I've been working on getting i.d.'s for various pretty wild things growing in the "salt flats" around here. We are two blocks from Aransas Bay. The plant i.d. forum didn't have an answer on this one. It looks somewhat like pictures of dune thistle, Actites megalocarpa, but the description of that plant puts it much much smaller than the ones growing around here. The lot where this is growing will get a house on it very shortly, so I'm looking to rescue one of these.
Picture 2
Picture 3
Maybe Rayjacksonia phyllocephala?
http://www.fp.sfasu.edu/jamesvankley/GulfCoast/Gulf%20Coast%20Plants/Asteraceae/small_Rayjacksonia_phyllocephala4.jpg
Eureka!! That's it, by golly! Thanks so much!
Yay!! Glad to help!
The images at the Ladybird wildflower.org site don't match. See http://www.wildflower.org/gallery/result.php?id_image=10929.
I don't know what to think.
Hmmm that doesn't look much like it does it? But that one from SFA is dead on!
Well looking at some of the other pictures on the SFA site of Rayjacksonia phyllocephala, there does seem to be variations, but I would bet this is it.
http://www.fp.sfasu.edu/jamesvankley/GulfCoast/Gulf%20Coast%20Plants/Asteraceae.htm
I'm not familiar with that one. But I've had problems with the wildflower center (NPIN) site in the past. Some of the photos posted were not the species they were shown to be. After contacting someone about the problem, I was told they were working on it. So I wouldn't rely too much on NPIN until they remove all the incorrect photos.
I think what you have is Saw-Leaf Daisy (Grindelia papposa) do the leaves have a saw tooth edge?
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/159101/
http://wildflower.org/gallery/result.php?id_image=23905
Edited to correct duplicate post.
This message was edited Aug 15, 2008 10:35 PM
frostweed has it pegged, decklife...we had that growing on our canal beach in Rockport, but never knew the name of it. I wanted to bring some to central Texas when we moved back, but had no sand here for it to grow in. Loved our years in Rockport!
The photos of the saw leaf daisy seem to me to show a much taller, more shrublike plant than what I am seeing around our property. Maybe these nearby plants will grow taller, though. (They are at most 2 feet tall, I'd guess.) I will check the flower formation a little more closely. The leaves are saw-toothed, and they have a whorling arrangement along the stems.
Here's another picture.
This message was edited Aug 16, 2008 12:00 AM
Does it have a camphor smell to it when you crush the leaves?
The odor is mild, but I am not sure what camphor smells like. I found some great pictures here http://lee.ifas.ufl.edu/Hort/GardenPubsAZ/Camphordaisy.pdf. Based on this info sheet and studying the G. papposa photos, I am tentatively concluding my plant is the camphor daisy. The blooms on the saw-leaf daisy look much bigger than what I have. The leaves look the same on both plants. I found descriptions on both the saw-leaf and the camphor daisies saying the leaf arrangement was opposite, but the pictures don't seem to bear that out. In any case, mine is definitely whorled or staggered. The seeds on mine look more like the ones on the info sheet link. But I haven't seen comparable photos of the saw-leaf. Also, the saw-leaf daisy photos seem to me to show that the blooms have a greater "presence" -- more of them, larger. The plant I have is just as stunning for the foliage, which is a bright light green. The flowers are about an inch in diameter.
Any opinions on my conclusion?
Camphor had that Vicks Vapor Rub Smell. But i'm thinking its the Camphor Daisy too
