By Cleveland Powell. For 12 months of sunny color, you can’t beat the aster family. Take a look around and you’ll spot one blooming near you. One of the most wide-spread and successful plant families is the aster family, Asteraceae. Many central Texas wildflowers belong to this family and boast cheerful yellow flowers. In fact, there are so many different species growing wild in Bexar County you can probably find one blooming near you any month of the year.

This is by no means an exhaustive list and there is overlap between the blooming times of many of the species highlighted here. Throughout the year, look around every month to see if you spot any of these happy little flowers.

January: Fineleaf four-nerved daisy (Tetraneuris linearifolia) is the wild and daintier cousin of the more commonly cultivated four nerve daisy. It often grows in caliche and can form dense stands in the winter and spring. I often see the tiny dainty sulfur butterflies feeding on the flowers on warm winter days.

February: Texas dandelion (Pyrrhopappus pauciflorus) is considered a weed by most, this wildflower grows well mixed in with dormant warm season grasses, e.g. roadsides and your lawn. However, unlike the common dandelion, this one isn’t introduced.

March: Texas yellow star (Lindheimera texana) produces five petaled flowers that look just like little stars, and they only grow naturally in Texas and surrounding states.

April: Huisache daisy (Amblyoplepsis setigera) is named for where their tendency to grow  under huisache trees, these little flowers don’t get very tall but can turn entire fields yellow when they bloom en masse.

May: Engelmann’s daisy (Engelmannia peristenia) is a rather tall wildflower that I’ve written a whole article about.

June: Greenthread (Thelesperma filifolium) are the only cheerful yellow flowers on this list with a brown center. They’re often seen along roadsides throughout Bexar County.

July: Zexmenia (Wedelia acapulcensis var. hispida) is a clumping Hill Country wildflower that doesn’t mind the heat. This one is a popular cultivated plant as well and reliably blooms all summer long.

August: Cowpen daisy (Verbesina enceloides) is a tall annual flower that has large, attractive flowers and interesting blue-green foliage.

September: Maximilian sunflower (Helianthus maximiliani) is one of the tallest wildflowers in Central Texas, often topping out at over six feet when they are happy. They bloom just in time for the monarch migration.

October: Plateau goldeneye (Viguiera dentata) is a large shrub-like wildflower that enjoys growing in the shade.

November: Camphorweed (Heterotheca subaxillaris) is most common in southern Bexar County and it gives off a strong, but pleasant scent when the leaves are crushed.

December: Four nerve daisy (Tetraneuris scapose) is similar to fine-leaf four nerve daisy, but you can find this one in nurseries in addition to growing wild.

By Cleveland Powell,  Conservation Planner for SAWS. He is enthusiastic about grass taxonomy and milkweed propagation. In his free time, Powell enjoys hiking around area parks in search of intriguing bugs, birds and plants.