Perhaps worth comparing with Silphium laciniatum? Not a plant I know in person.

I was thinking Silphium albaflorum . There is a S. pinnatifidium that has oak shaped leaves , but that grows way far east of you . States away.. The soil in your picture is just the color of what the S albafollorum likes to grow in. They like that white caliche /chalky stuff. I guess you are in Brackett soils in North Central Texas ... let me guess , west of IH 35. It grows east of there too. I have found huge patches of it while driving down back country roads in that western area, NW of Waco. Also , the low height of the plant makes me think that too S. laciniatum is pretty tall, the leaves are not as thick and sandpapery. Also it likes a much friendlier richer soil..

Blakrab, that looks like an interesting plant. I hope that you can return to the site next summer and get flowering photos. Silphium albiflorum does seem like a reasonable option.

wantonamara - Great call! Yes, Silphium albiflorum (White Rosinweed) does sound like a much better match in both description and locale. For instance, the specimen I found was much shorter than the typically ~6'-12' tall Silphium laciniatum...

jekeesl - Yes, I will try to now! Especially since sadly, this native plant is near extinction around these general parts, too! :(

I have been trying to get some started on my land. NOT easy! I went for the harsh area of caliche and limestone marl because that is where I saw it growing in the wild. I am beginning to understand that it might have been chalk and not caliche , and there are differences in caliche . Was it deep caliche or a thin layer over limestone. Lots of head scratching.. and pickaxing. I dug down and left the rocks there and added some granite sand and compost, not much, but of the three that I planted , one has died and 2 are barely hanging on. I found three more at the LBJ biannual plant sale and I will give this bunch a nicer treatment. This time I will give it some more of that granite sand and compost soil on top of the marl, dig a bigger hole and remove more of the marl in the hole. It is a very long tap rooted plant. I might take one of the plants and put i where the marl is a little bit looser packed. My soil comes in varying degrees of cr@ppiness.. I never know with natives that are so specialized, how much one should go in improving towards a garden situation or how much one should try to copy their environment that you saw . The plant I have was probably grown in the pot so it really has not seen a natural situation yet. ALSO, the seed might have come from the friendlier blackland prairie area east of IH 35. WHO KNOWS.

Native American seed has seed for it the last time I checked.

^ Wow wantonamara, valiant efforts, thank you for trying to save this valuable species!!!

What's odd are the growing conditions listed on your link. It prefers limestone soil...yet an acidic pH? Uh, if it's all limestone, then how the hell is it going to be acidic? ...No idea?!

Soil pH: Acidic (pH<6.8)
Soil Description: Sandy, Gravelly, Limestone/chalky
Conditions Comments: This slow growing but extremely long-lived plant develops a tremendous taproot that can be as deep as 15 feet.

But what an amazing prairie wildflower! A taproot 15' deep! Wow! This is the type of flower that more people should be propagating, especially before they're all gone!!!

This is a BIG complaint about whoever is doing the transposing of the data onto the database. They make this mistake A LOT! Since when is Calcarious soil acidic? muchness caliche or chalk. This mistake has been transcribed onto a lot of the xeric wildflowers of the Edwards Plateau. I ignore it. Please complain to the LBJ folks. I have. They just did a major redo of their site. and that is when I started to notice it. Otherwise it is a great site.

^ Ya, it makes no sense!

BTW, have you been trying to transplant your specimens, or grow them in place from seed?

I've noticed that a lot of native plants, especially taprooted trees (like Pecans or Red Mulberries), mostly die upon transplanting. Also, a lot of "tough" plants that grow in rocky cracks like Common Purslane, oddly seem to slowly wither away when transplanted to potting soil...

They were transplanted. If these next ones die, I will try growing from seed in place and in flats and transplant when SMALL.

Anyone has Silphium albiflorum seeds to share for postage and SASE? Thanks!

Jenny, Native American Seed carries Silphium albiflorum.

https://www.seedsource.com/catalog/detail.asp?product_id=3089