I believe the first one is Silphium laciniata (named for the deeply incised leaves), or Compass Plant. The plant has a tendency to have leaves oriented in the North and South directions, hence the common name. Yes, tap roots can extend many feet into the ground. Drought tolerant once established.

Not sure what the 2nd one is. Could be a Croton (Euphorbia family) as the leaves appear to be felt-like??? Wooly Croton or Texas Croton would be guesses. Maybe others will know.

Susan

I agree with Susan's ID of Compass Plant. They grow on the east side of our woodland and I love the flowers.

The crotons are hard for me to tell apart, but I do think that's what you have. We have a fuzzier looking croton here that I think is Texas Croton. I am not sure we have woolly croton in our part of the state. If we do, I've never seen it while in bloom. The one in the last photo resembles some weed that pops up in my driveway and looks like a croton but isn't as woolly as the other crotons here so I don't know if it is a croton. Our Texas crotons are not invasive in the clay pastures on our property, but in some parts of our county with extremely sandy soil they are highly invasive and will fight the native grasses and other forbs and take over every square foot of growing space that they can wrestle away from the other plants.

Susan, Is there a croton that looks a lot like woolly croton but isn't woolly? Cause I have one in my driveway as I mentioned above that seems like a croton, but has no woolly feature to it.

Mia, I've linked the August page from the Biosurvey plant-list-by-bloom-date because it has both Texas Croton and Woolly Croton on it. Just click on the name to see the photos.

As for the sunflowers, there are several different native sunflowers here in our state. I don't know that they are economically important, although they are an important food source for native wildlife. They are very tough plants that survive on low moisture and I try to leave them alone on our property and mow around them because the birds and the deer love to eat them.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: August Plant List

The Crotons are important food sources for wildlife, too. Another common name for these native Crotons is Doveweed. Lots of bird hunters plant it to attract Dove and game birds. The reason I know of it is that it is also a larval host plant for the Goatweed Leafwing butterfly. And that's another name for these plants, Goatweed.

Dawn. there are lots of plants in the Euphorbiaceae family, including the common weed, Euphorbia dentata, or Toothed Spurge. It is not a wooly plant. I pull up lots of it here in my yard, but I don't know if that is what you are thinking of, or something along those same lines. If you're referring to the genus, Croton, There are a couple other Crotons that aren't wooly, including C. glandulosa and C. punctatus (punctatus is native to Texas, so likely to be found in your area of state). They all look really similar in growth habit, exclusive of the wooly feature. C. glandulosa has toothed leaves, though, unlike the other Crotons.

Hope this helps.

Susan

As always, the brains on this forum are UNSTOPPABLE! You all are great, thank you so much. Will send info on to my FIL.

Susan, You're hitting it out of the ballpark today.

The toothed spurge is the one I pull up from flower beds, shrubs beds and my veggie garden by the billions and billions. Well, it was billions in the early years, but now substantially less. Back in the early years, it would sprout as thick as grass after we rototilled the garden. I've removed so many now that it is almost all gone, but a few still spring up every year, especially in flower beds. I need to look up the Goatweed Leafwing butterfly and see if that is one of the ones we have here.

The one in the driveway is C. glandulosa. Thanks for the ID. And, the C. punctatus occasionally pops up in the pasture, but not often.

The Texas Croton often takes over sandy pastures in the Thackerville area, especially if they are never grazed or mowed. Thackerville has lovely, deep sand that would drive a veggie gardener bonkers because it drains so incredibly fast, but they have some gorgeous wildflowers that thrive in the deep sand that won't grow in my clay at all.

I never realized we had so many different kinds of crotons here.

Mia, If someone here on this forum doesn't have the answer to questions, it must not be worth knowing! Susan's our ace native plant person for sure.

Dawn

Aw, shucks, it's mostly because of their association to butterflies that I am familiar with the Crotons since they are not grown or known for their ornamental value. Well, except for Poinsettia and the Tropical Croton you often see with its colorful foliage at the big box stores.

There are many gurus here on the Oklahoma Forum, and I think that collectively we Okie gardeners make one heck of a team. I think that the older I get, the less I know......but thanks so much for the nice comments.

Dawn, the Goatweed Leafwing is a butterfly that we see during the winter on warm days. It's dull, brown cryptic undersides disguise it as it rests among the leaves and ground detritis. When it takes off in flight, its brilliant, orange upperwings are displayed, a "startle" effect to warn potential predators.
Susan

Here is a link that might be useful: Goatweed Leafwing

Susan,

Thanks for the link. We have the goatwings on and off. I just didn't know what they were. They were hanging around the garden shed and greenhouse a lot this spring, as well as the flower beds, garden and neigbor's pasture.

I also agree that the older I get, the less I know too. Another 20 years or so and I won't know anything at all.

Dawn

I know, Dawn - we will revert to how we bagan life - as an infant with infant brains, lol!

The Goatweed Leafwings are very shy butterflies. It's hard to get up close to them for photos or observation. I see them in my yard mostly during spring and fall, and off and on throughout winter on warm winter days, though I know they are around at other times.

Susan

Susan,

I know. It is terrible. I find myself getting so forgetful, and Tim is just as bad. We never used to have to make a grocery list as we always remembered what we needed to buy. Now we make a list before we go to the grocery store, and that works pretty well as long as we don't forget and leave the list at home. Aging is not for sissies.

One day about 6 weeks ago there were two goatwings hanging out in a semi-shaded walkway area right between the greenhouse and the shed. I believe they were involved in some sort of courtship ritual because then they became sort of joined together on the side of a black molasses tub filled with a couple of cascading hanging-basket types of tomato plants. They were there for quite a while---maybe a half-hour to an hour. I'd only seen one goatwing flitting around here or there before that, but that day they definitely were a couple.

Dawn