Berlandiera lyrata
Chocolate Flower
Family: Asteraceae
Herbaceous perennial wildflower, growing about 1’ tall and spreading about 2’. Reseeds readily. Yellow flowers that smell like cocoa bloom throughout the year, in warm weather. This is another great plant to bridge the gaps in nectar flow in the landscape. Flowers smell most chocolaty in the evening and morning suggesting dependency on a nocturnal pollinator.
Plant in full sun, moderate water, hardy to -30˚F.
Many pollinators visit the flowers.
Used as a psychological aid for nervousness and for courage, and as a seasoning in food.
Berlandiera is named for Jean Louis Berlandier (1805-1851) a Belgian explorer in North America, while lyrata comes from lyrate, the leaf shape, with a very large terminal lobe and much smaller basal, lateral lobes.
Found on plains and mesas, in dry sandy loams to rocky limestone soils, and in disturbed soils, from 4,000-7,000 ft. in Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas; south to Jalisco.