The Sunflower Family is the largest plant family on earth. In scientific terms it’s called the Compositae,*** due to the blooms being a composite of disk flowers and ray flowers. Since it’s a large and diverse family, even Plant Nerds have a hard time learning all the names – thus they often call them DYC’s. Since we are a family-friendly blog, DYC translates as “Danged Yellow Compositae.”
Composite Family
Diverse?! You bet! In the Southwest (AZ, NV, NM, TX, and southern CA, CO, and UT) alone there are well over 2000 species – and that is just the wild ones. The Sunflower Family also includes vegetables like lettuce and artichoke, as well as many highly familiar garden flowers like the marigold, chrysanthemum, cosmos, zinnia, and of course, the sunflowers. Best of all – there are many beautiful native DYCs that are now available in the local nursery trade and should be in anyone’s low-water landscape.
Today we look at three that you can plant in your garden right now – in the dead of winter – in Low and Middle Desert Gardens. Upper Elevation Zones shall have to wait, but plant them soon as temperatures are above freezing. The three are: desert marigold, angelita daisy, and golden dyssodia.
Desert Marigold
Desert marigold (Baileya multiradiata) is great for showy yellow flowers in late winter. With a little water, flowering will last into summer. This low perennial reaches around 1 foot tall, and clumps can gradually spread to a foot wide. The silvery blue leaves cluster mostly at the base. The lesser goldfinch adore the seeds, so I never remove the spent blooms.
This charmer is often found along our Southwestern roads. That’s because it grows so easily it’s included in many re-vegetation mixes used by transportation departments. If you see some with seeds, collect the seed and scatter them in your yard – chances are good it’ll grow.
Angelita
Angelita daisy (Hymenoxys acaulis) is especially for folks living in the higher elevations. This low mounding perennial is not all that fond of hot summers in low desert areas – in Low Desert it will need ample summer afternoon shade. Blooms with charming golden-yellow flowers virtually year round.
Reaching 1 X 1 foot, the rich green foliage mixes well with plantings of natives or non-natives. Plant many of them and they make a lovely ground cover – with less care and water needed than the non-native lantana. Angelita will grow better with water once a week in summer.
Golden Charmer
Golden dyssodia (Thymophylla pentachaeta, formerly Dyssodia pentachaeta) is a charming little plant that tucks itself in under the edges of boulders, or along flagstone paths. Individual plants can reach about 6 inches tall, and about as wide, but they reseed readily and eventually can form clusters several feet wide.
The bright yellow flowers appear virtually year round if they get a little extra water. They can take full sun or dappled shade under a native mesquite, just don’t plant them in dense shade.
Darling!
These DYC’s have many things going for them: bright cheerful flowers, long flowering periods, pollinators are mostly butterflies, seeds attractive to both native birds and the pretty lesser goldfinch, plus low to no-care needed, and very low water use. In fact, once you have some in your yard you may still call them DYC — but now translated as Darling Yellow Composites!
*** Nerd Note
“Compositae” is the older, legally conserved name for the family. This was voted on and passed by the International Congress of Botanical Nomenclature. The modern name for the family is “Asteraceae.” I like tradition, especially any tradition that makes it easier for non-Ivory-Tower human beings to easily understand what we are talking about, thus I use Compositae.
More DYC’s and their care are scattered through my book Month by Month Gardening for Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico (Cool Springs Press). This link is to Amazon and if you buy the book there the Horticulture Therapy non-profit Tierra del Sol Institute will get a few pennies.
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