One of my hobbies is photographing flowers and adding their common & botanical names, but I am virtually never able to identify them, so I almost always need help.

This is a weed in my yard in Houston. I have apparently misidentified it. I believed it to be a Texas False Dandelion -- Pyrrhopappus carolinianus. But, the images in Google and Wikipedia show a different flower. My plant is 12-18" tall, with a very slender stalk and the blossoms are about 3/8" in diameter.



Here is the flower named Pyrrhopappus carolinianus in Wikipedia:



This plant and its blossom are MUCH larger than my plant.
_________________________________
P.S. This board keeps promising to remove the restriction against my posting links in "a few days". It has been a few days and the restriction has not been lifted.

Here is a poor picture of the entire plant. The petals are closed because it's overcast and misting rain.

Your identification sounds correct - or it might be Pyrrhopappus pauciflorus. Go to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower website (you can find it on Google). There you'll see photos of both species. It's much better at identification of Texas plants than Wikipedia.

I went to the Lady Bird site. It's all so confusing. Both look much alike from the pictures but:

Pyrrhopappus carolinianus has the correct height and, if forced, I'd say the blossoms look the most correct. But, it says the blossom is 1-1.5" (while mine are 3/8", i.e., MUCH smaller). And says, "stems. . . exude a milky substance when broken. Mine do not.

Pyrrhopappus pauciflorus is called small, but maximum height is 1 foot, where mine are typically 14-18" and a blossom diameter is not given. Also says, "Plant contains milk sap"

This website swbiodiversity[dot]org/seinet/taxa/index.php?taxauthid=1&taxon=6243&cl=2885

Says this of Pyrrhopappus pauciflorus (which apparently is also called Pyrrhopappus Multicaulis), none of which can I interpret:

"Annuals (sometimes persisting), 5-40(-80+) cm. Stems seldom, if ever, scapiform, branching from bases and/or distally, usually sparsely to densely pilosulous proximally, sometimes glabrous. Cauline leaves 1-3(-5+), proximal mostly oblanceolate to lance-olate, margins usually pinnately lobed, sometimes dentate or entire, distal ± lanceolate, margins usually pinnately (3-)5-7(-9+)-lobed. Heads (1-)3-7+ in loose, corymbiform arrays. Calyculi: bractlets 8-13 in 1-2 series, deltate to subulate, 3-5(-6) mm. Involucres ± campanulate to cylindric, 16-22 mm. Phyllaries 13-21. Florets 50-60; anthers 3.5 mm (pollen equatorial diameters 43-46 µm). Cypselae: bodies reddish brown, 4-5 mm, beaks 7-9 mm; pappi 7-9(-10) mm. 2n = 12. Flowering (Feb-)Apr-May. Disturbed sites, prairies, clay soils; 10-500 m; Tex.; Mexico (Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas). Some specimens of Pyrrhopappus from the Panhandle of Texas and from New Mexico are intermediate for traits used here to distinguish P. pauciflorus and P. rothrockii"

I know what annuals and stems are but that's about it. I tried to look up the meaning of involucre and is was defined as: "one or more whorls of bracts situated below and close to a flower, flower cluster, or fruit"

Since I didn't know what whorls or bracts were, I gave up.

Wow - was that in English? I didn't understand a lot of it.

I have these flowers come up voluntarily all over the place. I've always just called them Texas Dandelions. I don't worry too much about botanical names...

All of the candidates are called Texas False Dandelions.

I'm quitting and calling it "Texas False Dandelion -- Pyrrhopappus pauciflorus"

And then came Pyrrhopappus grandiflorus.

The list of identical looking flowers so far:
o Pyrrhopappus carolinianus
o Pyrrhopappus pauciflorus
o Pyrrhopappus Multicaulis
o Pyrrhopappus grandiflorus