and 6 inches tall. The ones I have been observing are about 2 to 3 inches tall (in April). The erect, simple or branching from base, woolly stems are very leafy and densely white to gray. New growth may be greener in appearance until the dense hairs appear. The 1/8 to 1/4 inch long rosette leaves are spatulate and disappear as the stem leaves emerge. The spatulate to narrowly oblanceolate, alternate stem leaves are 1/8 to 3/5 inch long, and less than 1/6 inch wide. Their margins are entire and their tips are blunt.tips.

Rabbit tobacco blooms from late March or April through July. The cluster of flower are heads subtended by leaves that are .25 to .5 inch long with the receptacle slightly raised to somewhat conical. There is chaff which appears as appearing as bracts. This chaff usually exceeds the heads in length and protrudes. The blooms have no ray flowers. The blooms are followed by tiny yellowish-brown achenes which are oblong-elliptic in shape.

Even though this plant is quite small, it is very noticeabledue to its grayish, fuzzy appearance. I always just have to get low to the ground to view it closely. It would make a nice addition to a rock garden. (However, I do not know how invasive it is).

Distribution:
http://plants.usda.gov/java/county?state_name=Texas&statefip...

For more information, see its entry in the PlantFiles:
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/77759/index.html

It is a very small plant that is woolly all over. It is greener after rains. Looking closely, you can see a few teensy yellow blooms which have no ray flowers and a few disk flowers.