Who Are You

"Who Are You?" Little dry weed like salsify, but much smaller
Morgan Marsh
West Odessa, Texas

I don't know what this plant is. It would be rather easy to identify if only it were summer and assuming it were blooming. In its current winter form, I'm drawing a blank except it reminds me of salsify, also known as goatsbeard, but on a much smaller scale.

This plant is from a nearby acre lot I'm calling "Morgan Marsh." It's not a true marsh — nothing like that near me — but rather a low-lying area that accumulates extra rainfall, sometimes floods, and because of that has a diverse collection of wild plants. I've recently adopted it, meaning I'll go once a week to take photos of the plants, bugs, and critters that make it home. It's my "citizen science" project, a suggestion Burr Williams of the Sibley Nature Center often gives nature enthusiasts.

For a personal challenge, I'd simply like to learn to recognize local plants in not only their summer appearance, but their winter one as well. Doesn't that sound like fun?

Links:

• Sibley Nature Center serves the Llano Estacado, an area spanning almost 40,000 square miles of West Texas and Eastern New Mexico. A map of the Llano here.
• J.B. Calvert has an interesting write up describing the Llano.
• As an example of Citizen Science, there's TexasInvasives.org an initiative to manage non-native invasive plants.
  
• If you are interested in what might be available in your area, try Googling your location plus "citizen science" to see what comes up.