I recently visited the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas. I should immediately point out that the picture above is not mine. I borrowed it from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Facebook page. Obviously, in the month of October, you would not see such displays of wildflowers like this, but I am hoping to go back in the spring when the floral displays will be more extensive. Nevertheless, there were many species still in bloom and it was well worth a visit. The Center contains some 900 species of Texas native plants. It's difficult to say whether there are more plant species in Texas or California; the CNPS says that California has more, but I have also read that the crown goes to Texas. In any case, both states have a great and diverse flora. Figures I have seen indicate there are around 5,000 species of plants in Texas, of which some 2,700 are considered "wild flowers." This doesn't include the grasses, sedges, rushes, trees, shrubs, some cacti and plants with small flowers that aren’t showy. Texas does have 100,000 more square miles of area than does California. The highest point in Texas is Guadalupe Peak in the Guadalupe Mountains which has an elevation of 8,751'. Austin sits on the eastern edge of what is called the Texas Hill Country in the Edwards Plateau region, which is one of the major wildflower areas in the state. Other significant areas are the Piney Woods in the east, the Gulf Coast prairie and marsh region reaching from Houston to Corpus Christi, the Post Oak savannah area which stretches southwest from Texarkana, the High Plains up near Lubbock and Amarillo, the Trans-Pecos region in western Texas, the Rolling Plains region occupying a large area from around Abilene up into the panhandle, the Blackland Prairies reaching north, east and south of Dallas, the South Texas Plains which occupies much of the area south of San Antonio, and the Cross Timbers and Prairies area, a region of dense trees extending north, west and south of Fort Worth. The Chihuahuan Desert of Mexico stretches along the southern border of Texas all the way from Brownsville to El Paso, and no doubt many species have originated there.

Halberd-leaved rose mallow
Hibiscus laevis
Malvaceae

Purple coneflower
Echinacea purpurea
Asteraceae

Giant coneflower
Rudbeckia maxima
Asteraceae

Gregg's mist-flower
Conoclinium greggii
Asteraceae
[Named for Josiah Gregg, 1806-1850]

Partridge pea
Chamaecrista fasciculata
Fabaceae

Agarita
Mahonia trifoliata
Berberidaceae
[Named for Bernard McMahon, 1775-1816]

Salt marsh-mallow
Kosteletzkya virginica
Malvaceae
[Named for Vincenz Franz Kosteletzky, 1801-1887]

Desert willow
Chilopsis linearis
Bignoniaceae

Prairie goldenrod
Solidago nemoralis
Asteraceae

Sensitive briar
Mimosa roemeriana
Fabaceae
[Named for Ferdinand von Roemer. 1818-1891]