The late summer flowering season is dominated by members of the sunflower family. These plants are sometimes called composites because the “flower” is actually a tightly clustered group of very small individual flowers. Most summer-flowering composites are yellow or white, with yellows being abundant in the Chisos Mountains. The summer season also brings red, blue, and purple true sage flowers to the Chisos. These fantastic shows can last well into the fall, before the first freezes hit the mountains. Another group of plants commonly called “desert sage” or ceniza grows in the mid- and lower elevations of the park and produces magenta and purple flowers quickly after significant summer rain storms. These are not sages (genus Salvia) at all, but are members of the figwort family.

Many plants are opportunistic flowerers and will bloom whenever it is warm and wet enough, from February through November, and even sometimes in the middle of winter. Several yellow composites, like the forbs yerba raton, dogweed, paperflower, and the shrubby skeleton-leaf goldeneye bloom almost continuously in wet years. Many thorny acacia species will produce white to yellow blooms opportunistically throughout the warm months. The most common perennial mustard in the park, the wonderfully fragrant bi-colored mustard, can bloom extensively in the spring and then again, though less spectacularly, in late summer.

Angiosperms (flowering plants) like those mentioned above are the most numerous and diverse group of plants is the park, but dozens of gymnosperms (cone-bearing plants like pine and juniper) and non-seed producing plants (ferns) also grow here, especially in the cooler, wetter Chisos Mountains. Not all “flowering” plants produce stereotypical colorful petal-bearing flowers. In fact, one of the most important and diverse families of flowering plants in the Big Bend (and the world) is the grass family. Grasses produce numerous small, reduced flowers in a wide array of flower arrangement, all well-adapted to wind pollination. Viewed up close with a hand lens or macro camera lens, these diminutive flowers can be quite beautiful when they produce flowering tillers in the rainy season.

Wherever you are in Big Bend, no matter what time of year, you are likely to find something in bloom. In the spring and late summer you may be astounded at the abundance and variety of wildflowers. But remember that this is a desert, and long dry periods are not uncommon here, so there are times when flowers are few and far between. “Drought” is a natural part of this environment, and these plants have adapted to survive the dry periods. Remember also not to pick or trample our wildflowers so that they can live, grow, and flower another day.