Any idea WHICH Compositae I'm looking at?

This flower was photographed in Brazoria County TX March 22. It's not in any of my books (that I can recognize)--help!

 

Silphium perhaps?

http://www.sbs.utexas.edu/bio406d/images/pics/ast/silphium_radula.htm

HTH
Chris

 

It looks similar, but seems to have too many ray flowers and disk flowers both. Is this species highly variable?

 

There are several species and it's very hard to know what it is without pictures of the
foliage. Perhaps someone else can help.
HTH
Chris

 

I'll try to get some more pictures tomorrow. Thanks for the help.

 

Here are some pictures of the foliage and the receptacle. I'm hoping someone will recognize it, since I still can't identify this.

 

Check out the Bidens in your area. Might be B. aristosa.

 

Bidens aristosa in Shinners' & Mahler's guide appears to have the right leaves, but in the USDA Plant Profile, the leaves appear much narrower and more obviously pinnate than in the plant I'm looking at. Also, the S & M guide says the phyllaries are linear. These are triangular, so I don't think that's it. Thanks, though. I wonder if there's a Silphium species that blooms this early. S. gracile doesn't look quite right, S. radula looks closer, but maybe there's one I haven't seen yet.

 

The tiny plant in the background with the whorled leaves and four petals is Sherardia arvensis if you want to know what it is.

It would help if you reduced the file size of your images. They take a long time to load when using a slow connection.

 

Thanks for the Sherardia id--I've got other pictures of it I've been trying to identify. What my husband and I are doing is cataloging all the wildflowers in our area, and attempting to identify them is sometimes a real challenge!

I'll remember to reduce the file size from now on--I just worried about loss of detail.

Thanks again.