Nature

Texas Hill Country is Filled With Bluebonnets and Yellow DYC’s

By  | 
Tony Maples Photography

 

All photos by Gay Lewis

This time of year, you’ll find almost as many yellow flowers as you do Texas bluebonnets. They mix and blend into an eye-catching palate of color. More often than not, you’ll find entire fields of the engaging little yellow flowers all by themselves, and they’re almost as popular to Texans as the bluebonnet.

field of yellow flowers

As you travel Texas highways, you’ll see entire stretches of these cheerful, happy little blossoms. Travel one of the numerous back roads and take time to stop and gander at large fields of yellow blossoms. Some Texas locals call them weeds, but they’re really native blooms to Texas. How many native yellow flowers does Texas have? Too many to count or name. If you ask a gardening expert the name of a specific yellow flower, he’ll probably answer, “it’s a DYC.”  Beg your pardon, what’s a DYC?  If you ask an expert at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, he or she will answer, “It’s a Damn Yellow Composite.” These yellow flowers like each other. No, they really love one another. They cross-pollinate and multiply rapidly like rabbits. Little sunshine colored flowers pop up faster than experts can name them. Finally giving up, Lady Bird Johnson and her experts coined the phrase DYC’s. They invade fields like a wild fire does a forest.

yellow black eyed susans and fence

Many of the DYC’s resemble a black-eyed Susan, but a closer look will reveal differences, to the garden expert anyway.

tall yellow flowers

Some of these yellow beauties grow tall, and others are short. A few have skinny crowns while others have large blooms, but the DYC’s are all bright yellow.

colorful yellow and blues

This time of year, Texas highways are filled with color, and yellow flowers often dominate as much as the beloved Texas Bluebonnet.  You’ll see a myriad of blues, yellows, white, purple, pink, and red. The rainbow of colors is an artist’s dream, and the scenic wonders provide a beautiful backdrop for photos.

yellow flowers and cow

The next time you travel Texas to see bluebonnets, don’t forget the yellow DYC’s!