One of our prettiest autumn wildflowers, in my opinion, is camphorweed (Heterotheca subaxillaris). Many people don’t care for it because it tends to get weedy looking at just about the time it blooms in late summer and fall. To me, though, the bright yellow flowers are well worth it. Camphorweed also attracts plenty of pollinators, especially butterflies and bees. The flowers consist of a bunch of ray petals surrounding a central portion made up of numerous florets. As the flowers go by, the petals wilt and get brown. Eventually they drop off, leaving just the center. The little florets then involute and begin to form many seeds. This photo, was taken at just about that stage. You can still see the yellow of many of the florets, but they are involuting and turning brown. The thing that attracted me to it was all that texture and of course the lovely golden color.