The pink family is well represented in cultivation, including the carnation, sweet William, garden pink, baby’s breath, and others. The red-flowered catch-fly (_Silene laciniata_), found in the mountains of West Texas to Mexico and California, is known in cultivation.
Aquatic herbs; leaves long-stalked, often floating; flowers solitary, large; sepals 3-6; petals numerous; stamens numerous; carpels 8 or more.
Blue Water-Lily (_Nymphaea elegans_) is a common water-lily along the coast of Texas and Mexico, particularly in the vicinity of Corpus Christi. The flowers vary from nearly white to a purplish-blue or lilac and are 3-6 in. broad. The floating leaves, about 7 in. broad, are dark purple below and nearly round; sometimes they have a few scattered teeth on the margins. The blooms last 3 days, opening about 8 o’clock in the morning and closing shortly after noon.
Yellow Water-Lily (_Nymphaea flava_) is a yellow-flowered water-lily found on the Texas and Florida coasts. The sweet-scented white water-lily is abundant in the southeastern part of the state.
Spatter Dock. Yellow Pond Lily (_Nuphar advena_), with yellow cup-shaped flowers 2-3 in. broad, is the common water-lily of slow streams and ponds throughout the state and ranges to Labrador, Florida, and Utah.
The water-lilies form an important food and cover for fish; ducks and muskrats feed upon the many seeds produced.
Perennials, annuals, or climbing soft-wooded plants; sepals 3 to many; petals few to many; stamens and carpels usually many.
Southern Anemone or Windflower (_Anemone decapetala_) has 10-20 sepals which resemble petals, varying from a greenish white and pink to the common pale purplish-blue. The plants are commonly low, about 6 in. high in flower, with a few leaves growing from a tuberous root. The leaves are 3-parted, the segments lobed and toothed. The anemone is the Texas harbinger of spring, appearing in late January, February, or March on plains and prairies, and in the chaparral. It ranges from the Southern United States to South America. The Carolina anemone, with bluer flowers and more finely-divided leaves, is abundant in the woods of East Texas.
The crowfoot or real buttercup family (the yellow evening primrose is also called buttercup) is considered by most botanists as the plant family from which other plants have been derived. In many the fruits look very much like the fruit head of the arrowleaf. The columbine is a member of this family frequently cultivated in the gardens of the state, but the few native ones are not very abundant.